{"id":22831,"date":"2016-12-14T14:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T19:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=22831"},"modified":"2022-02-09T11:42:23","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T16:42:23","slug":"mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22833 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question - mbaMission\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In this new blog series, our mbaMission <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/about\/?display=team\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Career Coaches<\/a> offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/consult\/?display=career-coaching\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Interviewing is usually a stressful experience. However, the best thing you can do to quell your anxieties is prepare carefully and be ready to answer any question with confidence and authenticity.<\/p>\n<p>The following prompt is one that tends to concern applicants: \u201cTell me about a time you failed.\u201d To help you respond effectively to such a request, here is our recommended approach to crafting your reply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Take some time to examine the experiences you might deem failures or setbacks. Think about what your specific struggle was, how you strategized to overcome it, what actions you took, and what you found challenging about the experience.<\/li>\n<li>Choose an example that does not highlight a failure that would cast doubt on your skill set for your target role, your work ethic, or your ability to work well with others. In addition, consider sharing an example that did not happen very recently.<\/li>\n<li>Be direct and concise when explaining your failure. Do not assign blame to others.<\/li>\n<li>Most importantly, focus on what you learned\u2014how you grew and changed as a result of the failure. Highlight the positive steps you have taken to ensure a similar failure does not happen in the future. Also, provide a more recent example of when you used the lessons learned and avoided failure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are a few sample failures to consider. (<em>Note: These are very simplistic examples; yours should be much more specific and detailed.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Failure: <\/strong>My client presentation went badly.<br \/>\n<strong>What I learned: <\/strong>Always prepare in advance and practice out loud.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Failure:<\/strong> I finished my Excel model too late.<br \/>\n<strong>What I learned: <\/strong>Get manager input at each stage, not just at the end.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Failure: <\/strong>My boss rejected\u00a0my idea.<br \/>\n<strong>What I learned: <\/strong>Use more data-based research to persuade her next time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Much of this advice can also be applied to the \u201cTell me about a weakness\u201d prompt. In both cases, use your response to show your prospective employer that you are self-aware, reflective, and humble, as well as someone who strives to improve and takes proactive steps to do so.<\/p>\n<p><em>Have you been admitted to business school? If so, do you want to get a head start on defining your career goals? Do you need help preparing for job interviews or learning how to effectively network with your target employers? Or maybe you want to be a top performer in your current role but are unsure how to maximize your potential. Let an mbaMission Career Coach help via a<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/consult\/?display=career-coaching\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> free 30-minute consultation<\/a><\/strong>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-advice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. 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To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-14T19:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-09T16:42:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-300x169.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Denise Potter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Denise Potter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. 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To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2016-12-14T19:00:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-09T16:42:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-300x169.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Denise Potter","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Denise Potter","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/"},"author":{"name":"Denise Potter","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/35a5b8a4fdcd120de9f84f2d2cbf9383"},"headline":"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question","datePublished":"2016-12-14T19:00:02+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-09T16:42:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/"},"wordCount":479,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/woman-1006100_1280-300x169.jpg","articleSection":["Career Advice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-career-news-answering-the-dreaded-failure-question\/","name":"MBA Career News: Answering the Dreaded \u201cFailure\u201d Question | mbaMission - 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