Page 28 - How To Answer Interview Questions (II)

Job Interview Question 8

Describe a work or school instance where you messed up

Everybody makes mistakes. You know it, and the interviewer knows it and they will
always ask you about them. Why?

1. They want to reveal your character. Are you someone who admits making a mistake or who
blames it on others?Are you too perfect to even think of a mistake you made? Or maybe you have
such low self-esteem that you can think of hundreds of things that were all your fault.

2. They want to know if you learn from your mistakes and come out of them better than you were
before. Or do you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

Think of a time you made a mistake and acted in the situation so that it ended on a positive
note.

What are the ‘rules’ of a good mistake story?
Don’t talk about the biggest mistake you ever made
that spiraled out of control and had
huge repercussions for your company.

If your story takes 3 minutes because of all the times you say, “and THEN this terrible thing
happened”, you are choosing the wrong story.

Don’t talk about a mistake that points to a major flaw.
If you are an accountant, don’t talk about the time you transposed a number and didn’t catch it until
your manager was in the middle of a presentation to the CEO—talk about the time you had a
miscommunication with a co-worker and how you talked it out and improved your communication
skills with co-workers.
If you’re an administrative assistant, don’t talk about the time you failed to communicate vital
information and caused your boss to miss an important meeting—talk about the time in your first job
that you didn’t write down a message because you thought you could remember it and you didn’t, and
you had to call back, so now you are meticulous about keeping information complete and organized.