Interview preparation · Level Advanced · Interview Interview Failure
Failure story: which one to tell
The mandatory failure question and a fear of damage.
Prompt
You prepare evidence, not answers: for each likely question, one concrete event with a time, your judgement and a result. You memorise facts, not scripts.
Task: The mandatory failure question and a fear of damage.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- real failures I have had
- what was attributable to me
- what changed after
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- pick one with contained consequences and a real lesson
- state the error in my judgement
- give a concrete change and how it was verified
- no fake failures like perfectionism
[Process]
1. List eight areas likely to be probed from the job description
2. One concrete event per area: context, my judgement, action, result
3. Two layers of follow-ups prepared per story
4. Mark where evidence is thin and handle it honestly
5. Design three questions to ask them
[Output]
Story cards with context, judgement, action, result, follow-ups; three questions; weak spots named.
[Do not]
- Never memorise standard answers
- Do not tell stories where you were absent
- Never disparage a former employer
- If you do not know, say soWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- real failures I have had
- what was attributable to me
- what changed after
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- pick one with contained consequences and a real lesson
- state the error in my judgement
- give a concrete change and how it was verified
- no fake failures like perfectionism