Question: Describe a time that you failed to meet work objectives. What happened and how did you deal with it in the end?

Alternative Question Phrasing:

Give me an example of a time when you failed at work.
Tell me about an instance of failure that you experienced in past. How did you manage it?

Follow-up questions:

What happened in the end?
What did you learn from this experience?
Why did you fail?

Question Details:

Question Type:

Behavioral

Skills:

Basic – Learning Strategies,Systems Evaluation

Abilities:

Cognitive – Flexibility of Closure (Pattern Detection)

Other Factors:

Big 5 – Conscientiousness (Work Ethic),Motivation/Ambition/Aspiration,Personal Improvement (Growth),Personality-Job Fit,Self-Awareness

Work Activity (Task):

Mental Processes – Evaluating Compliance with Standards,Mental Processes – Judging the Value of Things, Services, or People,Mental Processes – Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work

Work Context (Person-Job/Team/Org Fit):

Job Structure – Consequence of Error,Job Structure – Freedom to Make Decisions

Work Style (Person-Job Fit):

Achievement/Effort (Action/Result Orientation),Handling Ambiguity,Humility

Question Frequency

Question Difficulty

What to look for in an answer:

You are looking to understand the interviewee’s thought process around failures. How do you they see themselves and their behavior in relation to the failure and if they are willing to learn from these failures.

Red Flags to Watch For:

An interviewee with no failure stories is not necessarily a red flag, as they legitimately could have never failed at work before.
An interviewee who blames others for their failures is a red flag.

Sample Answer:

N/A

Question Source: Unknown