Tell me a time that you had failed at work.

The interviewer is trying to gauge how you handle failure, in terms of both your ability to recover from it and learn from the experience. This is not a question designed to make you feel bad or inadequate; rather, it's a company's way of noting whether you have the resilience, tenacity, and lessons learned that draw from past failures. Everyone fails at some point, what matters is how we handle those failures.

Tips for answering the question:

1. Choose a real example where you made a mistake or did not achieve what you intended. However, be sure not to pick a mistake that led to a catastrophic disaster. Choose something where you were able to rectify your mistake and learn something valuable from it.
2. Describe what the situation was, what your role was, what actions you took, and why they did not lead to the intended result.
3. Talk about how you fixed the problem and what you learned from that situation. If you can, mention how you have used this learning in subsequent situations. This shows that you are capable of personal growth.

Early in my career, I was working as a project manager for a tech startup. We were developing a new software program, and I underestimated the time needed for adequate testing. I was confident in our team's ability and moved up the launch date. Soon after the release, customers started to report bugs, resulting in a significant increase in our support team's work and negative customer reviews.

I quickly realized my mistake and worked with my team to resolve the issues immediately. We spent long nights fixing the bugs and issued an update within a week. The experience taught me the value of thorough testing and not letting excitement about a project rush critical steps. This lesson has since served me well in subsequent roles where I've always ensured that comprehensive testing is undertaken.

As a marketing executive at my previous job, we were launching a new product line, and I was responsible for overseeing the social media promotion. Unfortunately, I overlooked the importance of proper timing and started the promotion too early, causing a peak in interest weeks before the product was available to customers.

The fallout from this was a dip in interest when the product was finally available, which didn't translate into the sales we had projected. I took this failure on the chin and worked to rectify the mistake through follow-up promotions and customer engagement. Most importantly, I learned the importance of timing in promotional activities. Since then, I have always been careful to plan marketing initiatives keeping timing at the forefront.