Career coach reveals best answer to questions about one's failures during a job interview

Although acing interviews is perceived as being all about impressing the employer and highlighting skills, experience, and achievements at past workplaces on the resume, there's more to it than that. At times honesty is also important but one needs to be tactful while navigating some questions. There are some secrets that only recruiters and career coaches know about and one of them is helping people out on TikTok. Career coach Cara, better known as @cara_coaches on the platform, recently made a video about how to respond when an interviewer asks, "Tell me about a time you failed." Unlike what we may think, the answer isn't that simple and requires a different thought process.

While this question may sound like a casual inquiry about the challenges that the candidate has faced, Cara says that the recruiters might have specific intentions behind it. What they are "really asking" is about the candidate's failure in their past work experiences. She points out, "The recruiter wants to hear a true failure, not a success veiled as a failure." Turns out, this question measures certain traits and capabilities of the candidates and their responses speak volumes. "They really want to know three things about you," says Cara and proceeds to list down how interviewers judge the candidates based on their responses.

Firstly, by asking about a time you failed, the interviewers analyze your ability to take responsibility for mistakes. From the candidate's answer, they figure out if they are "blaming others or the system," for the challenging situation they faced. "Number 2: Your resilience to overcome obstacles and continue to problem-solve," Cara explained. Finally, the candidate's "self-awareness" and their "ability to learn and grow from mistakes" are examined by what they consider as a failure and how they dealt with it. Looks like there's a failproof way to nail the answer to a question about one's failure using the SOAR format.

Cara explained that the candidates' answers must highlight four things namely Situation, Obstacle, Action, and Result (SOAR). "Here's the situation, this was the obstacle, these were my actions and this was the result," the career coach said. "Even if the result is something that you've learned that you will put into place in the future," she added. Rather than giving a vague answer in a few words, Cara suggested candidates emphasize the challenging situation with clarity and what they learned from it. This video garnered over 900,000 views and the career coach's revelation was eye-opening for many users.

"But won’t they judge you for the mistake you made? If I say I missed a deadline, then you’ll assume I’m someone who misses deadlines," asked @leopardcohen. To this Cara replied, "If they're asking the question, it's less likely that they'll judge the mistake. What they will judge is your ability to resolve the issue or prevent it from happening again. Hope that helps!" @robynroark commented, "I ask this question in every interview and it’s very telling on who does or doesn’t have a growth mindset." @bostiemom1 chimed in, "I have no problem answering these because I’m so honest. I fail all the time but I own it, take notes and try super hard to never make that error again. It’s called learning." @softgoblingf added, "I always talk about a learning moment from when I was an intern. No one judges you for failures you had as an intern."

Follow Cara (@cara_coaches) on TikTok for more interview tips and career coaching.