5 Tips for Talking About Failure with Potential Employers

5 Tips for Talking About Failure with Potential Employers5 Tips for Talking About Failure with Potential EmployersJob bewerbungsgesprchs are tough enough, but sometimes youre asked one of those questions that can eitherbei make or break your chances of getting hired. This is where talking about failure with potential employers requires some preparation.Tell me about a past failure you had at work.At first, the question might throw you. After all, arent you there to talk about your previous successes, awards, and accolades? Who wants to hear about failure from a potential employee? But prospective bosses are genuinely interested in your shining moments, as well as your failures, since they can show how you have handled setbacks or overcome hurdles. Val Matta, vice president of business development at CareerShift, a comprehensive job hunting and career management solution for companies, outplacement firms, job seekers, and university career centers, offers her tips on how to talk about failure with potential employers- and still get the jobBe confident. Talking about your failure during a job interview is definitely uncomfortable and unnatural. You dont want to shine a spotlight on your failure. Thats why its hard to exude confidence when describing your shortcomings. But without confidence, you seem incapable of moving on to the next phase of your career. So try to keep the same confidence level throughout your interview by watching your body language. Continue to maintain eye contact, have good posture, and dont fidget while you speak with your potential boss.Own up to your mistakes.Take ownership for your failures. Admit what part of the failure was yours and how you might act differently in retrospect. Owning up to your mistake shows the employer that you have integrity and have reflected on the past to become a better professional.Stay calm. Talking about failures is emotional. You relive the situation and are reminded of the gemeindewiese you felt toward yo ur coworkers, boss, and most importantly, yourself. Your emotions can take over and next thing you know, youre airing out all of your dirty laundry in your interview. Youre spilling about who did what to whom, bad-mouthing your coworkers, and talking about how unfair your boss was.Pointing the blame and speaking ill of your coworkers or boss is a cop-out, and it makes you look bad to a new employer. Instead, quickly and calmly explain the situation during your job interview without going into too much detail. Be positive about your coworkers and boss, no matter how you felt (or still feel) about the situation.Focus on your next steps.Dont dwell on the mistake itself. Instead, talk about how you moved on from it. What was your next step? What did you do to try and fix the situation? How has the experience changed you as a professional? Was there a positive outcome from the failure?Discuss what you learned. Failures are learning experiences, and sharing the lessons you gained from you r failure demonstrates that you have grown and become a better professional as a result. Share how you will use that knowledge in the future and how the experience will change your approach to similar situations in your next position.Its never fun talking about failure- particularly with a potential boss. But if youre prepared to possibly answer this prickly interview question by knowing what went wrong (and how you made it right), you can transform your previous failure into future successReaders, have you been asked to discuss professional failure during a job interview? How did you handle talking about failure during the hiring process? Let us know in the comments section below