Behavioral Interview Question: Tell Me About a Time When You Failed!

Andrew LaCivita · 3m · transcribed Aug 2026

Section Insights

# 0:00

Understanding the Failure Question

What should I keep in mind when answering the failure question in a job interview?

When answering the failure question, focus on the context rather than the content of your story. Employers are looking for specific characteristics about you.

The story you tell is less important than the insights it provides about you.
Employers want to understand your accountability, learning, and recovery from failures.

# 0:44

Key Elements Employers Look For

What are the three key elements employers are looking for in my response to the failure question?

Employers want to see if you took responsibility for your failure, what you learned from it, and how you recovered from it.

Owning your mistakes shows accountability.
Demonstrating learning from failures indicates personal growth.
Recovery actions highlight your problem-solving skills.

# 1:28

The Importance of Recovery

How should I demonstrate recovery after a failure?

Explain what actions you took to recover from the failure and how you applied what you learned to achieve a positive outcome.

Recovery is as important as acknowledging the failure.
Showcasing your actions after a failure can demonstrate resilience and adaptability.

# 2:12

Embracing Mistakes as Learning Opportunities

How can I frame my perspective on mistakes during an interview?

Share your belief that mistakes are a natural part of growth and learning, and that you embrace them as opportunities to improve.

A positive attitude towards mistakes can set you apart.
Emphasizing growth through failure shows maturity and a willingness to learn.

# 2:57

Wrapping Up Your Story

How can I effectively conclude my story about failure in an interview?

Conclude your story by summarizing your learning and growth, which adds a positive perspective to your experience.

A strong conclusion can leave a lasting impression.
Linking your story back to personal growth reinforces your resilience.

Transcript

0:00 Hey Everybody! It's Andy! Welcome back to my show where I hope you build a career you love today got a nice little tip for you on job interviewing as it relates to your response to the failure question so you know what I'm talking about where they say to you hey tell me about a time when you failed at something and let's just talk about what it is that they're actually looking for there's really three things that you need to keep in mind as you tell your story and the

0:25 major points here are that these three things are what the employer is trying to glean out of the story the story you tell the content of the story you tell is not nearly as important as the context they're trying to grab out of it as they look for these characteristics about you so let me let me tell you what what I mean by that when I ask you the failure question I'm less concerned with what the specific failure was but I'm more concerned with first did you own it

0:58 so did you take responsibility or are you the kind of person that's dishing blame well I failed at this because I was given a poor product to maintain those kind of things if you fall into the blame game it's not gonna go well so the employer is first looking to see did you own it secondly is what you learn so as I made this mistake here's what I then discovered I certainly needed to experience it first in order for me to

1:26 learn that but the great thing was here's what I learned so the word learned needs to be in there that second and then the third thing is well how'd you recover what was the ultimate outcome did you actually bring that story into fruition so you could have failed at something but what did you do did you just kind of kick it to the side and leave it alone what'd you learn and then what did you do with what you learned to make it a success or at least

1:54 recover or address the issue so I failed when I initially gave this customer something that the customer didn't want here's what I learned and then the recovery was I worked with the customer too and then what ultimately have to did you own it did you learn from it and how did recover now here's a little bonus tip for you I think it's nice for you to add your perspective about life lots of people are afraid to make mistakes but I

2:25 think if you can show them that hey I know throughout my career that I am going to continually encounter things that I don't have experience with and I think that's a big and positive part of growing and I think mistakes or these failures if you want to call them that are going to be part of the overall learning process so I embrace those I'm not afraid of them we don't want to do them on purpose obviously but I think you know making mistakes failing at

2:52 certain things is going to be part of stretching our products our services and the other things that we bring forward to our teams and our communities and our customers so that's my perspective on that and so I think if you wrap wrap wrap the end of your story with something like that it puts a nice little bow on it so I hope you enjoyed this tip there's lots more job interviewing tips on the playlist on my youtube channel I also have a job

3:15 interviewing webinar called three keys to a sin each I've interview I hope you enjoy those and make sure to subscribe to my You Tube channel I'm live every Tuesday in Thursdays on Tuesdays I have careers and coffee in the morning at 7 a.m. Central Time and on Thursdays I'm live with my live office hours at 11 a.m. Central Time hope you can join me for those till next week take care

Summary

In this episode, Andy shares insights on how to effectively respond to the common job interview question about failure. He emphasizes that the focus should be on the context of the story rather than the specifics of the failure, highlighting three key aspects employers are looking for in a candidate's response.

- Employers want to see if you take responsibility for your failures rather than placing blame.
- It's important to articulate what you learned from the failure, demonstrating personal growth.
- Discuss how you recovered from the failure and what actions you took to address the situation.
- Include a positive perspective on mistakes as part of the learning process and career growth.
- Wrap up your story with a reflection on the value of embracing failures for development.
- Andy offers additional job interviewing resources on his YouTube channel, including a webinar on interview success.