Tell Me About a Time You Failed (Sample Answer included)
About this video
Jeff Su gives three pro tips for ‘Tell me about a time you failed,’ after recapping basic advice: interviewers use the question to assess self-awareness, determination, and willingness to improve, so prepare a specific example, take responsibility without blaming others, and avoid a huge failure that raises red flags. Pro tip one is to define failure in your own words upfront — his example definition is over-promising and under-delivering — which he says removes ambiguity, aligns him and the interviewer, sets expectations, and lets the story be judged against his definition rather than an obvious catastrophe. Pro tip two is to focus on one thing that went wrong, ideally a one-time mistake rather than a repeating pattern; he contrasts a social media manager citing typos that damaged the brand (suggesting a detail-orientation pattern) with framing the issue as agreeing to too many things, becoming overwhelmed, and learning to say no effectively. Pro tip three is to always end with a learning rather than just a result, using the CARL method (Context, Action, Results, Learnings), and to point to a specific later situation where the learning was applied to show the mistake is unlikely to recur. He says he will share a real sample answer from when he first joined the product marketing team, though the transcript ends before detailing that story.
Key takeaways
- Start by defining failure in your own words — e.g., over-promising and under-delivering — to remove ambiguity and set the terms for your story.
- Cover the basics first: use a specific example, take responsibility without blaming others, and avoid a huge failure that makes you look like a liability.
- Focus on one thing that went wrong, framed as a one-time mistake rather than a repeating pattern or character flaw.
- Avoid examples that imply a recurring weakness, like repeated typos for a social media manager; prefer an overload story where you learned to say no.
- End with Learnings via CARL, and cite a later situation where you applied the lesson to prove the mistake is unlikely to happen again.
Episode details: published February 2, 2021 · 6:21 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Jeff Su’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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