Tell Me About a Time You Failed (Sample Answer included)

[@JeffSu]

Do you feel more comfortable sharing a real failure during the interview now? 😇 TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 00:43 The Basics in 30 Seconds 01:20 Pro Tip #1 - Define Failure 02:27 Pro Tip #2 - Focus on One Thing 03:15 Pro Tip #3 - End with a Learning 04:02 Sample Answer

[@w.w.sakbeh571]

The motto seems to be to take control of the interview question and to feel good about it. Let oneself shine. Enjoy the moment. Be in the present. Liberating advice.

[@JeffSu]

@@w.w.sakbeh571 Yes! That's definitely one of the messages I'm trying to send. Well put Sak Beh, thank you :)

[@w.w.sakbeh571]

@@JeffSu Yeah, I had a glass of wine when I posted it, so sounds Zen from the buzz. Have a Zen day, Jeff! :)

[@JeffSu]

@@w.w.sakbeh571 you too!!

[@w.w.sakbeh571]

@@JeffSu Seems you uploaded twice on the same day, whereas you usually upload twice a week.

[@Christiana-J]

When interview is coming up next week, you know it’s time for Jeff Su’s videos marathon 🤣🤣

[@JeffSu]

Best of luck Christiana! :)

[@MohamedAbdulail]

true

[@Elixir569]

True 😂😂

[@islamicsalami7208]

I have an interview in 30 minutes and so glad that I found this video. Really well put together and so straight forward. Thanks for this. Will put into action at 3:30!

[@JeffSu]

Good luck!!

[@KpopM2]

Im having my 2nd round interview and im binge watching you! This id after a 2 year gap out of my control and im very excited for this position, but im also nervous. Thank you for all the tips. I get to sit down and reframe all my answers to really highlight myself as a candidate

[@JeffSu]

Best of luck! You're going to kill the interview 😁

[@kategoldstone-zx9mo]

This is an incredible approach! I wonder how one might apply this to sales. It’s tough to “over promise and under deliver” when it’s about quota.

[@JeffSu]

Mention you might not hit the target, then hit the target

[@autumnbailey5503]

I have Interview in a month for graduate school and can't wait to go home and watch this after work. I know it will be exceptional!!! 😊

[@JeffSu]

Awesome, best of luck Autumn! I'm not sure whether graduate school interviews will ask exactly these questions but I'm positive the logic and methodology holds true!

[@njengathegeek]

'click dislike twice to show how dissatisfied you are' this statement made my day

[@JeffSu]

Hahahaha glad to hear it!! 😁

[@yuniqueglam]

I laughed so hard at that! 😂😂

[@diegojarteaga]

Got a interview tomorrow! A little nervous since it's 40min of behavioral questions but 🤞🤞

[@JeffSu]

Best of luck Diego! If you've watched my videos, you're going to do great 😛

[@akshatawagh8711]

All the Best

[@4rthur4rispe83]

You got this!

[@4rthur4rispe83]

We got this!!

[@diegojarteaga]

Update: Jeff got me the job! (And the one after)

[@ssah7594]

I have failed many times. It was a cycle. It started with overconfidence, taking time got granted, then not realising the impact at first, then repeating the mistake, followed by overthinking, being stuck in past, thinking of what it's, then why & how, then cutting yourself from your network cos you feel like a loser, it's a cycle, not getting the energy to wake-up, then thinking what's the point cos nobody is going to hire you even if you pass. I am trying to gather myself. I don't know if I will ever be able to know or get what I want.

[@JeffSu]

Hi Surbhi - Chin up, you got this! 😁

[@jackpicone.]

Over-Promising Under-Delivering. Jeff u got the point for real 💫🔥

[@JeffSu]

🙌 for sureee!

[@NG-bo7wi]

Hey Jeff, if your sample answer is true, I'd love to see how you drafted the email of apology to the higher stakeholders. I've always admired how you keep the communication vital and concise. Since this is one skill I'm learning from you, I'd love to know how you handled a difficult situation.

[@JeffSu]

It would definitely vary depending on the relationship you have with the senior stakeholders and sometimes a face to face chat might be more worthwhile than an email :)

[@rsarahi14]

I love eloquent definite answers. You’re hired! 😂😍

[@JeffSu]

Hahaha thank you! 😁

[@wangtingtingyes]

Thanks Jeff! This is super helpful - having an interview with Google tomorrow so thanks for delivering such a timely tutorial! :)

[@JeffSu]

Woohoo good luck Tingting! 🙌🙌

[@catherinegarhez8601]

Best video ever! Thank u!

[@JeffSu]

My other videos are (even) better Catherine 😉

[@theresanguyen7290]

Thank you!! **Subscribed** 👍🏼

[@JeffSu]

You're welcome Theresa, best of luck in your interviews!

[@parimadloo3780]

You are really professional Jeff.

[@JeffSu]

Thanks Pari!

[@deetee8051]

really love your channel, great contents, organized approach, way to go!!!

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it!!!! 😁

[@alishaomahoney2144]

Great videos have been watching the great content. Also I love the t-shirt!!

[@JeffSu]

Soooo do you like the T shirt more or the content? 😉

[@alishaomahoney2144]

@@JeffSu Content first, t-shirt second! Your interview skills and CV playlists have helped me immensely. Your covering letter video is the best anywhere on the web! Your videos provide a great service and your cheeky chappy personality makes the dull subject of CV writing and interviews fun 🙂. I especially love the interviewer and interviewee characters! I am also on inbox zero after following and implementing your Gmail tips (went from 3,900 to zero emails). Keep up the great content Jeff! Content idea - Could you do a video on Personal Statements which quite a few UK civil service jobs require and which have a 700-800 word limit! Basically a suped up covering letter I think.

[@SugarBunny207]

Hey Jeff! Thank you so much for these informational videos! Been binge-watching lately (and rewatching to reinforce memory), and I hope you could do a video on how to answer the question, “Tell me about a weakness(es)”. I figured saying “I’m too much of a perfectionist” is too cliche but I wanna know what do you think!

[@JeffSu]

Hi Sugarbunny! I do have a video on that interview question actually, feel free to check it out :)

[@limbuash]

Great tips as always! Also, your video edits are always cool too!

[@JeffSu]

Thanks so much Limbaush :), appreciate the love 🙌

[@vranium9108]

I just found your channel yesterday and I am already binge watching all your videos! Love your content :))

[@JeffSu]

Thanks Vranium! Glad you're getting value from the channel! Hope you enjoy future content as well 😉

[@lucas_teo]

Jeff, binged all of your videos. Have to buy you coffee when I land a job!

[@JeffSu]

Oh man, looking forward to that coffee then. Not because of the coffee but it would mean you landed a job 😄

[@danielazhang9378]

That iPhone on Huawei tweet is 🔥

[@JeffSu]

😂😂 thanks! You can also search for Gal Gadot iPhone tweet

[@Danielle]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge Jeff! You share such helpful information!

[@JeffSu]

You’re welcome Danielle! Hope you enjoy future content as well ☺️

[@jamesly281]

That’s genius!

[@JeffSu]

Thanks James!! (I'm hoping you're talking about all the tips 😛)

[@airy0304]

Hi Jeff, thanks for making this video. You always give me so much inspiration! Can you also provide some advice about how to be more interactive during the interview? I was told by a hiring manager that I’m not interactive enough...

[@JeffSu]

Sure of course Airy - So I think you just want to be more "engaging" during the interview right? A few things come to mind: (1) Small talk before and after the interview - think about current events you can bring up, (2) Eye contact, nodding when listening goes a long way, and (3) After you've finished answering your question, you can also find appropriate opportunities to ask the interviewer how they would think of the situation / question

[@lyrachang950]

Hey Jeff thank you so much for another amazing interview prep, press dislike twice really got me! NGL I've been glued to my laptop watching your videos over the past week for an upcoming video interview. I realise I spend too much time coming up with real-life examples, maybe a whole day to just think of one (not joking 😣) I wanted to know how do you choose experiences? Thanks again! 🙏🏻

[@JeffSu]

Hi Lyra! First of all, best of luck in your upcoming interviews! Regarding experiences, there are two tricks: (1) You can use the same experience multiple times if you spin it right. If you're a young professional, there's no expectation you have 100+ stories, so you can use the same story to showcase different strengths and weaknesses for different behavioral interview questions. (2) You want to pick experiences where there are a lot of things happening, but only FOCUS ON ONE part of it per answer if that makes sense. Don't say "Well this happened, then that, I did ABC and also XYZ", you want to be able to drill in on one part. And again, use a different part of the experience to answer another question :)

[@antygona-iq8ew]

Great little session

[@JeffSu]

😁😁

[@AbdelhamidBenSelma]

Great video ! Thank you ! Awesome t-shirt too !

[@JeffSu]

Thank you! I like it as well 😁

[@weewoowilliams9711]

dude what background music do you use it's so calming

[@JeffSu]

A random song I found on storyblocks lol

[@janellee1349]

Hey Jeff! First of all, thanks so much for your interview tips and tricks it has been super duper helpful. I actually used your answer in this video today for a "tell me about your weakness" question and it really backfired. The interviewer was not impressed and he said it is a standard "perfectionist" kind of answer. I guess I should not have used this answer for a "weakness" question. Can you make a video/advise us on how to answer a "Tell me about your weakness" question? Thanks and love your videos!!!

[@JeffSu]

Hi Janel - Thanks so much for giving objective feedback! I'm actually curious as to how you structured your answer since the example I gave in the video is "exaggerated" to get my point across: You should define failure in your own terms and not exactly by saying over-promising and under-delivering 😅

[@janellee1349]

@@JeffSu Thanks so much for your reply Jeff! Unfortunately, I directly answered "over-promising and undelivering" when the question "what is your wearkness" was given. Fortunately, i got to the next round of the interview. I was wondering, how would you answer the "weakness" question?

[@JeffSu]

@@janellee1349 first of all congrats! For the weakness question you need to focus on the weakness of someone 1 level higher than you so you come off as authentic yet ambitious. Good luck!

[@ektasingh4452]

Hi Jeff! How are you? Great video, so much value! 🙌🙌 I have been watching your videos for quite a while now, a few days before I reached the final interview after going through a rigorous shortlisting process. Your videos have been so helpful, I got the job!! So grateful for the content you put out, thank you! Looking forward to future videos, as always ;)

[@autumnbailey5503]

Congrats. This is amazing ❤ 👏

[@ektasingh4452]

@@autumnbailey5503 Thanks Autumn!! 🤍

[@JeffSu]

Oh wow, thanks for making my day Ekta, this is AWESOME 😁😁😁😁 (I rarely put more than 2 emojis!) . Although I'm sad to lose you as a viewer now you have a job, I'm so glad I was able to contribute to your success (albeit just a tiny bit). Please let me know how you find your new job!

[@ektasingh4452]

@@JeffSu I appreciate the emojis! 😄 I'm so excited to start working since it's my first "real" job. My dad watches your videos too and the Gmail organizing tip from your recent day in my life video is currently being overused in my family haha. So, I'm definitely going to be a regular viewer, there's so much value even if it's not for the interviews. Keep making awesome content! 😁😁

[@JeffSu]

@@ektasingh4452 wait what, your dad as well? 😅😅 So much pressure for my videos haha but that’s great to hear!

[@andrea_dong]

Great tips! I had a feeling you were going to mention the CARL method in your example. At this point it’s like your trademark 😆

[@JeffSu]

Oh no...am I becoming that predictable? Crap 😅

[@andrea_dong]

Haha rather than predictable, you’re consistent! Which isn’t bad at all! :D

[@JeffSu]

@@andrea_dong that’s good to hear 😄

[@pingtingliu4704]

hello jeff！ Thank you for your sharing and I am confused about the time when I ask this bq question.Do you have some recommendation？Some people told me that no more than 90s.

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for the questions Pingting. Sorry what is "bq" question? You mean the time you should take to answer it? Yes I would say 1-2 minutes is a sweet spot! 😁

[@JohnVandivier]

instant subscribe

[@JeffSu]

Yay welcome!

[@angel24lovej]

“Twitter for iPhone” lmao 😆 good catch!

[@JeffSu]

So apparently Gal Gadot (Woman Woman) also got in trouble for being Huawei's sponsor but tweeting from an iPhone 😉

[@MikeNeder]

what's with that fairy tale music in the background? hahaha.🤣🤣 Good vid though 😇

[@JeffSu]

Because I pretend to be Natsu sometimes

[@nic_cage]

I interview software engineers and I would never ask this question. Why? Because I don't like to be BSed and I value much more their tech knowledge and not their Sales skills.

[@JeffSu]

That's great to hear! 😁

[@yalunsheng]

Amazon loves this question! BTW, Jeff do u have Clubhouse account?

[@JeffSu]

Oh really? I'm actually not too familiar with their questions (I do know their questions are around their core principles). Did you go through interviews with them? Yes I do: jsushie, follow me :)

[@yalunsheng]

@@JeffSu I did. Very interesting questions. Followed u!

[@JeffSu]

@@yalunsheng Awesome! Hope to be in interesting chatrooms with you 😁

[@wobblydangly]

Is it just me but I find the background music fighting with the presenter. It doesn't need background music!

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@farzm8845]

Super useful and lol @ “hit the dislike button twice” 😆

[@JeffSu]

Hahaha glad you liked that 😉

[@BunnyMuffins]

Wu building?

[@JeffSu]

Sorry what's Wu building? 😅

[@AntaneiaElliott-nu7nm]

Antaneia Elliott spend $52 on my DC Security Test and fail the test 18/23.

[@JeffSu]

IS that a failure 😅

[@mariaxesfyngi]

Why do hiring managers waste the time of people by asking THIS kind of questions?

[@JeffSu]

You got me. We should ask them 😁

[@youiti2nz]

J&M

[@JeffSu]

What's that

[@dsnooz]

"dislike button twice".. brilliant

[@JeffSu]

So instead you clicked the like button once right 😉

[@Kian_Mah]

Jeff, are you a gamer?

[@JeffSu]

I used to be

[@CarlosJose-g4u]

I somehow clicked the dislike button twice and it highlighted the like button, am I doing this right? /s

[@JeffSu]

LOL

[@uantaris9]

Clicking dislike twice is to cancel the dislike😂. But I thumb up😜

[@JeffSu]

Hahahaha thank youuu 😁😁

[@sevengalaxy3599]

Android t-shirt 😅

[@JeffSu]

😁

[@SrbijaFail]

Hit the dislike button twice, just to show how dissatisfied you are. Cheeky :D

[@JeffSu]

😉 glad someone caught that

[@sarahqmangrum]

LOL. Click the dislike button twice to let you know if we don't like the tip you gave. You're so sneaky. 🤪

[@JeffSu]

😏 shhhh, don't tell the others

[@TheRealKingHarry]

Disliked your video 4 times and liked it 5 times.

[@JeffSu]

HAHAHA THANKS!

[@KittenBowl1]

Sorry but again your answer itself is way too long. I noticed you speak really fast. In a normal interview, you need to speak much more slowly and on clear manner as it’s not a conversation between you and your friends… I would fail the candidate if you give me that answer and I would fail if I rambled on like the way you did. I liked your first half, the overall story line and some were good advice, like don’t give a disastrous failure example as not to be considered a liability or tendency to fail as it shows you didn’t learn from mistakes. But your actual answer example came across to me as frivolous and why ramble on with so many details? Can you actually engage an interviewer with so many details that he/she may not care? This example answer aside from overall storyline is poor. I don’t advise this. Also do you give advice mostly to new grads and people with only a few years of experience? All your answers seem to be towards junior candidates…

[@JeffSu]

Yup these are geared towards fresh grads / young professionals

[@souhailfarhat]

what a boring answer

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for the feedback Souhail! Would love to hear how you would structure your answer 😁

[@souhailfarhat]

​@@JeffSu Mentioning less details and being less technical would be my way to go

[@JeffSu]

@@souhailfarhat cool! Thanks for sharing Souhail!