How would you answer this common interview question: "What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?"
Retiring too early
Everything is a learning process and not to do again. If you learn from the mistakes before.
I have learned that we all are designed to fail but what I chose to believe is that every thing is a learning experience we learn how to do things better better for the next time I think we all can improve on something
I don’t believe in a great failure, as long as you try your best and give your all to a situation , then you have done all you can do . Failure is for the weak so only the strong will win. Just because you wasn’t chosen or didn’t get the promotion doesn’t mean you fail . It just wasn’t your time.
Letting my last GM push me around and not standing up to him till it was too late
Career wise, my greatest failure was allowing someone in upper management affect me so negatively that I resigned from a 10 year career under duress.
Rather than insisting on accountability and addressing the management style with his superiors I allowed his micromanaging and dismissive mismanagement to affect the efficacy in my own management & I resigned while feeling angry & frustrated & overwhelmed.
Granted, the owners had a different business culture perspective & I felt like I was rolling boulders uphill but I could have taken more time to calm myself, regroup & rethink my options. Instead, I allowed myself to take on too much and fiercely hold to the standards I had set for myself & my property with minimal operational support. I allowed it to affect me physically & psychologically. It felt like he was actively sabotaging what I had worked so hard to create & maintain. He had no "in the trenches" experience and had unrealistic rules that had a significant detrimental impact on my job, my team and my guests.
What did I learn? Not to give in to defeatest mentality or allow someone's actions to push me so far. I set boundaries and speak out now. I take issues to higher ups immediately after I have a clear idea of what the issue is and clearly identify the negatives so a discussion and resolution can be determined. I insist on leaving work at work & on keeping my work/ life balance intact.
I don't consider anything a failure, always a learning experience.
I have had struggles, but never a failure. I have learned something in each struggle that I've overcome on the way to success. Patience, persistence, but never failure.
There is a quote "to err is human". Therefore I do not consider any error as a failure but as a constructive pointer or guide that lends wisdom to future decisions.
This is one of the common 'fluff' (meaning not directly honing in on your education, critical thinking, or unique expertise) and the "right answers" are all over internet blogs. The consensus is that you "turn a quality into a shortcoming" in a clever way. For example, "I tend to care too much for my patients and become attached, even emotionally involved." This answer would suggest that you are actually deeply compassionate, and connect with your patients. There are other 'fluff' questions such as "how would your coworkers describe you as a member of the team" or "when was the last time you had a conflict with a coworker and how did you resolve it?". Although I have learned how to answer such "emotional IQ" type questions well without being disingenuous, I personally excel when being interviewed in a manner that tests my knowledge and ability to intuitively respond to nuanced patient care scenarios--kind of like a senior semester exam. My most recent interview, for an ICU position, was a clinical competency exam, for the most part, and I subsequently received an offer.