Grading Advice No. 3: Failure Questions
Let’s talk about the failure question. It strikes fear in most candidates. They start running a chess game in their heads. They are afraid of being too honest or picking the wrong example of a problem.
People are often a “deer in the headlights” when it comes to failure prompts. Two common pitfalls: They either pick an insignificant problem or pick something that makes them look stupid.
Picking a minor failure will do you more harm than a real problem. If the candidate doesn’t appear willing to be self-aware or humble, an interviewer will be exhausted and just fail you in their feedback to the hiring committee.
Grade it on the learning, not the failure. Did they pick something that shows they learned a fundamental skill from their mistakes.
Also, grade it on teamwork. Do they take ownership of the failure, or do they pick something that they are really blaming someone else for missing>
This is where common sense really comes into play. Things that you can point out are:
True Failure: Is it really not a failure? Or are they’re trying to throw you a softball that tells you nothing about how they will do their job or how they learn from their mistakes.
Petty: Is it a failure that makes them look petty?
Blame Others: Do they blame rather than take responsibility?
Learnings: Do they have a learning they can talk about? Or is it presented as a isolated problem without anything learned from the incident?
Stuck in the Weeds: Are they rambling on with way too many details and and missing the high-level point? Do you know why they picked this story? Is it a good reason? Or did they just show you they can’t communicate?
Can’t Withstand Questions: Do they give a nice high-level answer that gets to they point, but when you poke to ask details, you discover it’s not a real thing they experienced or they don’t know enough about it that their response raises red flags?
Why ask about Failures
In tech, there are 3 main reasons to ask a failure question:
Test are they willing to take risks?
Do they learn from their mistakes?
Are they humble?
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