Dear Applicants,
Almost ALL OF YOU WILL MAKE THIS MISTAKE: SO, read this carefully. It will save you from getting rejected at least for this reason.
While you are writing Failure stories for B-Schools, a lot of you make very SERIOUS Mistakes.
In the set of Common mistake, the first one is not even acknowledging a Failure thinking it will demean the superman qualities you are trying to sell. Never Failed: I have come across many applicants who have never failed in their lives. It is unfortunate to see all the things that these applicants could be missing. Based on the previous section, this applicant will definitely fail in all the four categories of “No Initiatives”, “Not Authentic or down to earth”, “Not Interested”, “Not self-aware”. Never say this in a B-School interview- Do not tell them that you cannot think of a failure or have never failed. Prepare this situation ahead of time.
Rise from the Dead: Another common mistake that I come across is when an applicant builds in the entire narrative of the project , takes it to a difficult moment, approaches the failure spot, and suddenly revitalizes to bring that project to a SUPERMAN ending. Well, guess what- If you came out as a winner at the end, this situation can qualify for “When you had a difficult time at work” but this is definitely not a failure story. For a failure story- You need to have a Failure- PERIOD.
Next category of mistake is when you tell them that Things went beyond my control- Setback and not a Failure: ( A lot of you will tell the interviewer that you failed as the things were beyond your control and you could not have done anything to stop them from happening). Well, guess what- that is a setback- For example, a recession, or a job loss as the company filed for bankruptcy, or a medical emergency- you cannot classify these as failures. A failure is when you were in charge- and on your watch- the things did not happen as you had imagined.
Another common mistake is when even though you admit a failure: you do it by Blaming Someone else and divert attention to other people in your organization. You will blame your bosses or team members, and will make statements such as “Everything was going according to the plan when you realized that the floor manager could not meet the timelines – well- Guess what- It clearly shows that you cannot take responsibility or ownership. So- never blame someone else in your failure story.
Failure without Learning: It is also important talk about what you learnt from this entire incident. If you have reapplied that learning to a recent project, talk about it. Never leave the Failure open ended for them by not bringing up the learning.
The last mistake in a failure question is bring up Irrelevant Failures: If you bring up a failure that does not have any transferrable learning, and happened 15 years ago, that is not going to help. Do not bring up things from the distant past. Make it relevant for the interviewer, and you can do so by making the situation more recent and more connected with the context of the b-school interview. For example, if you lost a match in college as you were out of practice, that is not a failure for a B-School unless you weave in the context. So, stay away from something like this.
Remember all of these mistakes while constructing your narrative
Almost ALL OF YOU WILL MAKE THIS MISTAKE: SO, read this carefully. It will save you from getting rejected at least for this reason.
While you are writing Failure stories for B-Schools, a lot of you make very SERIOUS Mistakes.
In the set of Common mistake, the first one is not even acknowledging a Failure thinking it will demean the superman qualities you are trying to sell. Never Failed: I have come across many applicants who have never failed in their lives. It is unfortunate to see all the things that these applicants could be missing. Based on the previous section, this applicant will definitely fail in all the four categories of “No Initiatives”, “Not Authentic or down to earth”, “Not Interested”, “Not self-aware”. Never say this in a B-School interview- Do not tell them that you cannot think of a failure or have never failed. Prepare this situation ahead of time.
Rise from the Dead: Another common mistake that I come across is when an applicant builds in the entire narrative of the project , takes it to a difficult moment, approaches the failure spot, and suddenly revitalizes to bring that project to a SUPERMAN ending. Well, guess what- If you came out as a winner at the end, this situation can qualify for “When you had a difficult time at work” but this is definitely not a failure story. For a failure story- You need to have a Failure- PERIOD.
Next category of mistake is when you tell them that Things went beyond my control- Setback and not a Failure: ( A lot of you will tell the interviewer that you failed as the things were beyond your control and you could not have done anything to stop them from happening). Well, guess what- that is a setback- For example, a recession, or a job loss as the company filed for bankruptcy, or a medical emergency- you cannot classify these as failures. A failure is when you were in charge- and on your watch- the things did not happen as you had imagined.
Another common mistake is when even though you admit a failure: you do it by Blaming Someone else and divert attention to other people in your organization. You will blame your bosses or team members, and will make statements such as “Everything was going according to the plan when you realized that the floor manager could not meet the timelines – well- Guess what- It clearly shows that you cannot take responsibility or ownership. So- never blame someone else in your failure story.
Failure without Learning: It is also important talk about what you learnt from this entire incident. If you have reapplied that learning to a recent project, talk about it. Never leave the Failure open ended for them by not bringing up the learning.
The last mistake in a failure question is bring up Irrelevant Failures: If you bring up a failure that does not have any transferrable learning, and happened 15 years ago, that is not going to help. Do not bring up things from the distant past. Make it relevant for the interviewer, and you can do so by making the situation more recent and more connected with the context of the b-school interview. For example, if you lost a match in college as you were out of practice, that is not a failure for a B-School unless you weave in the context. So, stay away from something like this.
Remember all of these mistakes while constructing your narrative
