Tell me about a time when you failed at something you were aiming for.

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Situation: After completing my bachelor’s degree in business administration, I
applied for a quantitative master’s program in Bologna. Unfortunately, I wasn’t
accepted, missing the cut-off by just one point. The main reason was that my
background in quantitative subjects was insufficient, as my bachelor’s degree
had focused more on business administration.
Action: Despite this setback, I remained committed to my goal of improving my
quantitative skills while continuing to pursue finance. In my master’s program,
I chose as many quantitative courses as possible, and I also participated in
several classes from the Master in Quantitative Finance program. Additionally,
while working as a librarian in the economics library, I had the opportunity to
engage with students and professors from the field, gaining valuable insights
and expanding my knowledge.
Result: My efforts paid off when I wrote a highly quantitative thesis, which was
reviewed by the director of the Master in Quantitative Finance, who served as my
co-examiner. This experience validated my hard work and determination, and
reinforced my belief that with perseverance, curiosity, and a commitment to
continuous improvement, I can achieve any goal I set. Applying for this position
is the next step in pursuing that ambition.

Anonymous · Answer

SITUATION:

I was laid off from my first job just four months after joining due to budget
constraints. This was a major setback for me as I had just started my career.
Around the same time, my father suffered a heart attack, which required me to
stay at home and take care of him while he was on bed rest for several months.
The combination of losing my job and dealing with a family emergency left me
feeling devastated, and I struggled to apply for new roles.

ACTION:

Despite these challenges, I remained determined to grow in my career. While
caring for my father, I focused on upskilling myself:
 * I attended mentor sessions on ADPList to gain industry insights.
 * I reached out to experienced designers on LinkedIn for portfolio reviews and
   feedback.
 * I enrolled in courses through Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) to expand
   my knowledge.
 * I continuously improved my portfolio and resume, incorporating the feedback I
   received.

I also actively networked with professionals, which helped me regain confidence
and visibility in the industry.

RESULT:

My persistence paid off. Where I once struggled to pass resume screenings, I
started receiving recruiter calls consistently. In fact, this very interview
happened because I proactively connected with a senior designer, shared my
portfolio, and received a referral for this role. This experience not only
strengthened my portfolio and skills but also taught me the power of
perseverance, networking, and continuous learning.

Anonymous · Answer

Situation:At my early-stage startup, I led the engineering team on a high-stakes
project that required close collaboration with design and QA teams. Despite
completing my assigned tasks on time, delays from other teams caused us to miss
the project deadline, creating significant issues for the company.
Task:I was responsible for ensuring that our engineering tasks were completed on
schedule and seamlessly integrated with the work from the design and QA teams.
Action:After the project failed to meet its deadline, I took several steps to
improve future project outcomes:
 1. Implemented Daily Stand-Up Meetings:We had a specific issue where a critical
    design update was not communicated to the engineering team. During the new
    daily stand-ups, we identified such gaps early. For example, a design change
    was discussed in a stand-up meeting, allowing us to adjust our engineering
    work in real-time and avoid significant delays.
    
 2. Introduced Regular Risk Assessments:We identified a risk of the QA team
    being overwhelmed with testing volume. Regular risk assessments highlighted
    this risk, prompting us to temporarily reallocate resources from the
    engineering team to assist with testing. This proactive approach helped us
    keep the QA process on track and prevented further delays.
    
 3. Utilized Project Management Tools:We used Jira to track progress and set
    clear milestones. This tool allowed us to maintain transparency across teams
    and keep everyone aligned. For instance, the tool’s visual dashboard helped
    us monitor task dependencies and adjust our schedules based on real-time
    updates.

Result:These changes led to improved synchronization between teams and more
timely identification of issues. For example, the daily stand-ups and risk
assessments allowed us to resolve issues more efficiently, and the project
management tools enhanced overall transparency. As a result, subsequent projects
were completed on schedule, and the improved processes contributed to more
successful project deliveries. This experience reinforced the importance of
daily synchronization, proactive risk management, and effective communication in
managing cross-functional projects.

Anonymous · Answer

Situation: In my previous company, we redesigned the API layer to optimize
performance and improve reliability. However, after the launch, we received very
negative feedback and multiple escalations from leadership regarding the
application's performance.

Task: As the team lead, my task was to address the concerns raised by
leadership, understand the root causes of the performance issues, and
demonstrate the improvements made by the new API layer.

Action: I attended calls to understand the concerns, which centered around the
new performance dashboards and incident reports. We realized that previously,
not all error scenarios were tracked and reported. To address this, we created
high-level reports similar to the old ones to prove that the new API was better
performing. We highlighted that through context propagation, we were now
identifying potential and previously unreported failures and moved from average
response times to 95th percentile reporting. Additionally, I recognized the need
to set expectations for other involved teams, explaining the current process,
the changes being rolled out, and educating them on the new process. This
allowed them time to adjust their processes or align with our approach.

Result: Although it was a tough week, we successfully demonstrated that the new
API was indeed performing better, which helped restore confidence in our team's
work. This process also highlighted the importance of clear communication and
expectation-setting with other teams to ensure alignment and prevent unnecessary
doubts and morale issues in the future.

Anonymous · Answer

Situation:At my early-stage startup, I led the engineering team on a high-stakes
project that required close collaboration with design and QA teams. Despite
completing my assigned tasks on time, delays from other teams caused us to miss
the project deadline, creating significant issues for the company.
Task:I was responsible for ensuring that our engineering tasks were completed on
schedule and seamlessly integrated with the work from the design and QA teams.
Action:After the project failed to meet its deadline, I took several steps to
improve future project outcomes:
 1. Implemented Daily Stand-Up Meetings:We had a specific issue where a critical
    design update was not communicated to the engineering team. During the new
    daily stand-ups, we identified such gaps early. For example, a design change
    was discussed in a stand-up meeting, allowing us to adjust our engineering
    work in real-time and avoid significant delays.
    
 2. Introduced Regular Risk Assessments:We identified a risk of the QA team
    being overwhelmed with testing volume. Regular risk assessments highlighted
    this risk, prompting us to temporarily reallocate resources from the
    engineering team to assist with testing. This proactive approach helped us
    keep the QA process on track and prevented further delays.
    
 3. Utilized Project Management Tools:We used Jira to track progress and set
    clear milestones. This tool allowed us to maintain transparency across teams
    and keep everyone aligned. For instance, the tool’s visual dashboard helped
    us monitor task dependencies and adjust our schedules based on real-time
    updates.

Result:These changes led to improved synchronization between teams and more
timely identification of issues. For example, the daily stand-ups and risk
assessments allowed us to resolve issues more efficiently, and the project
management tools enhanced overall transparency. As a result, subsequent projects
were completed on schedule, and the improved processes contributed to more
successful project deliveries. This experience reinforced the importance of
daily synchronization, proactive risk management, and effective communication in
managing cross-functional projects.

Anonymous · Answer

At my early-stage startup, I led the engineering team on a high-stakes project
that required close collaboration with design and QA teams. Despite completing
my assigned tasks on time, delays from other teams caused us to miss the project
deadline, creating significant issues for the company.
Task:I was responsible for ensuring that our engineering tasks were completed on
schedule and integrated smoothly with the work from the design and QA teams.
Action:After this failure, I took several steps to improve future project
outcomes:
 1. Implemented daily stand-up meetings with all teams to ensure alignment and
    early identification of potential blockers.
 2. Introduced regular risk assessments to proactively identify and mitigate
    potential delays.
 3. Utilized project management tools to track progress, set clear milestones,
    and maintain transparency across teams.

Result:These changes led to improved synchronization between teams, timely
identification of issues, and more successful project deliveries. This
experience underscored the importance of daily synchronization, continuous risk
assessment, and proactive communication in managing cross-functional projects.

Anonymous · Answer

At my early-stage startup, I led the engineering effort for a new product
feature requiring collaboration across engineering, design, and QA teams.
Despite completing my tasks on time, the project missed its deadline due to
delays from other teams.
Task:My task was to manage the engineering development and ensure timely
integration with the design and QA efforts.
Action:To address this, I implemented daily stand-up meetings with all teams to
ensure alignment and early identification of blockers. I also introduced regular
risk assessments and used project management tools to track progress and
dependencies transparently.
Result:These changes improved team synchronization and risk management, leading
to more efficient and timely project completions. This experience taught me the
importance of daily syncs and continuous risk assessment in managing
cross-functional projects.

Anonymous · Answer

in my previous company we redesigned API layer to optimize the performance and
improve reliability. After launch we had a very negative feed back   and
multiple escalation from the leadership  about the performance of the
application.
As a team lead I attended the calls and understood the concerns that the new
performance dashboards and incidents are major concern for escalation.
Later we as a team realized that previously all the error scenarios were not
tracked and reported and we  created a high level reprorts similar to old
reports and proved the new API is better performing and highlighted that through
context propagation we are identifying potential and previously not reported
failures  and we moved from average response times to 95 percentile reporting .
As part of this i realized its key to set the expectations for other involved
teams and explain the current process and  the changes we are rolling out and
educate them on new process and allow them time to change their process or align
our approach to be in SYNC with them. we as a team we had a  tough week to prove
that we are right and it added unnecessary doubt about the team and team morale
is down.

Anonymous · Answer

In my early stage as a fesher and from non CS background I was not very well
competent with coding skills...so when first time I was handed with a
development work I got overwhelmed and without properly understanding the
requirements gave the low estimation for effort required and promised to deliver
within 2 days with a sense of overachievment ...but as I started I got stuck
badly in the middle and was unable to proceed and had to take the help of senior
developer and finally completed the task with 1.5 weeks...this entire situation
gave me the lesson of not jumping into anything without properly understanding
and analysing the problem and the requirements which also help me a lot in my
product management journey of anaylsing the problem better

Anonymous · Answer

I failed to implement a full fledge feature that i had overcommitted in a
particular release. However, looking at deadlines and other constaraints I
decided to break down the feature into current and next release take out only
most feasible items in the current relase. This helped me showcase the feature
in the current release as well as avoid any last minute burnouts of the team.

Anonymous · Answer

I had to scope and estimate for feature releases. I was not prepared for
unknowns, which resulted in delays. I had discussed with feature stakeholders
and discussed about the new discovery of the system and features and reason for
delays. Though I had missed the actual deliverable, I could share the
perspective of new items discovered while the implementation was being done and
could ship during next release

Tell me about a time when you failed at something you were aiming for.

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