Experienced devs, tell me about a time you failed. How do you answer these questions?
Posted by No_Locksmith4570@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Honestly, whenever I start something new and don't know how to do it, it feels like failure, maybe a hyperbole (maybe something like I'm not good enough), but once it's done I don't think about it twice. So I have started to see them as learning opportunities that I need to figure out how to do.
I have failed deadlines. I have saved company from employee turnover. And if I go on to answer, failure is a very subjective topic; you only feel like you failed until you have not found a solution. It might sound like I am trying to sound smart, but I don't know what to say here.
The failed deadline thing I mentioned, if I go on to explain that, then there will come a 'but' which wasn't my fault, to be honest.
Some introspection would be helpful.
Stubbby@reddit
I fkin nail this question every time. Its simple and everyone can find a good example easily.
Perfect answer scenario requires a plot twist and goes like this:
You pursued something and you were objectively right, but in retrospect you realized that for some tangential reason thing did not happen and you were too focus on being right that you missed your main objective - getting something done correctly. Moving forward you apply that knowledge, put your ego aside and consider what's truly important.
Simple example: you pushed the team to add unit test into CICD, they wanted to do things the old way, then something failed, and unit tests would have prevented that. You thought you were right all along but in fact you were the one who was wrong because you knew the consequences and you failed to communicate and convince the team.
Now you understand your goal is not to be right your goal is to make the best product. You put the whole thing about being right or wrong aside and work to convince people that the shared benefit of creating a great product is worth pursuing and this way you became a much better, much more effective engineer. And better teamwork, and better efficiency, and better relations, and rainbows and unicorns.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
This is an extremely good answer and examples.
If I have to guess, you have a bunch of this kind of though question and answer too.
Stubbby@reddit
Im glad one person liked it :)
My wife is a litigation lawyer, everyday dinner is leetcode-hard level questions.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
I hope one day you will start a blog to write down even just these small sentences with examples. Probably you would help thousands of people with it.
One of my big challange is to rephrase my failures and experiences from a simple sentence to something powerful and positive. I always try to improve myself, but this area is super hard for me (I am not good in communication unfortunately).
Litigation lawyer... sound challenging, but awesome to have a lawyer that you can disturb with questions.
If you even would like to talk about with someone regarding of these examples, feel free to ping me, I am open ears.
Upstairs_Year_857@reddit
I know this is the advice the internet gives but it’s bad advice. The answer above is obvious manipulation amounting to them not actually being able to admit something they did wrong. Sure for a job out of high school I expect a kid to come up with something like that.
For a professional I don’t want to hear that nonsense. I want to hear you say you put bad code into production because you didn’t fully understand entity framework. After that you read 6 books, the entire Internet, wrote 8 thousand personal EF programs just to make sure you fully understood the tools you work with. Since then you have never made that mistake and have caught many bugs others have entered before they make it to production. Today you have understand the inner workings of entity framework better than most because of your mistake and your dedication to not repeat it.
lieutdan13@reddit
I completely understand your feelings about failure! It's such a subjective idea, particularly in the world of software development. From my perspective, failure is an essential stepping stone to growth, and our mindset really shapes that journey. When I share my experiences in interviews, I emphasize the valuable lessons I've learned instead of just the setbacks. It's truly more about our journey than reaching the endpoint! Let's embrace these challenges as opportunities to learn and grow together!
I've certainly faced my share of missed deadlines! Rather than solely highlighting the factors outside my control, I love to share how I tackled the situation head-on. I focused on identifying bottlenecks, proactively communicated with my team, and worked tirelessly to ensure we delivered a quality project. While I may have missed the deadline, the valuable lesson was in managing expectations and finding ways to prevent similar challenges in the future. Embracing these experiences only makes me better!
When tackling interview questions about failure, I like to highlight it as a key moment of growth rather than just a setback. It's all about showcasing your resilience and adaptability! By reflecting on how these experiences have shaped your journey, you demonstrate the positive mindset that interviewers truly value. Remember, failure can be a stepping stone to success—what truly matters is how we learn and evolve from it. Embrace those lessons, and you'll pave the way for a brighter future!
If you're interested, I recently wrote an article on learning from failure and another on interview questions.
Failure Is the New SuccessDeveloper Interview Questions and How to Answer Them: Part 2
papawish@reddit
Usually tell about this time I deleted production database at my first job.
Insist on steps you took to make sure it never happens again.
Insist on how well you handled stress even though you didn't.
LocationGood8403@reddit
This is more of a mistake than a failure.