How to answer interview questions about challenging work experiences

“I’d much rather bring
somebody into the organization that has taken risks and failed
than [somebody who] has always taken the safe route,” says Traci
Wilk (pictured).
Courtesy of Traci
Wilk

• Asking interview
  questions about challenging work experiences can help
  discern whether a candidate is willing to learn from their
  mistakes.
• That’s according to Traci Wilk, senior vice president
  of people at The Learning Experience and former HR chief at
  Starbucks.
• Wilk wants to see evidence of a “growth mindset,” or
  the belief that talents can be developed through hard
  work.

One of the hardest parts of a job interview is talking about your
flaws and stumbles.

Sometimes the prompt is literally, “what’s your greatest
weakness?” Other times it’s, “why were you let go from your last
job?”

If you’re interviewing with Traci Wilk, there’s a good chance
she’ll encourage you to “tell me about the most challenging work
experience that you had and what you learned from it.”

Wilk is the senior vice president of people at The Learning
Experience, an early education and childcare franchise. She
has also led the human resources departments at Starbucks, Coach,
and rag & bone. She told Business Insider that, when she asks
candidates to share their most challenging work experiences,
she’s not exactly trying to suss out their tendency to miss
deadlines or talk back to their boss.

Instead, she’s looking for evidence of a “growth
mindset.”

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Wilk said that if the candidate naturally talks about “things
that they would have done differently,” that’s a good sign
because it shows a “high degree of self-awareness.” She
especially wants to see the candidate share some “reflection or a
postmortem that they may have done after the situation, how
they’ve taken that and applied it into future situations.”

In fact, Wilk added, she’s generally more interested in a
candidate’s ability to learn than in their résumé. “Is this
someone that’s going to come into the organization certainly with
best practices, but also willing to be flexible, willing to be
innovative? That’s really the main thing that I’m assessing when
I’m meeting with a candidate.”

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Other HR leaders say a ‘growth mindset’ is key to success

The term “growth
mindset” was coined by psychologist Carol Dweck to describe
the belief that your talents can be developed. (The opposite is a
“fixed mindset,” which refers to the belief that your talents are
innate and can’t change much.) Dweck’s research suggests that
people with a growth mindset tend to be more successful.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
told Bloomberg that Dweck’s book, “Mindset:
The New Psychology of Success,” inspired him to emphasize the
importance of a growth mindset among his employees. Microsoft’s
chief people officer, Kathleen Hogan, told
Geekwire that
Microsoft employees weren’t supposed to prove they’re the
smartest people in the room, but they were instead supposed to
“learn and bring out the best in people.”

As for talking about challenging career experiences in a job
interview, if you’re worried about being too candid about your
screwups, you probably shouldn’t be.

“It really shows that this person is confident enough to be
vulnerable. I’d much rather bring somebody into the organization
that has taken risks and failed than [somebody who] has always
taken the safe route,” Wild said.