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'How
are you ever gonna learn unless you try & and how
would you ever try unless you commit mistakes'
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- A Boss to his subordinate.
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Mistakes, error, bloopers are something that every one
of us commit at some point in our careers. Only a few
learn from them. Every error has a hidden learning value
that can guide you, to gain extra mileage for your career.
Acknowledging mistakes and learning from them can help
you grow in your career.
Most employers today are impressed when a few career
bloopers are demonstrated along with accomplishments.
Demonstrating what you have learnt from your mistakes
can help you gain the added advantage in the competition
for any professional or management jobs.
"The best people don't simply present their accomplishments,
they are also prepared to discuss the learning value
of their failures."
A Mature Approach towards Mistakes
A mature approach towards failures and weaknesses demonstrate
credibility and self-confidence. On the other hand if
you do not understand where some of your major failures
are then you are probably on the verge of denial.
A willingness to admit your mistakes will accelerate
your candidature, mainly if a recruiter is involved.
Most of the recruiters provide their clients with a
written assessment of the candidate's background, strengths
and weaknesses. A few failures will provide the recruiter
with the information that they wont have to seek elsewhere.
Making interviews work for you
An interview is not the place where you start searching
for your career bloopers or improvising your failure
episodes. To gain extra mileage from your mistakes,
the following six steps assist you to prepare for your
coming interview.
1. Anticipate The Inevitable
In general the candidates are under the impression that
they can win over the interview by demonstrating their
accomplishments. But the candidate should also prepare
himself to face the inevitable. Practice to respond
for the following kind of questions
1.Describe a problem or crisis you
created
and how you handled
it?
2.Describe a situation where you
made the
wrong decision.
And what did you learn from it?
3.Provide an example of a situation
in which
you failed or had
less-than-desired results.
2. Select two showcase errors
Carefully select those kinds of errors or failures that
eventually got right, and not those failures that turned
out to be unmitigated disasters. Mistakes that resulted
from being over ambitious are usually most effective
as they demonstrate a can-do attitude. Mistakes due
to underestimating, misreading or over anticipating
are also safe. "Select mistakes that parallel what you'll
be doing in your new job". "If you're going into a deadline-intensive
environment, talk about the time you missed a deadline
-- and how you handled the consequences. If you're interviewing
with an Internet startup company, talk about a situation
where you had to juggle many balls -- and dropped one."
Avoid failures that can make you appear to be overly
cautious, nitpicking or cheap, as well as anything illegal
or unethical. Any of these errors can plant a seed of
doubt about your motivation and approach.
3. Prepare blunder vignettes
Construct and rehearse your failure stories carefully.
The following four-point formula works best:
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State a misapprehension or misconception
you held in the past. You can start by saying
"when I initially joined the company I was so
enthusiastic that I overlooked the intricacies
involved in the task and believed that I could
it complete far before the assigned time" |
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Describe how and when you realized that you
were wrong. You could say as
"After working for three months on this task I
realized about the various intricacies involved
in it, and I was very wrong and a little off-track"
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Discuss how you changed and what the results
were. "After some hard thinking with our team
members I decided to change my strategy and started
prioritizing my tasks in the order of their importance
for completion." |
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Assess the aftermath of the problem and how
your perspective on a key issue changed. " This
strategy has helped me lot in simplifying my tasks
as I have broken them into small pieces and assigned
a priority to each task. With this approach I
was able to efficiently complete the tasks in
the specified time. Now I'll always prepare my
task lists and assign prioritize before starting
my work" |
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4. Rehearse your presentation
You wont be credible unless you demonstrate your vignettes
with a high level of comfort and answer pointed questions.
Rehearse with your friends or colleagues to build the
confidence you need to stay on track and sustain the
listener's interest. You should be able to tell your
basic story in not more than two minutes. Anything longer
would suggest defensiveness about your errors, rather
than a commitment to learning from mistakes.
5. Identify one or two problem spots at the prospective
employer
That parallel problems you have faced and offer advice.
You might say, "I noticed that XYZ is not focusing much
on task priorities."
6. Ask questions that reflect what you've learned
from your errors
If you ran off a big client because you were overwhelmed
by your workload, ask about workload expectations and
how work is allocated. Cite your mistake as evidence
for the need to manage workload and utilization closely.
If you had any problems with the corporate structure
and organization, query the interviewer about the company's
structure, operating procedures and reward systems.
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