One of the questions at my pending behavioral interview is set to be: 'Describe a time when you did everything you could think of but still failed to achieve your desired result. What happened and why were you unsuccessful?' Here is my answer: “I once worked on a project where I did everything I could think of to achieve the desired result, but unfortunately, I still fell short. I had researched extensively and put in long hours, but despite my best efforts, I wasn't able to deliver the desired outcome. I realized later that I had underestimated the complexity of the project and didn't allocate enough time to plan and execute it properly. ” Can you review my answer and give me your feedback?
Your answer is a good start to addressing the behavioral interview question. However, I would suggest elaborating on a few points to make your response more impactful:
Provide more context: It would be helpful to know what the project was and what the desired outcome was. This information can provide more insight into the complexity of the project and the level of effort required to achieve the desired result.
Emphasize what you learned: While it's important to acknowledge the failure, it's equally important to focus on what you learned from the experience. Emphasize how you have taken steps to avoid similar situations in the future.
Discuss how you handled the situation: Consider elaborating on how you communicated the issue to your team or supervisor and how you tried to find alternative solutions to the problem.
Here's an example of how you could revise your answer to address these points:
"I once worked on a project where the desired outcome was to create a new software program that could handle complex data analysis tasks. Despite my extensive research and long hours of work, I fell short of achieving the desired result. Looking back, I realized that I had underestimated the complexity of the project and didn't allocate enough time to plan and execute it properly.
However, I learned a lot from this experience. I now know to thoroughly analyze the complexity of a project before starting and allocate more time for planning and execution. I also understand the importance of communicating any issues that may arise during a project to my team or supervisor.
During the project, I communicated the challenges I was facing to my team and tried to find alternative solutions to the problem. Although we ultimately fell short of the desired outcome, I believe that we learned a lot from the experience and were able to apply that knowledge to future projects."