Was I too honest in job interview?

[lemons82]

I had an internal job interview on Friday. I shared a story about a time when I made a quite a bad mistake at work and I took proactive steps to fix it. I’ve been worrying ever since that I should have kept quiet as the interview was with a senior manager who wasn’t aware of this mistake and now they are 😔 Any advice?

I’d agree with this.

Sounds like a good answer to me. We use this kind of interview and ask questions like this- we’d mark a candidate down if she didn’t manage to think of a time something had gone wrong. It’s simply not credible and insisting that everything has always gone perfectly sounds to me like the candidate wasn’t able to be reflective or make improvements. For more senior roles we are always looking for people who can reflect, be self-critical and want to make things better.

Being neutral is normal for the interviewer in a competency based interview.

Well I think you did well to show that, although you made a mistake, you had the presence of mind to sort it out.
Also, if, by any chance, the interviewer did already know about the mistake, he wouldn’t have been impressed if you hadn’t owned up, would he?

How long until you know, for sure @lemons82?

They didn’t ask when you’d made a mistake, they asked when something went wrong. It would always be better to not make that human error related in relation to yourself. So things go wrong for many reasons, supplier issues, computer glitches, staff shortages, that sort of thing.

it depends on the error if I’m honest. If I was thinking that’s an understandable error and she handled it well, it would be fine. If I was thinking what an idiot how did she make that mistake, I’d clearly not give you the job.

however on the whole interviewers are looking for a mor Wide scale situation which went wrong and how you either fixed it or worked as part of a team to do so. Not here’s how I messed up, but I fessed up and resolved it.

Again mistake and something going wrong do not mean directly the same thing, it is highly doubtful he was looking for a confession, it is a generic question looking at a wide scale something went wrong, this is how I or me and the team fixed it. And things go wrong for so many reasons as said.

Well in that case he’s hardly likely to care is he? They are testing whether you have the skills and experience to handle something going wrong , not to assess whether you are perfect! Try not to worry.

I didn’t think of it like that. But I still feel terrible that they now know I made this silly mistake. I honestly thought it was okay to share as like I say, I had good feedback on how I handled it at the time.

We can’t answer that

but given he remained completely neutral - I would think he likely already knew.

I’d be fine with a candidate talking about her own mistake - definitely wouldn’t count as a negative (unless it was something truly heinous) and it would be a positive from the perspective of honesty, reflection and accountability.

Who gave the good feedback from? And how do you know they didn’t tell the SM?

it would be a positive from the perspective of honesty, reflection and accountability.

That was my logic - that the way I handled it made me look good. But now I’m hugely doubting myself.

@Heisrevising sorry, I’m not going into details as I don’t want to out myself. My manager could be on here for all I know!

Well either he knows hence the neutral face
or he didn’t know but unbothered

If I don’t get the job (likely) should I mention the mistake when asking for feedback? And ask if it was wrong to mention it? Or will I just be digging even bigger of a hole? 😔

Well they tell you why you didn’t get it
and if this is raised - then yes discuss
otherwise - no point

So if I don’t get it will I automatically be told the reason why? I’ve never had an internal interview before so don’t know how it works.

Honestly as a manager my dream is that my team handles fuck-ups in a way that I would have handled them, without them becoming my problem. My dream is not that there aren't any fuck-ups because that's unrealistic. So for me this would be either neutral or positive - you recognised a mistake, took (hopefully) correct steps to fix it, and presumably demonstrated learning on how to prevent it being worse in future, all without creating more work for someone else or needing your hand holding.

I can't guarantee they'll see it the same way, but it's not a definite negative for everyone!

Possibly
if not, ask

I hoped I was showing I was trustworthy and honest 😔

Why is everyone automatically assuming the manager is a man. On a bloody site for women too! Appalling!

mistakes are how we learn, the key here is how you handled it and that you learnt from it. If both of those are positive then it’s all good. If you’ve made this same mistake multiple times then it’s an issue

I had this exact thought - unbelievable. There are so many that I wondered if I had missed it in the OP.

OP, as a (female) manager who has asked this question, I think it depends on the mistake. If it was a "no one who would make this mistake could be trusted with this role" type mistake, then I don't think that bodes well. If it was a "this was a serious mistake but easily done and the interviewee showed resilience and determination in fixing it" type mistake, then that would be a good answer. As you said, the question forces you to go into detail about something going wrong, so it's tough. Good luck!

How do you know the OP is female?

Thank you. I would say it falls into this category: If it was a "this was a serious mistake but easily done”.