Turn Failure into an Asset: How to Use Setbacks to Become a Standout Candidate

We’ve also experienced every smooth talker who has attempted to avoid the question, and we wouldn’t recommend: 

  • Brushing off the question with a non-answer ("My biggest failure is working too hard")

  • Offering successful outcomes you just wish had gone better

  • Taking tactical ownership while subtly pointing fingers at strategic issues beyond your control

  • Dwelling too much on the failure itself and not enough on the rebound

The way you respond to these types of questions tells us more about leadership potential than your resume ever could.

Here’s a counterintuitive truth: one of the strongest ways to stand out in an interview isn’t by reciting your wins. It’s by owning your failures. How you talk about what didn’t go well often reveals more about your leadership potential than a list of accomplishments.

Most candidates come in polished and prepared with a highlight reel. But what separates exceptional leaders from the rest isn’t a spotless record. Instead, it’s their relationship with failure.

Companies aren’t looking for perfection because people are messy and setbacks are inevitable. What matters is how you respond.

We pay close attention to how candidates navigate and learn from hard moments. We’re looking for resilience, self-awareness, and the kind of clarity that only comes from reflection. That’s where true leadership shows up.

Why Interviewers Specifically Dig into Your Setbacks

When an interviewer asks about your failures, we're not trying to catch you or make you uncomfortable. We're opening a window into aspects of your character that would likely remain hidden when you’re trying to put your best self on display:

  • Emotional intelligence: Do you have the self-awareness to recognize where you went wrong and the humility to admit it?

  • Accountability: Can you own your part without resorting to blame-shifting?

  • Learning agility: Did this experience actually change your approach, or was it just an unfortunate blip?

  • Leadership maturity: Can you discuss failure without shame or defensiveness?

The REPAIR Framework: Turn Setbacks into Assets

Here’s a fool-proof method to professionally and authentically discussing professional missteps:

Recognize the failure honestly.

Don't minimize or reframe it as a partial success. Call it what it was: “We missed our production deadline by three weeks, causing a significant customer backorder situation" or "I lost a key shift supervisor because I failed to recognize the pressure our new quotas were putting on the floor team."

Explain the context without making excuses.

Provide just enough background for understanding without sounding defensive: "Our consumer goods packaging redesign coincided with an unexpected material shortage from our primary supplier."

Analyze what went wrong and why.

Show that you've reflected deeply enough to understand the mechanics of the failure: "Looking back, I realized I was letting my optimism override the concrete signals that we were off-track."

Pinpoint your specific role and responsibility.

Be precise about your contribution to what went wrong: "As the team lead, I failed to set clear expectations early on" or "I underestimated the technical complexity and didn't build in enough buffer."

Reinforce how you’ve applied these insights.

Connect the dots to current behavior: "Now I implement phased rollouts for all service process changes, with mandatory feedback loops from field technicians before expanding to the entire team."

Identify the lessons learned.

Articulate the specific insights that emerged: "This taught me that technical debt isn't just an engineering issue—it's a business liability that needs strategic management."

Selecting the Right Examples

Not all failures are created equal when it comes to interview discussions. The best examples tend to be:

  • Meaningful but not catastrophic: Significant enough to demonstrate real learning but not so devastating that they raise concerns about your judgment.

  • Recent enough to be relevant, distant enough to show growth: Ideally within the last 2-4 years, giving you enough time to implement lessons learned.

  • Appropriate to the role's scope and stakes: The scale of the failure should align with the level of responsibility you're seeking.

While professional examples are typically best, personal failures can sometimes reveal character dimensions that workplace examples can't. Reserve these for moments when they genuinely illuminate your leadership resilience.

Tailoring Your Approach to Different Interviews

The depth and nature of your failure discussion should evolve throughout the interview process:

  1. Screening Interview:  Keep examples concise and focused on clear learning outcomes.

  2. In-Depth Interviews & Client Interviews: Be prepared to go deeper on the emotional and interpersonal dimensions of navigating failure.

Listen carefully for themes highlighted throughout the interview process. Then, incorporate these insights when discussing how you've grown from failures.

Be selective  of failure topics according to the role you’re interviewing for: 

  1. C-suite and Executive roles: Interviewers are particularly interested in how you've handled strategic misfires with significant business impact. 

  2. Middle Management Candidates: Focus on team and execution failures.

  3. Technical Leadership Roles: Highlight the balance between innovation and pragmatism.

Profile Maintenance

Consider setting a calendar reminder for a quarterly profile check in. This will allow you to add new achievements or projects to your experience without forgetting specific details. It gives you the opportunity to refresh your skills and assess if your priority of skills has changed. And it can keep your headline fresh by updating it based on your current focus area. At the very minimum, this will allow you to stay relevant.  

Your LinkedIn profile tells a story about who you are professionally. That story needs to align with the right opportunities at the right time. 


Strategic Networking

Yes, this is where some people choose to eye roll, but the reality is your network dramatically impacts the ability for recruiters to see you. Connections you initiate can significantly boost how often your profile appears in searches. 

But that doesn’t mean go out and connect with everyone that LinkedIn recommends for you. It takes a little more tact and strategy than that. A few suggestions we have are:

  • Connect with respected executive recruiters in your industry 

  • Add thoughtful leaders in your field who share valuable insights that you will be more likely to comment on and engage with 

  • Accept connection requests if they are in adjacent roles or from industries you have interest in

  • Leverage alumni network from schools and former employers 

Your network directly impacts your discoverability. Depending on the LinkedIn subscription a recruiter has, they may only be able to see and message 2nd and 3rd-degree connections. The more strategic connections you have, the more likely you'll appear when we're searching for your specific expertise.

Tasks Worth Your Time

There are small yet valuable actions that can significantly boost your profile visibility:

  • Respond to LinkedIn InMail messages, even if it's just to say "Not interested at this time, but please keep me in mind for future opportunities." LinkedIn's algorithm rewards this engagement, which keeps your profile more visible to recruiters.

  • Periodically engage with content from your network. A thoughtful comment goes further than a simple like.

  • Share occasional insights related to your expertise area.

While most professionals update their profile only when actively job hunting, the strategic ones know better. Every profile element we've covered works together to tell your professional story to the right audience at the right time. The difference between a good profile and a great one isn't complexity. 

It's intentionality.

By focusing on outcomes over responsibilities, strengths over titles, and substance over buzzwords, you position yourself for opportunities you have dreamed of. By creating this stream of passive recruitment opportunities, you won’t be searching for your next role. Your next role will find you. 

The Extra Mile

And because we know people like you are always looking for a little something extra, we highly recommend you join our Talent Network. Yes, this is a shameless plug for our Talent Network, but it’s also a way to be the first in line for opportunities we’re recruiting for. Before we even dig into LinkedIn and all the sourcing abilities there, we tap into our Talent Network database to see if someone in our circuit has the aspirations and skillset that match for our next pivotal hire.