Interview Question: Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized.

Interview CriticismAnswering this question takes preparation in order to avoid pitfalls.

This may be a tough question — It’s pretty hard to admit to your weaknesses in front of your potential employer. It’s potentially damaging to admit to faults and failures that could keep you from getting the job you’ve applied for.

To answer this question, don’t start by pretending as if you were never criticized at work. Let’s face it — Everyone has been criticized at some point in their working lives. Learning to accept criticism and what direction you’ll take when you do is crucial in the working world.

Here are some tips on how to answer this question like a pro:

Be positive. You can start by emphasizing the positive feedback you’ve received throughout your career. Highlighting your skills is the best way to overcome your fear of being criticized.

Start with the minor mistakes. Emphasize that you are welcome to suggestions that can improve your performance. You can provide an example of a not-so-damaging learning experience that helped you grow in your early career. This shows the recruiter that you are willing to learn from your mistakes in order to do a better job.

Share some of your criticisms. Quote a fairly trivial criticism you’ve gotten in the past that will not affect your performance. Expand on what you’ve learned from the experience and how you may have applied it to your career over the long term.

Be willing to grow.Share with the recruiter through a concrete example that you’re always willing to learn from new experiences.

Know the key. The key to answering this question is to focus on a skill or skills that are not essential to your performance. Choose what adds another dimension to your current knowledge and skills, and shows that you’re a great employee.

Do not be afraid of admitting how you’ve been criticized in the past. As long as you back it up with excellent skills and background, criticisms here and there won’t affect your overall image.

It’s more important to be honest. Employers prefer to work with sincere and genuine candidates.

Read 10945 times Last modified on Friday, 12 February 2016 10:38
Alan Carniol

Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 80,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.