What would be your reaction if somebody finds your error?

In the list of interview questions and answers this question is one to the favorite question asked by the HRs.

Possible Intention:

• To know if you are honest and open.
• To know if you take responsibility for what you have done.
• To know if you are ready to accept your mistakes or hist shrug it off.

Insights:

• You need to give confidence to the interviewer that you accept the mistake you did and ready to do whatever to correct it.
• To err is human. Nobody would be upset if you make mistakes. But disowning it is bad.

Example Answer:

If I am genuinely unaware that i have erred, i will apologize and will be ready to do whatever required to fix it. If it involves apologizing to the level of client, obviously, I will feel bad; but I will do it. I would use this incident to improve to myself and ensure that nothing of this sort would happen again.

In my project, it happened that some of the bugs which I put in the defect management software were rejected by developers. After discussion I could find that my interpretation if the requirements stated in the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) had some problem. This gave me an opportunity to sit with the developer and understand the business domain better. These helped me gain a sound understanding of the domain.

Anti Pattern:

• ' This has never happened with me and I would take care that it would not happen with me ever' is crafted answer very difficult to believe to be true.
• Do not just say that you would apologize and fix it. Important point is that you will learn from it.

Interviewer's Interpretation;

• Making an error is human nature and you learn from mistakes. Accepting your mistakes shows you are honest and willing to improve.
• Shows politeness and willing to learn.
• it also shows leader attitude of accepting your own mistakes and being responsible for the consequences rather than passing the buck to process, system or others.