Embrace your failures by creating a failure resume. It’s inevitable to encounter a failure or setback because no one is perfect. As high-achievers, we’re so used to achieving success in our careers that this success can hold us back. When you’re at the top of your game, you don’t want to fail. So you play it safe. You don’t take risks because then you’re guaranteed not to make any mistakes.
But this is the exact opposite of what you should be doing. By playing it safe and staying in your comfort zone, you’re not challenging yourself. That also means no growth. So that’s why you’re feeling bored at work because you’re just doing the same things over and over. And boredom leads to burnout.
Yes, failure can be scary. But failure is also how you can learn. Our brains want to protect and keep us safe so they tell us not to do things that seem scary. But if you think about past failures, you’ll realize they played an important role in your growth.
One of the ways to reflect and learn from your failures is to create a failure resume.
What’s a failure resume?
We all know about the traditional resume where you list your meaningful accomplishments and achievements in order to impress a potential employer and get hired.
So how about a resume listing all your significant failures instead?
Failures can be not only what you DID do but also what you DIDN’T do.
Instead of hiding from failure, a failure resume encourages you to reflect on what didn’t work out and what you learned from those experiences.
A failure resume also allows you to build resilience so that when you encounter a setback, you can bounce back. Resilience is important because this is how you build up the courage to take risks again. Otherwise, if you stop trying after every time you fail, you won’t move forward and you’ll stay stuck with even less confidence.
Each failure is a learning opportunity. By creating a failure resume, you can think about what went wrong and how you would do things differently if you were to encounter the same situation again. And that’s growth!
Taking risks and failing is also how you can get out of a career rut. When you’re feeling stuck, by taking risks and failing, you figure out what works and what doesn’t, which can lead to creative solutions and breakthroughs. Are there roles and projects you’re interested in but don’t feel qualified for? By taking a risk and testing it out, you might fail or you might succeed. Either way, you’ll learn if it’s something you want to do more or less of.
How to create a failure resume?
One method to create a failure resume is to make a list of your top professional setbacks, mistakes, and challenges. You decide what counts as a failure. It can be as big or as small as you decide. Remember to include things you didn’t do or wish you had done instead. Any career regrets?
For each failure, reflect on what you learned about your skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. Then think about what you’re going to do next about it – are you going to try again? Or is there anything you would do differently in the future? Also consider how you potentially used those lessons learned to achieve future successes, whether consciously or not.
Another method for a failure resume is to look at your current traditional resume and for each success, think about what challenges and failures you had to overcome to achieve that success. Were there any missed opportunities or things that didn’t go as planned? How many rejections did you encounter in order to get there?
My Failure Resume
My traditional resume highlighting my career path looks like this: from Princeton to J.P. Morgan to Wharton MBA to Google to Sonder (hospitality startup) to Zippin (retail AI tech startup) to now Entrepreneur and Career Clarity Coach.
In reality, this is what you don’t see in my traditional resume as the top highlights of my failure resume. Remember a failure resume also includes things you didn’t do or wish you had done.
Princeton
I got average grades and barely graduated with a 3.0 GPA. I got a C in one of my Finance classes. My grades were not good enough to get me a summer internship at any of big investment banking banks (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, etc).
BUT I still managed to land a full-time role at J.P. Morgan. Because even after countless rejections. I took risks and continued to put myself out there, eventually landing a summer internship at a hedge fund and working during the school year at a local financial services company. This allowed me to gain experience so that I could get the full-time role at J.P. Morgan.
J.P. Morgan
Since this was my first job after graduating and still early in my career, I definitely made a few mistakes and learned from mentors. Then I had the opportunity to work abroad in Hong Kong for a year and London for 3 years. With those experiences, I regret not starting a travel blog or documenting my expat life and travels around Europe and Asia.
BUT I took risks to move to a new city not only once but twice where I didn’t know anyone and learned to be comfortable with the unknown each time.
Wharton MBA
There are a few missed opportunities I wish I had taken in terms of classes and experiences. Instead, I went to see my long-distance boyfriend at the time. I had let a relationship take priority instead of focusing on myself. That relationship ended up not working out so it wasn’t worth it.
BUT I’ve learned to put myself first, especially what’s important to me and making sure my priorities are aligned with where I’m spending my time and energy.
Throughout the entire time I worked at Google, I never got promoted no matter how hard I worked. I sometimes worked nights and weekends, and even checked in during vacations. I took on additional projects and responsibilities to prove I could operate at a higher level. Eventually, this all led to burnout. And after 4 years of busting my ass, I got laid off for the first time in my career.
BUT this layoff allowed me to take a yearlong funemployed sabbatical I named “Eat, Pray, Slay!” where I focused on traveling and personal passion projects like yoga teacher training and starting a travel blog. This turned out to be one of the best years of my life so far. And I realized that working hard doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll find success. Work smarter not harder.
Sonder (hospitality startup)
I didn’t vet enough on the company culture and took a pay cut because I wanted to work in the travel and hospitality industry. There was a culture mismatch which eventually led to burnout. COVID came first though before I could gave my notice which led to my second layoff after almost a year of working there. Additionally, my travel blog failed during COVID too.
BUT I learned how important a company culture can be. It’s critical to ensure your career values are in line with whatever role or opportunity you have. I’ve even created this free Career Check-Up Guide download to help people assess and prioritize what’s important to them and whether there’s a misalignment with their current role. I’ve also reused the knowledge I’ve gained from building a travel blog and applied them to my coaching business.
Zippin (retail AI tech startup)
I didn’t get a salary bump from switching companies. I didn’t get the managerial responsibilities and promotion I wanted. There was a mismatch between company priorities and my projects and responsibilities, which eventually led to burnout. After almost 4 years, I got laid off again, making it the third layoff of my career. I also wish I had worked with a coach sooner than 2023 to help me figure out purpose and my career next steps.
BUT I learned that I needed to create my own path to find purpose and fulfillment. I shouldn’t wait on others to give it to me. If I’m not getting what I want from an employer, then it’s time to move on. By working with a coach, I figured out what would bring meaning and purpose into my career.
As you can see, I would never have achieved my successes without encountering a few setbacks along the way. Each failure, setback, and regret taught me resilience, adaptability, and the importance of taking risks, pursuing my purpose and passions, and aligning on my values and priorities.
Failure is Critical for Success
By failing often and seeing how you rebound and overcome them, the fear of failure becomes less daunting. So instead of playing it safe, you should embrace failures. Use a failure resume to review your mistakes and failures to educate yourself and inform your future successes. Turn those failures into fuel for your growth. The setbacks act as stepping stones to success.
By creating a failure resume, you’re also setting yourself up for success in a job search. You’ll prepare yourself for the dreaded interview question: “Tell me about a time you failed.” Employers don’t want to hear a bullshit answer. They want to hear about a real failure, what you learned from it, and how you would do it differently now.
The other dreaded interview question that you can now answer: “What are your greatest weaknesses?” Employers don’t want to hear about a weakness that’s actually a strength. They want to hear about a blind spot and how you’re actively trying to work on improving it. Through your failure resume, you should be able to find some genuine areas of improvement. Employers want to see self-awareness and the ability to learn, be resilient, and grow.
Embracing failures is part of success. So if you haven’t already thought about your own history of failures and setbacks, I invite you to create your own failure resume. Embrace your failures and learn from them.
If you’re feeling stuck in your career and unsure what to do next, I can help! As a Career Clarity Coach, I help high-achievers like you find the clarity you need for your career to move forward so that you can find freedom, purpose, excitement, and success. Check out my Services or book a free Vision Call to learn more about how I can help you embrace your failures and transform those setbacks into success!
