Note that our Growth mindset: overcoming imposter syndrome and rejection course covers how to handle rejection and how to develop resilience in much more detail.

Resilience and dealing with rejection

Q. Tell me about a time when you have failed at something and then bounced back. 

Q. Discuss a time when you’ve been rejected, received negative feedback, or something hasn’t gone your way. How did this affect you and how did you respond?

Q. When have you succeeded in the face of adversity? 

Q. What is your biggest failure?

During a graduate scheme, you are likely to receive constructive criticism/feedback on an almost daily basis, yet people may be too busy to acknowledge when you’ve excelled or to thank you for your work. Firms need to know that this won’t lead to you sulking or giving up; they want to hire people that will respond actively and positively to negative feedback by continually pushing themselves to improve. People with a mindset that enables them to remain positive and enthusiastic, even when things go wrong or they’re in a stressful situation. And this all requires resilience. 

How can you demonstrate resilience?

When answering a question on resilience or rejection, it’s fine to mention negative feedback that you’ve previously received, as long as you can demonstrate that you responded positively and adapted your approach in light of that feedback. It’s also fine to discuss a time you failed or experienced a setback, as long as you can demonstrate that you picked yourself back up again. 

Perhaps explain the context, then focus on the actions you took to surmount or mitigate the setback or failure. For example, I mentioned failing to get into the university football team (my response was to set up my own 5-a-side team, so that I could still play regularly), being rejected for a position on the Law Society executive committee (after which I set up a commercial law-focused society, so I could still experience running a university society), and struggling with one particular academic module (which led to me actively seeking regular feedback on how to improve). And these answers went down well.