I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

I once asked a candidate how DNS worked. It's something that even junior candidates for this role should have known, but this candidate tried to insist that "DNS worked because of the DOM" (as in, the browser DOM). When asked to clarify, and given plenty of chances to save themselves, they continued to insist, claiming that "Javascript and React handled all that." That stopped their candidacy immediately - less because of the lack of technical skills, and more because of their unwillingness to even explore the possibility that they were wrong. You can teach someone how the DOM and DNS work, but not someone who's unwilling to admit when they're wrong.

It does remind me of a candidate who did though, for the exact opposite sort of behavior. One of the people on my panel wasn't very creative, and asked the cliche "what's your greatest weakness?"

The candidate thought about it for a moment, then apologized, saying "I'm just trying to pick an interesting one to talk about, because I'm sure I have them." That got me listening, as it was perfectly honest. Eventually the candidate said something like "one thing keeps coming to mind, and it may not be a great answer, but I can't let it go - I think my greatest weakness, at least when thinking of this role, is how challenging it will likely be for me for the first month as I get to know the people and company and process."

That's how you answer that question should you ever get it. With honesty. If someone asks about your mistakes, think of a big one, one where you learned a lot. Humility sends out a strong signal about how well you'll work with others, which is easily 50% of what's important to thrive at most orgs.

I can see my past self responding similarly just due to being unaware of what interviews are usually like.

Nowadays I know that "no, they are not necessarily asking for a time when someone got fired for something, or for a time when the project was down for so long that people got mad; here they mean 'wrong' in a more lax way, like a time you had to rollback something even if nobody noticed, or a time a refactor went longer than expected (or didn't complete), or a time a query was being a little slower than expected, even if it didn't impact anyone".

My past self to my current self: "But surely that's normal? Those are small things, and it doesn't seem like anything went wrong in any of them."

My current self to my past self: "Still, that's the kind of thing they want to know. Now shut up and be thankful you at least get the chance to talk to someone instead of getting ghosted."

> I tried asking the question a few different ways, giving him lots of opportunities to come up with something

I thank you for at least trying to rephrase the question just in case the response was only due to not having had that many interviews.

That the candidate wasn't able to pick up on your intentions is on them. I hope they at least thought about the interview after they did it and try to see what they could have done better.

I don't recall the question that brought out this story, but the candidate was describing why the startup he'd cofounded failed. One of the reasons, he shared, was "because of the day I went to jail."

You hear that from a candidate and your next few minutes just got way more interesting.

Candidate said he and his family woke up to a SWAT team raiding his house and seizing all his electronics early one morning. He immediately assumed his cofounder had been doing something shady, and decided on the spot to end the venture. His instincts ended up being accurate. Instead of paying taxes to the IRS, his cofounder had been paying that money into his own pocket, according to the candidate.

That's not so much a mistake, but the candidate shared what was the mistake: he never got a lawyer. He just accepted the consequences as cofounder, presuming that "equal partner meant equal responsibility."

He got hired, and has been rock solid for the four years we've worked at the same place.