Mistakes Are Not Fails

So you find a job you’re excited about. You upload your resume. Then you’re asked to retype the exact same information into a form that clearly hates you. You push through. This job could change your life—or at least, your tax bracket.

Eventually, you get an interview. The recruiter has your resume in hand and says, “Looks like you [insert bullet point].”

You nod. You talk about it. The conversation moves along. You space out briefly to daydream about not having credit card debt. No one seems to notice.

By the end of the interview, they know what you’ve done, kinda. The large boxes are checked:

• Where you’ve worked
• What you look like from the waist up (because who does this in person after 2020?)
• Your academic career, whatever that is
• How fast you can put together a plan of attack at a moment’s notice for some imaginary scenario
• Someone got clever and asked the Google question about the blender, but you read that blog post too, so you nailed it

What they probably don’t know is how you think when things go really sideways, when you make mistakes. Not in the “What are your bad qualities?” way, where you say, “Oh yeah, I’m just really bad about working too much, and so I don’t have any friends anymore.” OK, well, that is a problem, but that’s for another blog post.

We’re talking about that time you tried to build a following on Twitch for the nonprofit you worked at and wound up blowing 20 grand with nothing to show for it. The “will I still have a job on Monday?” kind of mistakes. What did you learn then?

At Corporate Tools, that question matters more than your resume or your college major (shout to all of our English BAs out there).

Why We Ask About Mistakes

Your resume is a highlight reel. We’ve read too many of them, and that’s why we don’t want them anymore.

What we don’t get from a resume is how you respond when something breaks. When you miss the mark. When an idea doesn’t land. When you open an email, your stomach drops.

Those moments tell us far more than a list of accomplishments ever could.

Success is easy to talk about. Mistakes aren’t. And that’s exactly why they’re useful.

We’re a company built on the idea that mistakes are inevitable—and that learning from them is non-negotiable. We don’t expect people to be flawless. We expect them to be honest, accountable, and willing to do better. So much so, we literally spelled that out in our company principles: “We Learn From Our Mistakes.”

What We Don’t Mean by “Mistakes”

This is not the tired interview question about “weaknesses.” You know it, and the answer is always:

• “I work too hard.”
• “I care too much.”
• “I’m a perfectionist.”

We get why people answer that way. We’ve done it too. The question begs you to spin.

That’s not what we’re after. We want to hear about the moments when:

• An experiment bombed loudly
• A decision backfired
• You were wrong in front of other people
• You had to say, “That’s on me.”

The moments where you felt embarrassed, frustrated, or genuinely unsure what to do next. Did you pack it in, decide not to move forward, or did you pivot, find the lesson, and go back with a better plan?

Those stories are harder to tell. They’re also far more revealing.

What We’re Listening For

When we ask about failure, we’re listening for a few specific things.

Accountability
Use the word “I.” Own what happened. “Mistakes were made” is not accountability—it’s evasive maneuvers.

Details
Vague stories usually mean someone hasn’t really examined what went wrong. Specifics tell us you’ve thought about it.

Consequences
What happened because of the mistake? Who was affected? What broke? What changed?

Honesty
We don’t want corporate euphemisms. If something launched poorly because it went out at 4 p.m. on a Friday, say that. Don’t call it “suboptimal calendaring.”

Reflection
What did you learn? What would you do differently now? A mistake only matters if it changes behavior.

Determination
People who never make mistakes aren’t pushing themselves. They’re not experimenting. They’re not growing. That’s not the work we do here.

Failing Fast to Learn

We like failing fast. Not because making mistakes is fun—it’s not—but because it teaches you things success never will. And it keeps you iterating.

We also know the people who can handle messing up will do well here. In behavioral science, studies show most people learn to ignore, undercut, or wallow in their mistakes and cast them as failures. But some people come to recognize that mistakes are a part of living, and if you can get your ego out of the way, you can learn something. That means you’ll be better for it the next time.

So, when something goes wrong, we pay attention to what happens next:

• Did you work out the problem?
• Did you own it?
• Did you fix it?
• Did you change how you work afterward?
• Did you find a lesson you can share to help others do the same?

That’s the difference between seeing mistakes as a dead end, something that proves you are incompetent, worthless, or powerless to make change, and seeing them as an opportunity for growth, as a path to forward motion. Often, that also means you’re on the way to making something better than it would have been.

So when we ask, “Tell us about a time you made a mistake,” we’re not interested in polished stories where everything magically works out. We’re interested in the real ones—the uncomfortable, human moments where you had to stop, reassess, and try again. The stories where you learned Twitch might not be the place to fundraise for bicycle coalitions, and planned a romping weekend cycling party instead.

Why This Matters at Corporate Tools

We build tools for real businesses, operating in real legal and operational environments. Things break. States change rules and reject filings without sending us a memo. Systems surprise you. The work requires judgment, adaptability, and ownership.

A culture that learns from its mistakes is how you build durable systems—and durable teams that can adjust when things go haywire.

We don’t hire egos. We hire people who can get it done.

So you didn’t get a call back on that job you thought was going to change your life. Sorry to hear it, but if you left that interview feeling like those people really didn’t know what you could do, that’s on them. Hopefully, you learned something. Maybe you’re ready for a job that does more than just pay the bills. That pushes you in a good way and is open to the idea that you won’t always nail it on the first try.

If that sounds good to you, take a look at our open positions. But please come prepared to talk about the moments that didn’t go according to plan. Chances are, we’ll share a few of ours too.