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CV of Failures

It is in the rejections, the disappointments and the errors where one can learn from mistakes and build upon them

By Maggie Doherty

Recent buzz in the business world is the “CV of Failures,” in which a highly accomplished academic and professor Johannes Haushofer published on Twitter his resume of failures. Haushofer has not one but two PhDs, and said the idea to list his failures was inspired by Melanie Stefan, a postdoc at Caltech who wrote an article years ago about her professional setbacks after she was denied a fellowship. Both Haushofer and Stefan are highly accomplished individuals and the decision to publicly share their mistakes and missteps, like job rejections, has gained a lot of traction, and for good reason.

From an early age we’re instructed to achieve greatness, from scoring good grades to having a resume brimming with accomplishments in sports, activities, volunteerism and awards. Who hasn’t heard the warning that one poor grade will negatively affect our chances to get into college, and thereby leave any hopes for gainful employment in limbo? What both Haushofer and Stefan did by sharing with the world the list (according to an article in the Harvard Business Review, Haushofer’s “CV of Failures” is over seven pages long) of setbacks is to honestly reveal that more often than not it is this resume of failures where success lies. It is in the rejections, the disappointments and the errors where one can learn from mistakes and build upon them.

Humbling, certainly. Critical for development? Entirely. As an employer, one of my favorite questions to ask during an interview – and one I learned from my husband who is much more curious about mistakes than the glitter of awards – is can you name a time when you failed and how did you handle it? What went wrong, and what was your response? We learn so much for from a prospective candidate from these lines of questions than for them to list, neatly, what they’ve accomplished.

Our failures teach us a lot – about what we may have overlooked, what weakness we possess, what we failed to communicate or acknowledge in others. Our mistakes should serve as instructions, not as embarrassments. And if someone cannot admit to their own “CV of Failures” as an employer we know that they won’t be a good fit for us. We want to work with people like Haushofer and Stefan who understand the complexity that goes into success, and are willing to delve into the errors instead of gloss over them. There is much to be learned when we look at our mistakes, and while I’ve been a far from perfect employee and manager in my past, I’ve tried to take a hard look at where I’ve gone wrong. It’s an evolving process, and my guess is that my own resume of failures would number in pages and that count would only increase over time.

I’m taking the “CV of Failures” to heart and working on my own. It’s good to have both the professional resume of accomplishments as well as that list that we like to keep hidden from view, but in reality that’s where success truly lies.

Maggie Doherty is the owner of Kalispell Brewing Company on Main Street.