Don't Shoot Yourself in the Foot!

My friend told me a pretty funny interview story the other day. He and his associate were interviewing a young kid for a hardware tech. position. They exchanged pleasantries and began the interview. My friend asked the kid what kind of experience he had and the kid answered...

"Well, I spent some time in school putting together different PC hardware. I was a little discouraged about it though."

"Why's that?" Asked my friend.

"Well, some of the other kids were a little mad at me because my portion of the project didn't end up working."

My friend said he didn't end the interview because he wanted to give the kid a chance in case that was a fluke. So he asked another question about experience and the kid answered...

"Well, I put together a PC for my dad."

"Oh really, how'd that go?" Asked my friend.

"Well, good. But my dad was a little mad because it didn't work right, after I put it back together."

Immediately, my friend's associate who was with him in the interview said, "BOOM."

After the interview ended my friend asked his associate what the "boom" comment was about. He answered, "That was the sound of the kid shooting his other foot."

Lesson to learn on this one. Don't shoot yourself in the foot! Share experiences that were successful. Everyone has failures. Be confident in knowing the guy across the table interviewing you has messed up or failed something before. Winners don't worry about the failures of the past, they focus on their success and the future. Employers like winners.