This is part of a series of questions you might ask me in an interview, along with my answers. Check out more of them here.

What is a time that you failed?

When I was in high school, I played cello with the Wichita Youth Symphony. As a senior, I was allowed to pick a concerto and audition to solo with it for our final concert.

I had been working on the concerto for probably 3 months when I went in for the audition. Much to my dismay, an open audition. Parents, other students, and of course, the judges, were all inside ready to listen and watch you play.

I was playing by memory, and about half-way through the piece, my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t remember one note. My heart, of course, pounded outside my throat, and I did my best to pretend what the rest of the piece was. Meanwhile, my accompanist tried her best to follow along with the random things that I was playing.

I completely botched it. Someone who didn’t know music well or had never heard the piece might have thought I played it, but of course the judges knew the extent of the ugliness.

Even though I failed really badly, it motivated me to work that much harder for chair auditions and I was able to get 4th chair that next semester – the highest I had ever gotten.

If you didn’t get this job, what job would you go for?

[This would, of course, depend on the job, but here’s my best stab at it.]

I would for sure go after something working with people. People are my passion and I want to be put in a role where I can directly help them in whatever way I can.

What is something that you would hate to do?

I think anything that doesn’t challenge me to grow or anything that I’m just not gifted in.

An example of the first would be something like janitorial work. I could do a really great job sweeping and taking out trash, but when there’s not something new to learn, I would find it really hard to enjoy my work there.

An example of the second is one is from real experience – mechanics. I worked in a mechanics shop for about 6 months. I learned a ton, but unfortunately one of the things I learned was that I was not nearly as gifted in understanding that world as some people are.

We are all given different gifts, and I think if we are working in something that we aren’t gifted in, we are missing out on a huge chance to capitalize on the things we are gifted in.

Knowing I wasn’t doing that would drive me crazy.