Star Interview Questions And Answers
Your answer following the STAR method will depend on the specific behavioral interview question being asked.
So, to help you prepare, were going to give you 9 more common behavioral interview questions !
The questions were going to cover include:
Now, lets dig right in!
What You Could Be Asked
Interviewers might pose a variety of behavioral questions. Examples of interview questions include the following:
- Can you give me an example of how you motivated an underperforming subordinate to increase productivity?
- Describe a time when you implemented a new program that was successful.
- Give me an example of a conflict you had with an employee. How did you resolve it?
Behavioral interview questions will often start with phrases such as:
- “Tell me about a time…”
- “Describe a time…”
- “How did you handle .”
- “Give me an example of…”
Employers are looking for a detailed explanation of an experience from your past. They want to know what the experience was and how you dealt with it. Your responses will give the interviewer an indication of how you handle projects and issues at work.
Free: Behavioral Interview Questions Pdf Checklist
Ok the next thing you should do is download our handy “Behavioral Interview Questions ChecklistPDF“.
In it you’ll get 25 common behavioral questions along with tips on how to answer them with the STAR METHOD and the traps you need to avoid….
All in a beautifully designed pdf Jeff spent hours working on. —- He made me put that in
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Tell Candidates What You’re Looking For In Their Answers
Not everyone agrees this step is necessary: some recruiters prefer not to explain that they’re looking for situation-specific answers, to see how the candidate deals with answering the question however she wants. Some hiring managers see the benefit of being vague — at the very least, you’ll likely get a candid answer from your candidate.But other experts, like Todd Lombardi, a college relations specialist at Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc., believes it’s important to explain what he’s looking for before asking a candidate any behavioral interview questions.
When Lombardi starts a behavioral interview, he details the process, telling the candidate he’s looking for specific examples, names of people, dates, and outcomes.
Lombardi speaks with candidates about projects they’ve worked on, how their role has evolved, how they’ve handled deadlines or unexpected situations, and how they’ve coped with adversity. He asks these questions because, “Everyone’s got that kind of experience.”
If you don’t explain what you’re looking for upfront, you risk receiving an incomplete answer or confusing the candidate. If the candidate answers insufficiently, perhaps you want to offer her an opportunity to modify her answer. Say: “I’m looking for details about a specific example — you’ve explained the situation and tasks required, but I’d still like to know what steps you took to complete the tasks, and what results you got from the project.”
Tips On Using The Star Technique To Answer Job Interview Questions
How to use the STAR Technique in a job Interview.
Competency questions make up a large part of most job interviews and from a companys point of view they allow an objective assessment of a candidates experience, and the qualities that make them suitable for the job. Thankfully theres a tried and tested technique that will help you to answer these tricky situations.
Its known as the STAR technique and by using questions that require these types of answers it is easier for the employer to compare all the people who are applying for the job in a methodical and structured way.
Which questions need a STAR response?
The questions will usually start along the lines of tell me about a time when you. This will be followed by those competencies that have been listed on the job specification, so it is important to be familiar with these so that you can prepare. Asking about soft skills such as teamwork, negotiation and communication is especially popular for graduate job interviews.
A lot of the questions will require you to think about past work experiences youve had. For those who are applying for internships, apprenticeships or have no previous work experience, you can still talk about extra-curricular activities, what you achieved while being a member of a university society, or school projects you have been involved in, as an example.
The answer to these questions will usually be between a minute and three minutes long.
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Result
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More Tips For Responding To Behavioral Interview Questions
- Take a moment: These questions are far from a yes-or-no inquiry. If you need a moment to think, take ityour interviewer should be understanding.
- Don’t ramble: Using the STAR technique should help keep you on track. Remember, you don’t need to get too into the weeds on the nitty-gritty details of the situation and task. Describe it in broad strokes and avoid any company-specific jargon that might stand in the way of the interviewer following your story.
- Tell a good story: By sharing on-point examples, you’ll keep the interviewer engaged and demonstrate your strengths as a candidate.
- Quantify if you can: If your action resulted in a quantifiable resultsuch as improved sales or reduced customer complaintsbe sure to mention that.
- Rehearse in advance: No need to memorize your responses. After all, you can’t completely predict which behavioral interview questions will come up. But practicing a few stories will help you feel confident at knowing how to frame them and may train you to think of past experiences in terms of the situation-task-action-result formula.
Star Interview Method: The Ultimate Guide
A resume tells you that a candidate has the required skills and background for the open role. A cover letter confirms their interest in the position.
An interview, then, is a critical step for evaluating a candidate’s critical thinking, decision-making, and interpersonal skills. Essentially, it’s an opportunity to dig deeper into an interviewee’s potential, and the STAR interview method is your shovel.
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Behavioural Interview Technique Star
One of the most common interview methods is behavioural-based interviewing, but why is this technique so pivotal to identifying the right candidate? The purpose of this technique is to ascertain your skill compatibility, cultural fit and competency for the position. Often, you will be prompted to provide in-depth examples that demonstrate your ability to complete certain tasks or provide insight on how you would approach a scenario. By responding to these questions, you are providing insight and highlighting to the interviewer your key skills and attributes as a prospective employee. Preparation and research are key when interviewing therefore, creating and practicing answers to common behavioural questions that align to the role will demonstrate that you can articulate your responses and provide relevant examples of your experience which will assist the interviewer in understanding your point of view.
Often, behavioural questions will begin with phrases like Can you provide an example of or Tell me about a time when But how should you answer behavioural questions? One technique is the STAR format which breaks your answer into four key parts:
‘S’ Situation – Whats the situation or issue you need to solve? ‘T’ Task – What task was required from you to solve the issue?’A’ Action – What action did you take?’R’ Result – What was the result?
Heres an example that demonstrates how to use the STAR technique:
Question: Tell me about a time when you improved a process.
How To Prepare For An Interview Using The Star Method
In order to have a successful STAR response to questions during an interview, it helps to prepare. While canned or memorized responses are unlikely to impress, there are several steps you can take to ensure youâre not caught off-guard.
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When Have You Handled Huge Pressure In A Work
In my previous job a work colleague left unexpectedly. He had been responsible for a project that had to be delivered within a very tight deadline.
My supervisor asked the workforce for a volunteer to take on the project. I decided to step up and take responsibility. To be honest, I prefer to work under pressure. I saw this as an opportunity to help out the company in their hour of need.
I studied the brief carefully and then created a plan of action for getting the project delivered on budget and also on time. It was tough going, but I put in the extra hours work needed and I am pleased to say I managed to get the project finished on time and to specification. My supervisor was thrilled with my work ethic and effort. He thanked me for my commitment and dedication to delivering this important project.
Telling A Story That Makes You Appear Unqualified Or Puts You In A Bad Light
The opposite of this is also true. Dont tell a story where you are the only employee doing anything right ever. Nobody is absolutely perfect and telling a story where you singlehandedly saved the entire company from bankruptcy while also managing to fully fund the orphanage next door as well as the panda sanctuary down the street isnt going to just come off as impossible, its going to come off as fiction.
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Customer Service Interview Question
How do you react to negative customer feedback? Tell me a time when you completely understood the customer’s needs? Describe a situation where you handle a demanding customer? What’s your strategy to deal with an angry customer? Can you recall a time when you acted proactively to provide a solution to a customer’s problem?
Have You Ever Made A Significant Error In Work What Did You Do In The Aftermath
Situation:I was a bank teller for an international bank and customer came in requesting ten new cheque books. I went to input them into the system and placed them beside me, but a co-worker had another set that she was using right beside them. I handed her the wrong pile of cheque books without realising, and when she used the cheque book, we took the funds from a different account.
Task:We became aware of this when the customer rang to complain. Another co-worker took the phone call and informed me of the issue. I realised straight away who the customer was and immediately told my manager of the mistake I made.
Action:Once I rectified the accounts, changed the cheque book numbers around to correspond with the correct account, and apologised to the two customers, I devised a system that meant we had to get a co-signer to double-check the numbers before we gave cheques to a customer. They could not be released until the checklist had two signatures.
Result:The customer appreciated my apology, and after a year of this new system being in place, my manager told me that our error rate had fallen by 30%.
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Sample Interview Question And Answer Using Star Method
Lets assume the interview question is as follows:
Can you give me an example when you have worked well as part of a team?
Heres a great answer to this question using the STAR technique
SITUATION
One Friday afternoon, at approximately 4pm, my line manager rushed into the office and said that a delivery of stock was due any minute now. The delivery was scheduled for the following Friday, but the courier company had got the dates mixed up and therefore it was arriving a week earlier. This meant we had to drop everything and get ourselves prepared for the unexpected delivery.
TASK
The problem was, most of us were due to leave at 4:30pm that day, so there were not many people around to carry out the task of taking in the delivery, which usually takes at least an hour to unload and stock check.
ACTION
I immediately volunteered to stay behind late to help the company out in its time of need. I set about preparing for the delivery by getting together a small group of workers who I knew would help me achieve the task quickly and accurately. Then, I handed out jobs to the people in the group, which including handling the goods, checking them off as they came through the warehouse and also stocktaking. I briefed all of the team so that everyone knew their role within the task. Once the delivery arrived, we worked hard to achieve the end goal.
RESULT
Star Stands For Situation + Task + Action + Result
SITUATION
Start by describing the SITUATION you were involved in. You can use an example from your current or previous job, education, personal experience or any relevant event. Always choose the most appropriate and business orientated example you have and one that best fits the role for which you are being interviewed. Choose an example that demonstrates the significance of your experience, the most difficult, complex, largest and successful problem, situation or task that you resolved. Give enough detail for the interviewer to understand what was involved but no more than one or two sentences.
TASK
Briefly describe what you were tasked with, your responsibilities and assignments for the situation. Once again a sentence or two is sufficient.
ACTION
This will be the section that the interviewer is most interested in and should detail the actions you took to resolve the problem, situation or task. Describe all of the actions, detailing each stage and in the correct, logical order showing your thought processes, how you reached your conclusions and the steps you completed.
This is the most important part of your answer, because it allows you to highlight in detail what your response was and to clearly show your skills in a real-life scenario.
Remember they want to know about the actions you took, so if you are discussing a group project or task, describe what you did rather than the achievements of the team.
RESULT
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How To Use The Star Interview Method Like A Pro
Ace your next behavioral interview by using the STAR Method.
Did you know behavioral-based interview questions are extremely common these days? Hiring managers want to understand whether or not a job candidate has the ability to describe their skill set and past experience concisely. Chances are, you’ve been asked one or more of the following questions or prompts during an interview:
-
Tell me about a time when you’ve had to overcome an obstacle at work.
-
Describe how you handle tight project deadlines.
-
What would you do if a co-worker consistently doesn’t follow through on their part of a project?
However, the thought of tackling some of these complex interview questions can be incredibly intimidating. You understand the importance of providing a thorough answer, but how much detail is too much? More importantly, how should you structure your interview response, and where should you begin? Don’t worry, there is a great solution: the STAR method. In a nutshell, the STAR response technique can help you structure your answers clearly and effectively during the interview process.
The STAR method enables interviewees to eloquently explain a scenario they’ve experienced at work, describe how they reacted to it, and detail the end result of the situation in order to answer behavioral-based questions. Let’s take a closer look at how the STAR method works and how to master behavior-based interview questions like a pro.
Can You Give Me An Example Of A Goal You Set But Couldnt Meet How Did You Handle It
S – In my previous job, one month, we decided to focus most of our marketing efforts on growing our blog. I was charged by the CMO to take over the blog and create content. The issue was, I had ZERO experience with content, but we didnt have anyone else to own the channel.
T – I had to write 5 total articles in that month, create the social media posts for them, and work on promoting them.
A – Halfway through the month, I realized I couldnt write. At all. It just wasnt my thing, and I had NOTHING to show for the months work. So, heres what I did: I explained the situation to the CMO, and we came up with an alternative solution. Wed find outsourced content writers on UpWork, and Id manage them as a content strategist.
R – Overall, we ended up hiring a content writer, who managed to pump out the 4 articles before the deadline. I worked hand-in-hand with them to ensure that their writing was on-brand, and I also created the social posts for them and promoted them. Overall, the articles performed pretty well, even landing us a handful of new leads.
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