Hello Candidate …” so tell us of a time when…..Remember putting a STAR on it does help.
Interviewers during competency based interviews, always look for structure in candidate’s delivery. Some interviewers might guide candidates towards bringing structure to the table and some other interviewers might assume that candidates are already aware of the need for a structured delivery. Some interviewers help candidates bring about structure through further follow up probing questions during interviews. So how do you as candidate make sure that anytime and everything you go for an interview, you put structure on the table to enhance an engaging conversational style. Quite simple put – Stick a STAR on it.
STAR stands for: Situation Task Action Result
To every question asked during a competency based interview, candidates are expected to come up with a structure specific example from their past experience, could be work related or outside of work. To ensure your specific example comes with structure, it is always helpful to use the STAR approach as explained below.
Situation
You start by describing a situation from your past experience that is relevant to the question asked. Just a brief introduction or an overview, call it an insight into the beginning of a story or the journey you are going to be taking your interviewers through.
Task
Now after describing a situation, remember this not just a news or fairy tale story, rather a delivery targeted at answering key points of the question asked. You now go further to letting the interviewer know the task involved in the situation earlier described. Call this narrowing the story down to what the story is actually about and the objective to be achieved.
Action
Now this is in fact the most important aspect of your delivery as a candidate. The Action , actually is the part of your delivery where you articulate your involvement in the story, your contribution to achieving the objective you earlier mentioned as the task (mission) of the story you’re telling.
Result
Now that you have described a Situation, the Task involved in the situation, the Action( Your own personal contribution to achieving the objective/task) , it is important to always end the lovely story with an outcome and that is the Result.
