This Could be the Interview Hack You've Been Looking For

👋 Welcome back to Never Job Search Alone! This week, we're letting you steal a page from our interview prep playbook: This method uses storytelling to answer behavioral questions that come up all the time in interviews, like "Tell me about a time..."

Q: I'm not the best at interviewing. I get nervous and start to ramble without actually answering the question at hand. Do you have any advice? I want to leave a good impression!

A: When in doubt, we highly recommend the S.T.A.R. method to craft interview answers! This technique uses storytelling to clearly and concisely detail your growth, accomplishments, and how you overcame challenges. 

What is the S.T.A.R. Method?

S.T.A.R. stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. 

This results-focused framework communicates the key points of a situation you worked through in a way that is personal and memorable.

Situation: The context or background of the experience you're sharing.

Task: The specific challenge or responsibility you faced.

Action: The steps you took to address it.

Result: The outcome of your actions, ideally quantifiable and positive. 

Why it works:

Instead of rambling or stumbling with vague responses, the S.T.A.R. method utilizes storytelling to paint the full picture of a situation. When you emphasize outcome, it's easier for interviewers to visualize how you handle situations and contribute to the team.

Here's an example:

Imagine you were asked, "Can you tell us about a time you worked with a difficult colleague?" during your interview.

Your instinct might be to go into detail about a colleague that you had a challenging dynamic with, but employers don't want to know why you had difficulties. Employers want to know how you handled the situation and what you learned from it.

Take your answer from this:

"Well, when I don't work well with people, I just try to figure out, like, what's going on and understand that, like, people have different things going on, and then maybe talk to my boss if I need to, that usually works out".

To this:

Situation: At my last job, I did have some difficulty with a colleague who I worked pretty closely with. We had very different working styles and often approached projects in different ways.

Task: I decided to sit down with him one day and work through ways that we could really meet each other in the middle and complement each other's work styles.

Action: We talked with our supervisor and changed some of our daily assignments to accommodate our individual strengths.

Result: We were not only able to complete projects together, we actually became pretty close friends through the process.

While we didn't invent the S.T.A.R. method, it's a framework that we share with all of our candidates to prepare them for interviews. 

Prepare 2-3 anecdotes from previous experience that can be applied to a few core behavioral questions, and you'll be golden.

Good luck on your next interview!

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