The BEST way to Answer Behavioural Questions in an Interview. The STAR method.
How to engage a potential employer? Tell a story! Stories are interesting, easy to follow, memorable and are a great way to use an example to tell the employer ‘How’ you do something. When asked a behavioural question in an interview, structure your response into a story using the S-T-A-R format.
Situation
How to engage a potential employer? Tell a story! Stories are interesting, easy to follow, memorable and are a fantastic way to use an example to tell the employer ‘How’ you do something. When asked a behavioural question in an interview, structure your response into a story using the S-T-A-R format.
Situation
Start by identifying something that happened. Stick to facts and remove unnecessary information. This is a quick and clear introduction explaining the task/problem as a factual statement.
Task
What was your role? Why were you involved? What options did you need to consider? This short statement identifies your need to be involved and your decisions for action.
Action
What did you do? How did you resolve the problem? Supply step-by-step actions you took. This is where you use the most time to clearly outline how you worked through the situation.
Result
What was the outcome? Who/what benefited from your actions? Where there any changes because of your actions? Use this time to finish your story on a positive note with complete details of the result.
Draft your stories out, practice them and stick to the STAR formula. One story can answer several questions, so make note of the skills you demonstrated in each. Have 3-5 stories ready for your next interview.