The STAR Method: The Secret to Acing Your Next Job Interview
The STAR Method: The Secret to Acing Your Next Job Interview
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What is the STAR method?
The STAR method is an interview technique that gives you a straightforward format you can use to tell a story by laying out the Situation, Task, Action, and Result.– Situation: Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.– Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation.– Action: Explain exactly what
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What is the STAR method?
steps you took to address it.– Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved.
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What questions the STAR method used for?
The STAR method can be used to answer behavioral interview questions (or any other kinds of questions where you need to tell a story). In other words, use the STAR method for those prompts that ask you to provide a real-life example of how you handled a certain kind of situation in the past (i.e., how you behaved in the past).
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What questions the STAR method used for?
Don’t worry—these questions are easy to recognize. They often have telltale openings like:– Tell me about a time when…– What do you do when…– Have you ever…– Give me an example of…– Describe a situation…When it comes to answering these sorts of questions, thinking of a fitting example
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What questions the STAR method used for?
for your response is just the beginning. You also need to share the details in a compelling and easy-to-understand way—without endless rambling. That’s exactly what the STAR interview method enables you to do. “It provides a simple framework for helping a candidate tell a meaningful story about a previous work experience,” Dea says.
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Sample behavioral interview questions you can answer using STAR
Here are some of the most common behavioral questions you might get in an interview and can use the STAR method for:– Give me an example of a time you had a conflict with a coworker.– Tell me about a time you made a mistake.– How do you handle pressure at work or school?– Tell me about your proudest
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Sample behavioral interview questions you can answer using STAR
professional accomplishment.– Describe a time you failed and how you dealt with it.– Tell me about a time you went above and beyond.
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
1. Lay out the *situation.*First, set the scene for your interviewer. It’s tempting to include all sorts of unnecessary details—particularly when your nerves get the best of you. But if the hiring manager asks you to tell them about a time you didn’t meet a client’s expectations, for example, they don’t necessarily need to know the story of how you recruited the client three years earlier.
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
Your goal here is to paint a clear picture of the situation you were in, so the interviewer can understand the rest of your answer. Keep things concise and focus on what’s undeniably relevant to your story and the interview question you’re answering. “The STAR method is meant to be simple,” says career coach Emma Flowers. “Sometimes
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
people provide too much detail and their answers are too long. Focus on just one or two sentences for each letter of the acronym.”For example, imagine that the interviewer just said, “Tell me about a time when you achieved a goal that you initially thought was out of reach.” The situation portion of your response might be:
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
“In my previous digital marketing role, my company made the decision to focus primarily on email marketing and was looking to increase their list of email subscribers pretty aggressively.”
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
2. Highlight the *task.*You’re telling this story for a reason—because you had some sort of core involvement in it. This is the part of your answer when you make the interviewer understand exactly where you fit in.This can easily get confused with the “action” portion of the response. However, this piece is dedicated to giving the
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
specifics of what your responsibilities were in that particular scenario, as well as any objective that was set for you, before you dive into what you actually did. Continuing the example from above, for the task portion of your answer you could say:“As the email marketing manager, my target was to increase the size of our email list by at least 50% in just one quarter.”
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
3. Share how you took *action.*Now that you’ve given the interviewer a sense of what your role was, it’s time to explain what you did. What steps did you take to reach that goal or solve that problem?Resist the urge to give a vague or glossed-over answer like, “So I worked hard on it…” or “I did some research…” This is your chance to really
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
showcase your contribution, and it’s worthy of some specifics. Dig in deep and make sure that you give enough information about exactly what you did. Did you work with a certain team? Use a particular piece of software? Form a detailed plan? Those are the things your interviewer wants to know.The action portion of your answer might be:
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
“I started by going back through our old blog posts and adding in content upgrades that incentivized email subscriptions—which immediately gave our list a boost. Next, I worked with the rest of the marketing team to plan and host a webinar that required an email address to register, which funneled more interested users into our list.”
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
4. Discuss the *results.*Here it is—your time to shine and explain how you made a difference. The final portion of your response should share the results of the action you took. Lydia Bowers, a human resources professional, warns that too many candidates skip over this crucial step. But, she says, “That’s the most important part of the answer!”
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
Remember, interviewers don’t only care about what you did—they also want to know why it mattered. So make sure you hammer home the point about any results you achieved and quantify them when you can. Numbers are always impactful. You can also add in any long-term effects of your actions—did you or your team develop
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
a new way of communicating or completing a task? Did the contract with your client continue? Did you get great feedback on your presentation?Of course, the result better be positive—otherwise this isn’t a story you should be telling. Does that mean you can’t tell stories about problems or challenges or that every situation you talk about needs
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
to have gone perfectly? Absolutely not. But even if you’re talking about a time you failed or made a mistake, make sure you end on a high note by talking about what you learned or the steps you took to improve.Here’s the result portion of our example answer:“As a result of those additions to our email strategy, I was able
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How exactly do you use the STAR method?
to increase our subscriber list from 25,000 subscribers to 40,000 subscribers in three months—which exceeded our goal by 20%. And webinars have now become a regular event to boost and maintain our email list.”