Nearly all interviews will include competency-based, or behavioral, questions. This lesson will help you deal with them effectively.
Behavioral-based interview questions focus on how you handled various work situations in the past. Your response will reveal your skills, abilities, and personality. The STAR technique is a perfect way to approach these kinds of questions.
STAR stands for Situation-Task-Action-Result The technique is relatively straightforward and helps interviewees focus and structure their answers effectively. It is especially useful for competency-based questions.
NOTE: Remind your student that:
- they should use specific details (dates, names, numbers); and
- they should base their answer on a real situation rather than a made-up one.
Tell me about a time when you solved a problem to a tight timescale.
Your student’s response to the Warm-up question will indicate whether they are able to deal with behavioral questions effectively. Look at the STAR structure in the Language section below to see where they need work.
The STAR technique can be extremely valuable in helping you to answer this kind of question in a structured and effective way. STAR stands for Situation-Task-Action-Result.
Situation
Here, you set the scene, providing a context and background to the situation.
Useful language:
- I remember once in 20XX when…
- Around X years ago…
- I was working as…
- A few months ago...
- In my previous job...
Task
Here you describe your personal responsibility in the situation.
Useful language:
- My responsibility was to…
- It was up to me to...
- My task was to…
- It was my duty to...
Action
Here you describe what you actually did in the situation.
Useful language:
- What I did was to…
- The first thing I did was to…
- My first step was to…
NOTE
Sequence words can be very useful in this part of the process:
- First of all…
- Next…
- After that…
- Finally…
Result
Here you describe the outcomes generated by your action.
Useful language:
- In the end…
- My action led to…
- The outcome was that…
- The upshot was that…
- As a result…
Discuss each of the STAR components separately. Practice the useful language so that the student can use it naturally.
Use the STAR technique to answer these questions:
-
Tell me about a time when you performed well under enormous pressure.
-
Have you ever gone above and beyond the call of duty?
- What do you do when a team member refuses to complete his or her part of the work?
- Tell me about a time you showed initiative on the job.