Interview Strategies 4 Behavioral questions: the STAR technique

White man and woman sitting across from each other at a desk.

Behavioral questions

Image Credit
Executive Academy

Nearly all interviews will include competency-based, or behavioral, questions. This lesson will help you deal with them effectively.

Introduction

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.
Warm Up

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.

Language

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.

To practice the useful language, have the student complete each phrase. They can just make something up, or use an actual example. Either is fine.

If the student has a hard time coming up with something, model possible answers, e.g., "A few months ago, we were able to visit with our family in New York."

Practice

Use the STAR technique to answer these questions:

  1. Tell me about a time when you performed well under enormous pressure.

  2. Have you ever gone above and beyond the call of duty?

  3. What do you do when a team member refuses to complete his or her part of the work?
  4. Tell me about a time you showed initiative on the job.