How to use the STAR method to answer interview questions

**Disclaimer** Game of Thrones is a very violent show, so trigger warning for violence and death.

"Tell me about a time you tried to sell someone else on an idea." I'm sure we've all seen this when interviewing. Today, I will be showing how to answer this by using the STAR method. The "someone" I will be selling an idea to is the entire population of planet Earth. The "idea" I am selling, is that GOT season 8 was actually good.

Let me answer a few questions you probably have right away

Why would I do this?

1) I want to show others how to use the STAR method to effectively answer that interview question.

2) Defending GOT season 8 is an impossible task. I want to show that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. If I can successfully do this, then you should be able to answer the question during an interview with ease.

What is GOT? Why are you defending season 8?

GOT is an abbreviation for the immensely popular HBO show, Game of Thrones. I'm defending it because a lot of people (the entire world really) unjustifiably hated it.

Will there be spoilers for Game of Thrones?

Yes.

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 (Give the necessary context to your situation), Task (Describe what your responsibility was in that situation), Action (Explain the steps you took to address it), and Result (Share what outcomes your actions achieved).

Ok, now that's out of the way, let's get down to business.

Situation: Game of Thrones was a very popular show. The final season left a lot of people upset by how certain storylines and character developments concluded. People felt the show was rushed, characters acted against their previously established personalities, and certain conclusions were unsatisfying or anti-climactic. These people are all wrong, which leads to my task.

Task: I enjoyed season 8. I thought a lot of the choices made sense. I believe a lot of the hype around the hate was because of people's tendency to pile on when on social media. That's why I decided to change the narrative by explaining the reasons why the show had a great conclusion. To be the voice of reason which is a rare commodity on social media. To be the light in a wave of darkness.

Action: I tackled the most popular criticisms one by one to pick apart their flaws.

Criticism number 1: The character development of the show was terrible in season 8 because several characters acted in a way that was contrary to their 7 prior seasons of development, specifically Daenerys Targaryen and Jaime Lannister. Let's start with Daenerys because her turn is so obvious that it's odd people thought it was rushed. People felt her downfall was rushed and out of nowhere. They claim she went from being a savior, one of the main heroes and champion of the people to burning down King's Landing and killing thousands of people. I'm here to tell you that her turn was not out of nowhere. Throughout the series, she was been shown to be ruthless and deadly to her enemies countless times. It just so happened that prior to season 8, her enemies were usually terrible people that enslaved others or tried to have her killed.

In season 1 episode 6, she watches as her spoiled and evil brother was burned alive by molten gold. As she watches, she has a cold reaction. Her reaction made sense, he was a terrible person. He threatened her and her baby's life and like many other moments, she showed an affinity for vengeful violence.

In season 2 episode 4, she is outside Qarth and speaking to slavers, also very terrible people. She says the following, "When my dragons are grown, we will take back what was stolen from me [the iron throne] and destroy those who have wronged me. We will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground."

In season 2 episode 6, she says, "I will take what is mine, with fire and blood, I will take it."

In the season 2 finale, she showed how quick she is to turn on former friends if they betray her. She shows this by locking her ally and handmaiden into a vault and leaving them to die.

In season 4 episode 4, she takes control of cities that were once ruled by slavers, and punishes the slavers with the same brutal ways they treated the slaves. She says, "I will answer injustice with justice."

In season 5 episode 5, she has her dragons burn and eat former slave owners.

In season 5 episode 9, she threatens to destroy Mereen "if need be".

In season 6 episode 4, she burns all of the Dothraki khal alive after they threaten to do some pretty unspeakable things and to make her a slave.

In season 6 episode 9, after the slave masters continuously try to take advantage of her mercy by continuing to be slavers and attempting to kill her, she burns them all and destroys their ships and resources. The biggest lesson that she took from dealing with the slavers is that her enemies will see her mercy as a sign of weakness.

In season 7 episode 2, she speaks with one of her advisors, Varys. She told him if he ever betrays her, she will burn him alive. Later in the episode, she is given advice from Olenna Tyrell. Olenna speaks about Daenerys' hand, Tyrion. Olenna says, "He's a clever man, but I've known many clever men and I've outlived them all. Peace never lasts and the lords of Westeros are sheep. You are a dragon, be a dragon."

In seasons 7 and 8, Tyrion continues to be outsmarted by his sister, Cersei. This causes a growing distrust of his advice.

So here we have someone that has shown countless times to be ruthless to her enemies, has specifically said she will be ruthless to her enemies, and then at the end, people were mad she was ruthless to her enemies? She distrusted Tyrion, her voice of reason, and decided to do what would guarantee a victory. Something she said countless times she would do. Her character arc makes complete sense and is in no way rushed.

Jaime Lannister is another character that had a turn that fans didn't like. I'll be brief about this one because it's easier to paint this picture. Jaime starts out as a villain, but over the course of several seasons, he starts to change and fans started to root for him. His relationship with Cersei also starts to crumble as she becomes more ruthless which causes them to no longer see eye to eye. Jaime starts to develop a relationship with Brienne of Tarth only to go back to Cersei at the end. He also dies with Cersei under a pile of rocks which fans felt was unsatisfying which I will address under criticism number 2.

As far as Jaime's turn, think about in real life how difficult it can be to leave something toxic behind. I've met so many people that claimed to leave behind alcohol or a terrible partner only to go back into old habits just when things seemed to be going well for them. It's life, these things happen. The saying goes, old habits die hard. We are complex, emotional beings that will sometimes make irrational decisions. Going back to Cersei after basically becoming a new man is a very irrational but emotional and human choice. Progress is not linear. If he had not died, maybe he would have gone back to Brienne and continued the path he was on. Unfortunately, we will never know.

Criticism Number 2: certain moments were anticlimactic.

First of all, many people online said the show had started to become more "fan servicey" or fan fiction. The criticism that Jamie and specifically Cersei's death is unsatisfactory contradicts the criticism that the show became geared more towards satisfying the fans. Criticizing a show for being unsatisfying to fans and also too satisfying to fans makes no logical sense whatsoever. If Cersei died in a gory, horrible way just like fans wanted, they would say the show was too fan servicey. If she dies in an unsatisfying way, those same fans would criticize that. It's the internet, people just love to complain no matter what.

Fans felt The Night King died too early and that the 8 seasons were building up towards this epic battle between life and death only for it to abruptly end in the same episode. I would have loved the battle to go on for longer, but the show wasn't solely about the battle against the white walkers. That was a major conflict the show was building toward, but the conflict about the iron throne was also a major conflict the show had been building toward. One just happened to be resolved before the other.

Criticism Number 3: Seasons 7 and 8 were rushed.

This one I slightly agree with. Seasons 7 and 8 deserved at least full seasons, not the short ones we got. There are logical reasons for why the shows were rushed that make complete sense.

1) as the stakes rose, the show got more expensive. Epic battles are expensive to portray. Budget issues are an unfortunate fact of life for every company on Earth.

2) Actors, writers, artists etc all have creative minds. Creative minds love to create things, obviously. I love to write stories. I love creating new worlds, characters, conflicts etc. Working on the same thing for almost a decade sounds like it would not satisfy the desire to create. That's exactly what happened in Game of Thrones. A lot of these actors, writers, and artists had been working on the series for almost a decade. That's a long time to be tied up into one project. It's totally fair to want to do something else, especially for people that create things for a living. Sometimes the thing you're working on for so long doesn't scratch that creative itch anymore.

Result: I feel the outcome went well. I listened to the arguments of the opposing side and addressed them one by one in an easy-to-follow manner. I learned a lot about the opposing side's thoughts on the manner and their perspective and gained experience in sharing my viewpoints when the odds of success were overwhelmingly low. I stood up for what I believed in and made sure to share my perspective in a way others could understand.

So there you have it. In your interview, your action section will be much shorter than mine because you won't need to partially describe the history of a decade-long television series. The structure remains the same though, give context to the scenario, describe what you needed to do in that scenario, describe your specific actions, share what happened as a result. I hope this is helpful to you and your job search.

Valar Dohaeris