How and when to use the STAR structure
Jake Schogger
Commercial Law Academy Founder I Best-Selling Author I Legal Adviser For Start-Ups
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The STAR structure
When answering “Tell me about a time…” questions, for instance “Tell me about a time when you have…successfully tackled a challenge, had to manage competing responsibilities, worked successfully in a team, successfully undertaken a leadership role…” and so on, the STAR approach to answering questions could be worth bearing in mind. STAR stands for Situation – Task – Action – Result, and I’ll now cover each aspect in turn.
1.??Situation
When discussing the situation, you should start by setting the scene. In other words, give context. For example: “Whilst at university, I was President of the Finance Society, which aimed to enhance members’ commercial awareness and employability through delivering workshops and arranging networking opportunities”. If you are answering a question on teamwork, perhaps explain what led to you joining the team. For a question on leadership, explain how you ended up in a leadership position (e.g. were you elected?).
2.??Task
Next, you could explain your (or your team’s) designated task or role, for instance: “My team was tasked with arranging a ball for 400 people”. When elaborating on this, consider explaining what you set out to achieve, whether you were set a tight deadline, whether you faced any challenges (if so, explain why the circumstances posed a challenge), and so on.
3.??Action
This is the most substantial part of the answer and requires you to explain what you actually did to complete the task, how you went about doing it, why you did it, how you solved any issues, and the skills you used or developed whilst taking such action. You need to distinguish between your contributions and those of others; the employer will likely have little interest in what others did, so try to avoid repeatedly using “we”.
4.??Result
Conclude by explaining the impact your actions had and what you actually managed to achieve. Make sure you’re prepared to discuss what you learned and what you could have done differently, and give statistics where possible. For example “my contributions led to x% member growth, the sale of x number of tickets, me winning x competition”, and so on.
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When should you use the STAR structure?
As you’ve probably noticed, the STAR approach is fairly similar to the more general approach for answering competency questions that I discussed in my previous newsletter. However, the STAR structure is a little more rigid, plus it requires you to highlight a particular result or outcome, meaning it isn’t always applicable. This is especially the case when you’re asked a question that isn’t centred on a specific task or doesn’t require you to highlight a particular result or outcome, plus it’s not usually relevant to motivation questions either.
I realise firms sometimes make general sweeping statements about using the STAR structure, which can confuse people, but I think the point they’re more trying to get across is that you always need to give context.
A worked example
Tell me about a time you managed competing responsibilities...
To put the STAR structure into context, let’s look at the question “Tell me about a time when you had to manage competing responsibilities”.?You would first want to make sure you explain the situation – i.e. the context of your role – for example “I was volunteering part-time at my university’s pro bono commercial law clinic”. You would then want to highlight the task you were set, or in this case, the various tasks that led to you having to manage competing responsibilities. For example, perhaps you were working on multiple small transactions or categories of small claims for a variety of clients, each with different deadlines.
Next, you would want to explain the actions you took, and in the context of this question, those actions should demonstrate that you know how to effectively balance competing responsibilities. To give some examples, you could start by saying that you were aware of the importance of communication when balancing work for different supervisors. You could explain that when someone tried to delegate work to you, you first asked for some time to ensure that you would actually be able to meet their deadline in light of your other work commitments (which shows that you took a more considered approach). You might then have let the person know what else you have on and the corresponding deadlines you had been set by other supervisors. Then perhaps asked them (and your other supervisors) whether there was any flexibility with their deadlines (which in practice there often is).
By involving your supervisors in the decision-making, you’re less likely to let anyone down (including clients), so explaining that this is the approach you would take can reflect positively on you. After all, as a junior, you may be unaware of what has been promised to clients and how your work fits into the bigger picture, so are not usually best placed to make these kinds of decisions unilaterally.
Some people might instead be tempted to simply state that they would work through the night to ensure they got through everything. However, although this approach might reflect positively on your work ethic, working whilst tired can affect the quality of your work and should be avoided if it’s not absolutely necessary.?Then finally, you would want to explain the result, for example “As a result, we successfully resolved multiple client matters within the deadlines, and received glowing testimonials.”
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