Tips: Using the STAR method to confidently ace the interview

In my experience in business thus far, one of the most rewarding aspects has come from Pro-Bono coaching and development opportunities.

A mentor from the staffing and recruiting field that I had the pleasure of learning from earlier in my career spoke on interviewing techniques and explained the psychology behind the interview for companies screening potential candidates. One of the big take-aways from our meeting is that "many people are qualified for jobs they apply for. Unfortunately, most miss out on the opportunity due to perception and points made during the interview process.

I developed an approach with working with those around me going for promotions, seeking opportunities, and even those that are graduating and looking for their first opportunity. How you sell yourself and stating successes and failures in a logical approach allow others to understand the confidence through your careful and demonstrated phases when delivering this across the table to the panel or interviewer.

This is where the STAR method comes into play!

No....! Not those stars!

When explaining the STAR approach to a potential interview candidate I usually get the following "What Is the STAR method?"

The STAR (Situation/Task/Action/Result) method is completely different from the usual approach that someone delivers in an interview with an endless rant of conversation for potential consideration.

This approach consolidates experiences and compartmentalizes them into easy to understand objectives that are clear and concise to the person considering them for the position or opportunity.

Everyone dreads the behavioral questions that occur usually in the middle of the interview. Here are perfect examples listed below:

1."Tell me about a time you succeeded in a task you were given and explain what led to your success"

2. "Tell me about a time you fell short on deliverables that you were trying to meet?

These behavioral questions are intended to really understand the interviewee and how this person handled the situation that either led to success and or a shortcoming in the situation they are about to explain.

This question leads most people into endless rants who are unprepared for these questions and in the end lead to issues with a hiring manager considering a person depending on how the response is worded.

With the STAR method, it breaks these simple tasks at hand into logical statements that can be understood in a phase by phase approach.

Situation: What was the task at hand?

Task: What were the responsibilities you held in the situation?

Action: What steps were taken during the process?

Result: What was the outcome of the situation?

Sounds confusing when looking at it at first or thinking about it, but let's break it down with two easy to understand examples to the behavioral questions listed above to see it in practical use.

Example 1:

Ashley is a new graduate from university trying to utilize her many years of bartending skills into a sales position within a fortune 500 Insurance organization.

In the middle of the interview, she is asked "Tell me about a time you succeeded in a task you were given and explain what led to your success".

Her response utilizing the brief work history she has could answer that question in this way.

Situation: I worked in an upscale restaurant in New York City as a bartender who dealt with high-end clientele and large volumes of people on any given night. I was responsible for handling preparation for shifts and also handling large volumes at any given moment to help generate great revenues for the restaurant nightly.

Task: I was tasked by management on ways to increase revenue and sales with creative tactics that lead to enhanced experiences, increased customer satisfaction, and higher profits through simple upselling tactics. I discussed with fellow employees about upselling higher-end brands during the order and bargaining process.

Action: I started not only engaging with the customer's preferences but also learned ways to achieve higher sales by upselling and promoting Premium brands over house brands with convincing statements behind the quality of the product.

Result: As a result, I was able to increase sales by over 60% Annually which allowed the restaurant to increase profits by over $1,500,000 simply on beverages alone. Due to this increase, we became the most profitable bar in our territory because of my actions and creative direction with selling.

Interviewer: "Great When can you start" (I put this in there for the effect of the win)

But let's now look at this in practice when explaining how one did not achieve objectives and how this can be leveraged as a way to explain a learning opportunity and flip it into a confident statement as well.

Example 2:

Craig is a mid-level IT professional wanting to take the next step of being promoted from a senior analyst role into a manager-level position leading IT Teams across the organization that he has been employed with for the past three years. Craig has successfully moved from an analyst role to a senior analyst role in the three years of working at the company and really wants to impress the interviewer in order to obtain the manager position he has set his sights on for the past 2 months since the position was recently announced.

Midway through the interview, Craig gets hit with a behavioral curveball question that everyone hates to have to answer.

Interviewer: "Craig, I want you to tell me about a time you fell short on deliverables that you were trying to meet?

Nervous but prepared, Craig responds confidently utilizing the STAR method to provide a logical detail of the question in this format:

Situation: I was working on an ERP integration with a team of 30 people in which we were shifting applications and work-flows from one legacy system to our companies new cloud-based system and given a 6-month deadline to complete it.

Task: I was the lead analyst along with 4 other associates on the implementation of a financial module involving accounts receivable/accounts payable and delivering the application requirements that were gathered in order for the new system to mimic the recent legacy application along with up to date changes allowing the business needs to be met and automated in the reporting aspect of our businesses financials.

Action: I took steps to work alongside other teams on the project in order to work towards the overall integration of business processes and requirements along with the entire system. I was involved in stakeholder meetings, development meetings, and working to enhance functions allowing the business to progress to the new system that was designed. I was involved with an initiative that gave us 6 months to align all documentation and system operations from all key members of each organization and work to prepare for a conference room pilot (Demonstration) for executive stakeholders of the organization.

Result:

While working alongside other teams, there were unprepared incidents and issues with deliverables due to the lack of communication amongst teams and errors/bugs that were unforeseen that occurred during the development of the systems in preparation. Because of this we were 4 weeks behind the objective dates and were not able to deliver the final result until 7 months into the initiative pushing the date back 1 month from the originally projected timeframe.

Closing statement/Rebuttal: (This is how you turn the negative experience into a positive seen below)

Interviewee:

"Due to this experience that occurred at the beginning of my tenure with the company and experiencing these set-backs, I started to implement new strategies of work-flows and inter-department communication that allowed us to reduce inefficiencies by 25% moving forward allowing us to be on time with future projects that occurred"

"By allowing me this position of becoming the IT manager, I am bringing the skills of previous experiences within this organization in order to mitigate future set-backs and drive results on time to meet deliverables and goals"

Interviewer: "When can you start?" (Because that's what every up and coming professional wants to hear right after they crush the question asked of them.)

In Closing,

We all have experiences of regrets, triumphs, and uncertainty that we can use as strengths that will logically convey points that make us appear professional in the interview process.

We need to keep in mind that at times humans tend to rant when they are uncomfortable in interviews. This is why it is super critical to prepare and have different responses to the different styles of questions being asked in an interview. Behavioral-based questions are only a portion of the interview but can lead an interviewee to quickly become nervous due to the level of detail that one must explain in this process. It is also the questions that lead most people to be nervous as these are the defining moments that interviewers are looking for in order for you to be able to quantify your successes and failures in regards to what they need in an employee and the level of honesty that you convey during the process.

Take a moment to search for the "STAR Method" and how this approach may help you ace the interview.

I hope this helped someone looking for ways to approach an interview and I look forward to your successes in the future.

Here is to a successful journey as you prepare for the big day!

Best Regards,

Matthew Nickerson