Interviews can be nerve wracking at the best of times and we all dread getting the mental block when we are asked a question! This simple technique will mean you can stay composed and your answers will give the person interviewing all they need to make a sound judgment of your ability.
Let’s say you were asked the following question:
“Tell us about a time when you worked as part of a team to overcome a tough challenge.”
S – Situation
Start by telling the person about where you were, who you were working for and what capacity e.g.
“I was working in a large call centre for ABD Ltd, my role was Customer Service Advisor…”
T – Task
Explain what you were asked to do, what was the specific task you were set? This should be specific to the question, so in this case you would reference why it challenging e.g.
“It was National Customer Service Week and we were asked to put together an awards entry for the national customer service awards. We only had 5 days before the closing date.”
A – Activity
Ok so this is the juicy bit! Here you’ll explain exactly what you did to contribute to the situation. Remember, they are interviewing you, not your team, so avoid using ‘we’ if you can e.g.
“I nominated myself to organize the entry. I set everyone in the team little tasks to complete and ensured they were done on time. Once I’d collated all the responses, I then pieced together the entry and submitted it. I worked late that week to ensure we didn’t miss the deadline.
R – Result
So often missed, but really important – what was the result of your actions? e.g.
“We got the entry submitted on time and the team thanked me for doing such a good job of bringing all the information together, and we won the award!”
It’s worth preparing a few of these before you go into the interview, just in case the person asking questions isn’t prepared themselves – it does happen! At least this way you will feel confident when you walk in and you’ll have something to talk about if conversation runs dry!
If you're application has gone down the online recruitment route, don't forget to apply the STAR method to any email questions you might need to answer.
Finally, don’t be afraid to take in notes – the person interviewing would prefer you refer to notes, as apposed to babbling your way through because you can’t remember what you were going to say!
Good luck and remember – be a STAR!
About the Author
Tom Leavesley, managing director at online recruitment specialists easyvacancy.co.uk explains how to answer interview questions using the STAR technique. When he's not writing passionately about recruitment, he's consulting with his clients and helping folks get back to work.
