3 Using STAR

When answering a competency-based interview question it is not enough to simply say you can do something purely because you have experience of doing it. Having experience does not necessarily mean you are competent at it and an answer which only provides examples of where you have used that skill is unlikely to convince a recruiter that you have the strengths they are looking for. Consider the following gambit:

If saying this is not enough, then what else do you need to add to convince the recruiter that you have what they are looking for in this regard?

What recruiters want to see in your answer is not what you did but how and why you did it this way. They want to see the process that you went through. It is this process, not the actual example that you choose, which informs them of what you would be likely to do next time if this situation occurred again.

The STAR approach (Figure 2) is often recommended as a way of structuring your answer to a competency-based question.

Maximise

Figure 2 The STAR approach

Show description|Hide description

Figure 2 outlines the STAR approach for competency-based interview questions. ‘S’ stands for ‘Situation’ – set the scene. ‘T’ stands for ‘Task’ – describe the purpose. ‘A’ stands for ‘Action’ – explain what you did. ‘R’ stands for ‘Response’ – share the outcome.

Figure 2 The STAR approach

Listen to Rebecca Fielding from Gradconsult talking about how to use the STAR model.

Download this video clip.Video player: boc_wdt_video_week8_section3_fielding.mp4

Show transcript|Hide transcript

Transcript

REBECCA FIELDING:

One of the best ways that you can demonstrate your team-working skills in an interview question is to use the STAR model. And the STAR model gives you a framework to talk about your experiences. You talk about the situation where you've worked in a team and then a particular task. So that's the first two letters of the acronym, S for situation, T for task. Talk the employer through what you were doing and what you were working on as a team.

And then A is for action. What was the specific action that you took within that team in order to contribute towards the achievement of a goal or addressing an issue? It's important here that you talk about what I did as part of my role in the team whilst recognising all of the other things that everybody else in that team did at the same time.

And then you want to talk about the R in STAR, the result. What happened as a result of the teamwork and your contribution to that particular situation and that particular task? Now what those situations and tasks are will really depend on the nature of your experience to date. I would always say choose one that felt difficult and felt challenging, because you're going to have a lot more to talk about.

End transcript

Download

 

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result.

• The S and T in STAR introduce the time and place and set the context.
• The A is the main body of your answer and explains what you did, how you did it and why. The focus here is on what you did and not what your team did. This can be particularly tricky when answering a question which is focused on a team experience, but is even more crucial to a successful outcome.
• The R provides the conclusions of what you did or if the task did not go well, what you would do differently or learned from this. This, like the S and T, needs to be short and concise.

You can imagine the STAR answer looking like a particularly filling heavy sandwich (Figure 3) with the Action being the main interest of the piece.

Figure 3 The STAR sandwich

Show description|Hide description

A photo of a sandwich.

Figure 3 The STAR sandwich

You will now look at some examples of how not to use the STAR strategy.