What Is The STAR Interview Method?

Every interview makes you sweat nervously, but once you know what the STAR Interview method is you can tackle the behavioral interview questions with real ease. This method is a structured method that enables you to answer the situation-based questions in a very organized and impactful way. Let’s understand more.

What is STAR?

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. A situation could be anything, an event, an office incident, or any kind of challenge-based one. The task is the responsibilities assigned to you for the existing situation. There is also an action which means the steps which are taken to relive or rectify the situation then and there or the result which comprises of all the actions taken.

What are behavioral questions?

What are behavioral interview questions, you ask? They are specific situational questions that may be hypothetical from your previous work experience, and these questions are an integral way to understand your attitude and behavior. In this way of questioning, the job recruiters assess your answer to check if you have the ability to take corrective action should a similar incident occur. This may prove to be a little tricky because there’s a method in which you answer such questions. A simple yes/no doesn’t do the trick. In the case of freshers, the situation may revolve around their college or project responsibilities and situations. This is where you apply the STAR method to respond effectively. Normally these are the questions which start with ‘tell me about the time when…’, ‘give an example of the situation wherein…’,’describe a situation where you had to…’, etc.

How do we use STAR interview method to answer these questions?

Let’s take an example to understand this better. Suppose the interviewer puts forth a behavioral question, ‘tell me about the time when you were subjected to enormous pressure’. Here’s how one can answer it.

First, start with describing the situation.

At my previous job, it so happened that one of my co-workers had to go on personal leave urgently, which resulted in a stop in one of the most important client deliverables.

Second, tell them about the task, i.e. the responsibility you took on.

I was instructed to take over at that point. The project which was otherwise due only a few weeks later had to be completed in merely some amount of days by me.

Third, tell them about how to take action.

I spoke to the senior management and got my weekly targets revised to a lesser figure so that I could now focus on this new assignment.

Fourth, tell them what the result was.

Because I could now dedicate more time to that client, I could successfully complete it within the stipulated time and complete client satisfaction. My manager was very happy with that and has hence given me multiple clients to handle.

See how simple this was? Almost like a story. The STAR method makes it very simple to grasp the flow of response and tackle behavioral questions very effectively.