Star technique, interview questions. What are they?
And how do you answer them to pass your interview and get hired in this video,
I'm going to share some star technique example answers to four types of tough
interview questions.
And I'm going to break down the strongest parts of each answer so that you can
use the key elements in your own interview.
Amri Celeste an interview coach and HR recruitment specialist with over 10 years
hiring experience. And on this channel,
I'll help you get hired and secure the job that you want by covering tough
interview questions and answers.
Even if you don't have experience plus CV advice and interview prep methods.
So if you're job hunting like unsubscribe,
and I will help you along in your job hunting journey.
So with today's interview questions,
I'm going to include a competency-based question, a behavioral question,
a situational question.
And I'm also going to include an introductory question that wouldn't typically
fit the star method to show you how you can use the star technique in almost any
answer. So I'm going to answer the questions. How do you prioritize your work?
What do you dislike about your job particularly difficult? One there,
give me an example of a time when you had to persuade or convince a colleague,
customer, or manager to see things your way. This one's quite common.
Plus tell me about yourself. So first,
what is a star technique interview question?
When interviewers asked star technique interview questions,
they want you to give them an answer.
That includes a situation where you demonstrated the skill that they are
assessing, and they want you to include in your answer, the situation, the task,
the action, and the result, which is what star stands for.
So star technique is actually the name of the method that you would use to
answer an interview question.
And the interviewers will often assess your answer against star method to check
that you're including these key points in your answer, what to avoid.
So I remember being in my late teens years ago,
and I did a really difficult interview where every time I answered a question,
the interviewer kept prodding me and asking me for more, um,
what was the situation? So what actions did you take? So what did you learn?
And as annoying as it was,
I realized the importance of including these key points whenever I'm answering
interview questions and talking about a situation because not all interviewers
are created equal, and although some might project for more information,
some might just decide that your answer wasn't very good. It wasn't detailed.
It wasn't as thorough as a candidate who has used the star interview technique.
So what are the key points to include?
Just remember a situation task action result.
Star is an acronym for these four words and covers everything you need to
include in your answer.
If you're using the star interview technique and as a memory pointer,
if you try to include the words for example,
then that will jog your memory to use an example. That includes a situation.
I have a dedicated video here explaining the star method in more detail,
which I highly recommend you watch to get a clear idea.
If you're interviewing now,
today's video is dedicated to giving you star technique examples.
So the first example answer is for a competency interview question.
And if you don't know what a competency-based question is,
it's a question that assesses your competencies. So do you have the skill,
the ability, the experience to complete the core tasks in the role.
And sometimes they don't just assess your competencies against core tasks and
essential skill sets. They assess against desirable skill sets as well.
So I will shortly be putting together a video to cover competency based
interviews and how to pass them because there's some of the most common types of
interview questions.
So look out for that video and I'll link it in the description below.
So the first question today is how do you prioritize your work? Now,
this might not sound like a difficult interview question,
but it is important that when you're answering this question,
you don't simply think about the work that you do each day and regurgitate that
to the interviewer.
You need to understand why they're asking what they want to know,
and you will nail this answer.
So if an interviewer asks you how you prioritize your work,
they want to know three things first that you can identify what a priority is.
So what's important to that manager department or the company as a whole,
as opposed to something that's considered urgent by another colleague or a pushy
demanding manager,
two that you can stay focused on what a priority is under pressure.
So an important tip with answering this question is that priorities can
regularly change. And this will play into the example answer.
I'm about to give you three,
that you have the ability to switch between urgent and important.
So an example answer is,
I prioritize my work by assessing tasks on a case by case basis as they come up,
I'm quite organized. So I do have my day planned. However,
sometimes a task might come up that's important,
but it's not an urgent immediate need. For example, as a temp,
I have a deadline to submit my time sheet each week.
This is important as it will guarantee I'm paid on time, the following week.
So it's an important priority while completing my time sheet one week,
my manager needed a report on finance figures to give to one of our directors.
He was currently in a director's meeting and needed the figures immediately as
this was an immediate need and urgent request.
I stopped completing my time sheet.
I gathered the finance data and sent the report to my manager.
By the time I had sent the report, I then missed the deadline for my time sheet.
So I immediately called the agency who are responsible for paying my wages and
explained to the urgent requirement that had come up.
They were very understanding and my manager was happy to confirm to them that
this was why I had missed the deadline. And I was paid on time.
I realized the importance in that situation of being able to prioritize my work
in a flexible way to meet the needs of the company and my manager.
So now we're going to look at the three areas that make this answer really
strong. First, you're answering the question head on.
You're explaining that you're flexible and assess tasks as they come up,
but you're not simply reactive to anything that pops up. You do plan your day.
So you've also addressed just in the first sentence that you understand the
difference between important and urgent.
And you can be flexible between the two in order to prioritize your work in the
most efficient way.
The bonus with this answer is that it covers any follow up question that you
might get at the end,
because you've what you learned from that situation about the importance of
flexibility. And you've also highlighted that you have that skill.
So that's really important in your own answer or show that you can be flexible
with your work,
but also that you understand the difference between an important task and an
immediate need that has a significant impact. And this could be to the company,
a colleague or a customer.
So that was a competency-based question and answer using the star method or
technique. As I mentioned earlier,
competency based questions are some of the most common interview questions.
I have a video covering the top four competency based interview questions and
answers. So I'll link that in the description below for you.
So if we also just look at how this answer fits into the start interview
technique,
the situation was that the temp was completing the time sheet as they do every
week. The task was a sudden urgent request from the manager three actions here.
So they stopped completing the time sheet,
sending the report to their manager and immediately called the agency to sort
out their time sheet and wages. Then the result was that they were paid on time.
Plus the bonus I mentioned earlier,
where you added on learnings about the importance of flexibility.
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The next question is a behavioral interview question.
So behavioral questions are pretty much as labeled. They assess your behavior,
how you are likely to react in situations at work,
your attitude towards colleagues, clients, customers,
and also whether your behaviors are in line with the culture of that company.
So the question is, what do you dislike about your job now, of course,
you don't want to go into a long tangent about the things you really hate,
but you can turn your answer into a positive.
So an example answer using the start interview technique is I actually really
enjoy what I do, but I appreciate that realistically,
there are challenges in every role.
So we used to take turns at hosting our weekly team meeting,
where we would run through our plans for the week and any highlights from the
previous week.
I felt uncomfortable leading as host and speaking in front of the whole team.
So in my spare time,
I did some research on how to increase confidence when speaking in front of a
crowd and how to be more engaging and successfully host meetings.
I put what I learned into practice and my confidence skyrocketed.
I've been hosting the meeting for a year now,
and it really feels like second nature.
I'm now very comfortable at hosting the meeting.
So this answer tells a story which helps to build an emotional connection with
your interviewer.
It shows your personal character arc based around something specific that many
people struggle with the fear of speaking publicly or in large crowds.
I know I was terrified. The first time I tried to speak on camera.
It also shows that you took the initiative to improve this in your own spare
time, showing your dedication to getting better at your job. And again,
you can see here, the situation, the task, the action, and the result.
If you do get really nervous in interviews and struggle with brain freeze,
then I've created a guide to help you sell through your next interview.
This top 20 interview answers guide is packed with example answers for your next
job interview and includes tough and difficult.
Like why should we give you the job? What's your greatest weakness?
How do you handle pressure at work plus much more?
So it's packed with tough interview questions and answers. Plus,
what you should be asking your interviewers at the end of your interview it's
completely free and you can get yours by clicking the link in the description
below this video. The next question is a situational interview question.
So this is when the interviewer wants to see how you react in a specific
scenario.
And the question that they ask will determine what skill they want you to talk
about. So let's say they were to ask you,
can you give me an example of a time when you had to persuade or convince a
colleague, customer,
or manager to see things your way they are assessing your ability to communicate
in a persuasive way and your ability to get results,
which will likely be required in the job. So an example,
answer to this using the star technique is our department is responsible for
much of our employee paperwork, specifically employment contracts.
We previously stored all of our employee contracts in a cupboard in our
department area.
This made it quite time consuming to find contracts and some would go missing
without any backup.
Plus we regularly run out of space and we had to find new storage areas,
which meant confidential contracts were sometimes stored in non-secure areas,
our manager to keep things this way, as they had always worked this way,
she felt the switching to a paperless system would be time consuming and
expensive.
I booked in some time with her to show her a demo of how this would work by
storing a test contract digitally on a low cost HR system.
I explained that this is not only more secure.
It automatically stores a backup of the information and there's no storage
limit.
It also works towards our goal of reducing our carbon footprint and becoming
environmentally friendly. When she saw how quick and easy this was,
she was immediately on board and asked me to implement the new process.
So why is this a good answer?
So this answer clearly covers the situation task result here.
It outlines the multiple problems caused by the paper storage and the managers
reluctance the task is to solve these issues. By convincing the manager,
the actions are particularly strong.
So booking time with the manager minimizes interruptions,
that time is solely for you to essentially persuade the manager.
And you use that time by addressing the confidentiality issue,
the backup and the storage. There's also a bonus reason around carbon footprint,
which may well be something that the manager could have been targeted on.
So when you have things like becoming carbon neutral or environmentally friendly
as a company goal,
normally individual managers are targeted on working towards achieving this.
So in your answer,
if you can include something that the person you're persuading is being assessed
on or targeted on something that would affect them in a positive way,
in addition to the benefits,
and you can show the interview or how you use those key points to persuade that
person that will really put your answer over the top. And in this case,
it plays into something that the company penny,
as a whole would benefit from and can boost the company profile as well as
something that benefits the manager, the department as well,
general employees having their personal contracts stored.
And obviously the result at the end here was that the manager was on board.
So situational questions are also super common because it's literally you in a
situation and how you responded to it.
It tells the interview way more than if you were to just say,
I'm very persuasive. Trust me. Um,
so that's why it's situational interview questions are so common.
So if you're job hunting, we're interviewing now,
I highly recommend that you check out this video on the top 10 situation or
interview questions and answers for some solid example answers.
So the next question is possibly the most asked interview question ever.
Tell me about yourself.
It's vague and people approach answering this in many different ways.
So I do already have a really strong example answer to this question,
but it doesn't use the star technique.
And this is because there are multiple ways to answer this question by using
your career, your education, your passion, your skills,
and experience to build a really solid answer without including a specific
situation.
But here's how you can incorporate the star technique into your answer.
I'm going to keep to the sales theme that I used last time.
I answered the question in case you want to compare both and see that they're
strong answers with or without the star interview technique.
So an example answer using the star method is well so far I have a years'
experience in sales and I'm quite proud of what I've achieved so far.
Not only have I really enjoyed the challenges and want to continue growing in a
bigger role that will push me to exceed my results.
I've also been quite resourceful in order to make sure that I regularly meet the
targets set by my manager. For example, in my current role,
we set targets based on gaining new sales.
Although we are given new leads and companies to contact each week,
we're heavily encouraged to close more sales by finding creative ways to find
new business and new customers.
I once attended a meeting with a client and noticed that they had a list of
companies in the building behind the reception desk.
And this was a private business.
I knew that these companies would not be easy to find as they were not publicly
listed.
I made a note of all the company names and contacted them later that day.
I was able to sell to one company and gain an entirely new client,
just from one initial visit.
I have many other creative ideas that I regularly utilize to win new sales.
And it's one of the things that really attracted me to this role from speaking
with you so far and reading through the job description,
particularly the area around aggressive sales growth,
I felt like I could really add value.
And in this role is really clear that I would have the opportunity to use my
creativity to boost sales. So let's look at the key strengths of this answer.
So one of the character traits shown throughout this answer is confidence,
which is key in this type of position. This sales person is junior.
They only have a year's experience in this example,
but they're proud of what they've achieved.
And aren't afraid to say it they're aware of their strengths, creativity,
and resourcefulness, which has mentioned several times throughout the answer.
Plus a really strong example of thinking outside the box in order to gain new
clients with the company listings plus proof that it works because it resulted
in a new client and the sale. So at the end of this answer,
I've linked it back to why this person could bring in value and likely revenue
to the company.
And this would be a key point while assessed in this interview because they
referenced that this is mentioned in the job description,
aggressive sales growth.
So they want someone who is driven confident and can bring in new ideas and
clever ways of finding new sales. And then at the end,
an explanation of why that would add value.
So did you see where I used the star technique in this answer?
So when you're answering a general introductory question,
you can use the star method to strengthen a key skill that the role requires,
and this will impress your interviewer. So here,
the situation is that the role is focused on new sales, the task,
which is finding creative ways to bring in more customers, more sales,
the action, noting down the company listings at the meeting,
proactively contacting them and the result, a new sale, a new client.
If you found any of these star technique, examples, helpful,
leave a comment below and let me know.
So I know whether these answers are actually helping you,
but also something wasn't clear or you have a question then just ask me below
and I will try to respond as quickly as I can. Thank you so much for watching.
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