How to be a star with star interview answers

As a Certified Professional Resume Writer and Career Coach, I have worked with clients from every industry imaginable, including but not limited to: marketing, sales, HR, engineering, cybersecurity, software development, healthcare, law enforcement, secret service, IT, data analysis, education, construction, chemical industries, food industry, food, energy, electronics, hospitality, wholesale, green, space, retail, scientific, manufacturing and more!

I challenge you to consider: what do professionals in all of these industries have in common? Everyone will need to interview for the job and everyone would benefit from utilizing the STAR interview answers to give them a competitive advantage on their job search.

You may ask, what is the STAR Method? STAR is a clever acronym that stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. It is a proactive and powerful structure used to convey clear and concise answers to behavioral interview questions that can be applied to every industry possible that you may be interviewing for!

Sample interview questions include:

What do you think gives you a competitive edge and makes you stand out above and beyond other candidates?

Give us an example of when you didn’t meet a client’s expectations. How did you manage such a situation?

Provide an example of when you went above and beyond your responsibilities within a position. What was your motivation and what were the results?

What was the first job you ever had? How has it influenced you professionally throughout your career?

Have you ever had to work under a rapid deadline? How did you manage it and what were the results?

Give us an example where you showed great initiative and took charge of a situation at work?

Share with us a time when you were granted the liberty to be creative with your work. Was it challenging or thrilling for you?

Tell us about a situation where you failed at the execution of a goal? How did you handle this situation?

Tell us about a time when you employer was asking for the impossible. How did you communicate this to them? Or, did you still strive to accomplish it for them?

What about a time when you were given a lengthy and demanding project. Did you ever realize that you couldn’t manage it by yourself? Did you ever garner support of colleagues in a collaborative way?

So, now that you have a firm grasp of the types of questions that are usually asked in an interview scenario, you may be wondering the best way to ace an answer. This is when you whip out your exciting tool for interview success. Let’s dissect this a bit!

S stands for Situation: This is where you describe the scenario and help the interviewer to understand the background of your answer.

T stands for Task: What were your responsibilities during this scenario and even more so, what was expected of you in this position?

A stands for Action: What actions did you take in this scenario? Did you have to go above and beyond your duties?

R stands for Result: This is the grand finale of your story. Share the results of your actions and whether or not the situation was successful. Implementing quantifiable data in support of your accomplishments always makes for a strong finish.

Now let’s gallivant into the boardroom in which I shall share some sample answers that will make you a star by using the STAR interview answer method! In case you are wondering, these are real-life examples, but the names of my clients are now fictitious.

Example #1

Chandler Stevens is a seasoned executive who demonstrates forward-thinking leadership. He employs high-level, strategic vision to ensure a high return on investment and operational efficiencies. He is currently interviewing for a c-level execution position.

Give us an example where you showed great initiative and took charge of a situation at work?

Situation: With my most recent employer, Elevate Credit, I was personally recruited to spearhead turnaround tactics for systems service delivery, technology platforms, and technology services, along with being accountable for digital strategy - from conception to execution -  while maintaining superior end-user experience. Yet, the problem is that they were accruing $1 million in development costs with no quantifiable results.

Task: My task was to grow the company and spearhead change management and business process re-engineering throughout the organization.

Action: I drove a broad-based systems organization, rolled out a new cloud native design and development, and fulfilled the CEO’s vision of a B2B platform for loan originations, new products, and new revenue streams.

Result: I succeeded in growing the company 20 times it’s original size and achieved $1M in cost savings.

Example #2

Mary Steele is a healthcare champion interviewing for her first-ever Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) role. She cares passionately about patients yet also about evolving into a strong leadership position. She has a strong healthcare background that makes her an ideal candidate.

What do you think gives you a competitive edge and makes you stand out above and beyond other candidates?

Situation: In the nursing field, I have always been driven to succeed while also providing world-class patient care. I have worked in many different fields within nursing including medical/surgical, telemetry, oncology, pulmonary, ICU, orthopedics, and family medicine.

Task: As I worked up the ladder, my responsibilities involved quality improvements, risk mitigation, staff development and education, patient experience, and patient safety. I have worked for many prestigious organizations, such as Bay Medical Sacred Heart Health System, DCH Regional Medical Center, Baptist Medical Center, and Baptist Home Health.

Action: In order to improve and get promoted, I continually advanced my education, including a Doctorate of Nursing after attaining my Masters with a specialization in Health Care Administration.

Result: After demonstrating excellence in the field and pursuing my advanced education, I am now ready to serve as a Chief Nursing Officer after having been a Nursing Director and Nurse Manager of Adult ICU. I am very proud of the work that I do and look forward to improving your hospital ranking and implementing the latest advancements in medicine.

Example #3

Lillian Winterson is in the publishing industry and is shooting for a high-level position in Marketing and PR for Random House. She has a wealth of knowledge in authors of multitudinous genres.

What was the first job you ever had? How has it influenced you professionally throughout your career?

Situation: I was a recent college graduate who majored in English with a minor in Creative Writing. I loved books with a passion, and I still do! Now that I am interviewing for a PR position within your prestigious publishing company, I am so grateful for my first job experience.

Task: My objectives were to manage the front POS, facilitate book clubs, and maintain the visual displays. However, what I loved the most was making book selection suggestions to a huge diversity of patrons.

Action: In doing so, I had my hands on hundreds and hundreds of books, which deepened my knowledge of multiple genres and gave me the opportunity to know different authors intimately and their bodies of work. A few times per month, we would have visiting authors come to the store to read their work and sell their books. I would personally escort the author and write articles for our website based upon my interviews of them.

Result: The results are an ability to truly have deep knowledge of the publishing industry as well as one-on-one, hands-on experience in book promotion, of which directly serves as a key competency for this PR role, yet on a much wider scale!

Example #4

Don Maxwell is an up and coming professional who is quickly moving up the ranks with a c-level executive position on the near horizon. He has surpassed expectations and accomplished significant things in his career against the odds.

Tell us about a time when you employer was asking for the impossible. How did you communicate this to them? Or, did you still strive to accomplish it for them?

Situation: I was hired by Walmart as a Service Delivery Executive with oversight of a $5 billion IT budget while managing the design and delivery of  IT service management, collaboration technologies, and business service management. I also was selected to roll out cloud-enabled features to outpace competition.

Task: I was selected to drive a campaign for $8.1 million cost savings within a five-year period. I had no idea how to achieve such a monumental goal in such a short period of time. It seemed impossible!

Action: I took charge of an IT service management tools’ standardization project. I also utilized a CEB-based model and domain blueprint. Lastly, I aligned infrastructure teams with global services objectives.

Result: This resulted in achieving over $8 million in cost savings within only a three-year period. This garnered so much recognition in the organization that I was soon perceived as a trusted advisor to the CIO and CTO.

You may ask, “Why go through the trouble of rehearsing and then performing the STAR method during interviews?”

The STAR interview response method is ultimately implemented to not only give you a competitive edge but to also make the process easier! Using this method of answering interview questions enables  you to provide concrete examples of how you make the ideal candidate for the position you are interviewing for.

But wait! We aren’t done! So now you know what STAR stands for, you have read a few samples, it is now time to share with you how to prepare for your STAR interview response!

Acquire, read, and study the job description or advertisement. Consider how you make an ideal candidate as well as any challenges or obstacles you might have to overcome to garner the new position.

Review the common behavioral interview questions I composed in this blog.

Write down the various situations you have successfully handled in your career that display the types of strengths you will need to succeed in the role.

Rehearse answering the questions outloud, preferably in front of another person.  Aim for coherency and conciseness with answers preferably not exceeding beyond 2 or 3 minutes. You do not want your answers to be a long monologue but an engaging and interactive response. This alone should boost your confidence and help you overcome any obstacles.

Even though you have researched and previously prepared answers to possible questions, maintain a conversational approach. Also, strive to develop rapport and a relationship with the hiring manager.

Remember that you are interviewing the company and hiring manager just as much as he or she is interviewing you.

Focus on the positive results of your accomplishments and value-added contributions. Be as results - oriented as possible, complete with quantifiable data to support your accomplishments, if available!

We wish you the best of luck on your interview! For more articles on the job interview process, keep visiting my blog for hot trends and solid advice on career development and job search management!