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Career Seekers > Prepare for Take-off > STAR Interview Technique

Sell yourself in interviews!

Your ability to clearly and concisely respond to questions in an informed manner that relates your background to the question posed will set you apart from others that stumble over questions.

The STAR method simply provides a logical approach to answering any question by using one of your past successes in responding to the question.

Keep it positive!

In preparation for interviews, you’ll want to develop short examples to draw from that illustrate your successes.

Sample Interviewing Stories

Situation/Task (ST):

Advertising revenue was falling off for my college newspaper, the Wabash Review, and large numbers of long-term advertisers were not renewing contracts.

Action (A):

I designed a new promotional packet to go with the rate sheet and compared the benefits of Review circulation with other ad media in the area. I also set up a special training session for the account executives with an economics/marketing professor who discussed competitive selling strategies.

Result (R):

We signed contracts with 15 former advertisers for daily ads and five for special supplements. We increased our new advertisers by 20 percent (specific quantities are always good in your examples) over the same period last year.

Situation/Task (ST):

Several local parents requested tutoring for disadvantaged students, but our Creative Connections Tutoring program did not have enough volunteers.

Action (A):

I organized a brainstorming session with three others to create ideas to increase participation. We prioritized the ideas, looked for budget resources, and then I eventually settled on beginning a new program called Friends and Neighbors that matched community members with tutorees. We were able to get funding for after school pizza for the students.

Result (R):

We increased the tutor pool by 20 members, doubled the tutoring hours available for 50 local school kids and had a great time doing it. The program has continued for the last two years and now has an organization president and vice-president and a budget that should guarantee that the program continues.

Practice!

Write at least two answers to the interview question: “Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it”.

The four steps of the STAR Method:

  1. S = Situation
    Describe the situation: be specific
  2. T = Task
    What approach did you use?
  3. A = Action
    What action did you take? Be sure to focus on what you did, not what a team did or what you might do.
  4. R = Result
    What was the result of your action? What did you accomplish and/or learn?

Related pages

How to prepare a resume

How to prepare for an interview