S.T.A.R. Response

Practice these Q&As for an interview.

Published on in Interview, Star & Tips.

Setting up an interview can be one of the most exciting and scary events if you are not prepared. The interview questions can be straight-forward as "What are your career goals" to complex behavior questions such as "Give me an example of a challenge you experienced and how you dealt with it".

How can you prepare to answer these open-ended behavioral, emotional, and story telling questions that they may ask you?

Look to the STARs! #

Situation-Task-Action-Result

If the STAR technique is new to you, then read more from The MIT Career Office - Successful Interviewing Techniques (PDF).

Let's take it one step further for the digitally inclined. #

Make a flow chart using Excel. Here, use mine to get you started. Click to download.

STAR Responses Excel Spreadsheet
STAR Responses Excel Spreadsheet

Look at the job posting you're interviewing for. Do you see keywords to match your STAR responses? Some might overlap.

Skills

Strong technical knowledge Strong interpersonal and communication skills Analytical and detail orientated Pro-active and able to work independently Proven ability to work effectively in a team

Now PRACTICE by answering any of these Behavioral Interview Questions from Monster. Matching your keywords with the questions will make your responses prepared for any behavioral question.

Look for my S.T.A.R. Answers based on job keywords in the near future! #