Behavioral Interview Queries are a part of most job interviews. These queries are deployed on the belief that by comprehending your past actions and behaviors an interviewer can reasonably assume what your future actions will be. The interviewer is searching for patterns and trends in your behavior and then thinking if they match up with the requirements of the company and the particular role you are applying to. It is very significant to give well structured answers to these kinds of queries. To acquire this, we suggest the STAR technique.

What is the STAR Technique

The STAR technique is immensely famous and mostly used acronym that assists people to establish a really good answer to any interview query in a logical format. It works remarkably well for competency deployed or behavioral style interview queries.

S – Situation  Explain the particular situation you were in or the activity you required to complete. This is where you set up the story but remember to be precise and brief.

T – Task  Specify the aim or measurable target you were working towards. You can mention the primary challenges the task presented here just make certain you are clear about the details.

A – Action   Explain the particular actions you took to deal the situation. This should be a detailed response concentrated on what you didn’t what the team did. It should highlight all your qualities involving the soft skills and displays of emotional intelligence.

R – Result  Clearly elaborate the result of your actions. What happened? How did things end? What did you get? What did you learn?

STAR Technique in Action

Let’s think about the following behavioral interview query

Elaborate a time period when you were project managing a team and the project was behind schedule. What did you do? What was the result?

• 1. Situation – Set up the context

At my previous company I was the project leader in a group of eight people establishing the launch of a latest product, a range extension of an existing brand we had into the market.

• 2. Task – Describe what you required to do

The launch timing was crucial as it coincided with an enormous sales and marketing campaign across the whole brand which represented an important spend. The project fell behind schedule when a primary team member responsible for volume forecasting became sick and his work was offered to a colleague who was unfamiliar with the project. I required making any essential changes to make definite that the launch date was met and the support expenditure wasn’t wasted.

• 3. Action – Step through what you did and the qualities you utilized to do it

I have led several project teams and very rarely does everything go in accordance to the plan. As such I am very comfortable instructing my team through the requirement to adapt to changing circumstances and implementing alternative policies of action. I started by calling a team meeting and describing the change in circumstance to the team. By utilizing a very open form of communication I was capable to acquire a commitment form the team that we would meet our genuine deadline. I volunteered to work closely with the new team member and work through the volume forecasts needed. I then delegated few basic activities I was handling to other members of the team and we all worked together to enhance the timeline as needed.

The latest timeline meant that there were numerous late nights in the office for most of the team so I organized for dinner to be brought in to keep up the morale high and motivate a positive team spirit. I feel it is very significant to recognize and reward significant effort particularly during complicated times.

• 4. Result – Sum up the outcome and learning

As an outcome, we were capable to launch the line extension on time to coincide with the marketing campaign. The coordinated campaign gave a result in an increase of x percent in gross sales across the brand with the latest line extension investing $X and developing x percent market share.

The STAR technique is famous and acknowledged among many interviewers because it delivers the essential data to them in a structured way that they can easily asses. Utilize it well when you establish your interview answers and you will come across as a good candidate and really highlight your verbal communication qualities.