You’ve successfully managed to get to the interview stage for the job that you so desperately want, so what’s next?

It’s time to show what you are made of and really impress the interviewers in order to secure the job you have been dreaming of.

A key part of the interview process is the competency based interview questions. These assess your past experiences and analyse the way you would manage hypothetical situations in the future.

It’s all well and good telling interviewers that you can help their company and ‘think outside of the box’. However, it’s important to go beyond these claims and show how you can put them into practice. One way to display this is through the STAR answer technique.

What’s the STAR approach? It’s a technique that guides you through answers by describing the situation, task, approach and result.

Situation – Give an overview to set the context of your story. Remember to keep this brief and don’t waffle on. Explain the who, what, where and when to the interviewer.

Task – Describe the task that you needed to complete – don’t forget to specify the exact role you played in the scenario.

Approach – How did you approach the task at hand? Did you successfully overcome the challenges that you faced? It is important to focus on the detail of the task. It is best to deliver a logical step-by-step manner when explaining how you approached the task.

Result – What was the overall outcome of the task? Explain what the direct results of your actions were. Providing quantifiable achievements here will really impress the interviewer and definitely score you brownie points. Make sure you remember to talk about what you have learnt from the process.

The STAR technique allows you to demonstrate your individual involvement in a task – describing it concisely and delivering key details. Remember to explain things in great detail, without generalising.

You probably won’t have any idea of what competency questions will be asked in your interview, but you can prepare several examples of past experiences to practice before entering. This will also help to calm any nerves as you will be prepped and ready for it!

This method is a strong, reliable way to structure answers for this style of question. Preparation is key and delivering meaningful answers of specific experiences can showcase your suitability as a candidate.

We have faith in you, so go out there and be a STAR!
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