Acing Your Job Interview Questions Using the STAR Method

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Interviews are challenging for me. I find it hard to focus on the question and responding is another issue itself. I've been thinking about how to provide the best answer to the question because preparing for questions was not enough.

 Try the STAR method.

In competency-based interview questions, the interviewer’s goal will be to get an idea of how well you handle problems, your leadership ability, your organizational skills and, frankly, your ability to summarize a situation correctly and succinctly. Toward that goal, she’ll ask you to describe certain situations as opposed to asking you a long list of close-ended questions.
So you’ll hear your interviewer say, “Describe a situation” or “Tell about an instance when,” and you’ll know the interview has moved from the traditional phase to the competency phase where situational queries predominate.

How STAR Works

STAR can’t answer the question for you, but it can allow you to answer the question in an organized way that will reflect well on you. STAR is an acronym to help you remember the framework of the answer you’re providing to your interviewer:
S Situation
T Task
A Action
R Result