Sunday, November 14, 2010

What is the STAR interview process? Or Behavioral Interviews



I believe the star interview process you are talking about an interviewing style called a behavioral interview. In these interviews the interviewer asks questions relating to 4 STAR Areas

Situation – TASK You are asked to describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event.

A – Action you took - in this step you describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did -- not the efforts of the team. Don't tell what you might do, tell what you did.

R – Results you achieved What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What

did you learn?

How to be successful in this type of interview. To prepare for the interview.

Think of a number of situations from your past work experience that show you accomplishing something positive. (For example, how you negotiated with a supplier for a lower price, or how you mentored a co-worker on a difficult subject, how you handled a difficult employee performance issue). The stories should cover a broad range of your abilities.

In preparation for your interview write the down these situations in the STAR format (which stands for Situation/Task, Action, Result).
example Situation/Task: An employee I supervised performance was not up to par and below the performance of the group. Action: I had a meeting with the employees to discuss his performance and how it was effecting the group and asked if there was some issues that were causing these performance issues. We discussed a couple of problem areas and the correct methods to handle the job. (you might even be more specific about the steps) We set a follow up interview in a week and two weeks Result: The performance improved 20% over the past 3 months and we discussed a couple of improvement area to try during the following week. In our second interview performance improved again.

Review the situations and list the effects (positive or negative) each one had on the following:
-Yourself or Your co-workers or Your boss or maybe Your customers and of course your company and department

When you are on a behavioral interview you will be asked to give specific examples of how you demonstrated certain traits. For example, a question might be "tell me about a time when you worked under pressure to meet a deadline" or "tell me about a time when you had to communicate something difficult to a co-worker".

Each of your 10 situations can potentially be the answer to many behavioral questions. Based on the information you prepared in steps 1, 2 and 3 you need to be able to think on your feet and use any of your stories to answer a behavioral question.

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