Most people know when to use STAR in their interviews, but most people also use it wrong!
🌟 STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is a classic way to structure our answers to a number of interview questions, especially during behavioral ones. But, surprisingly often, people will spend far too much effort on the situation and task and far too little on the action and result — often something like 80% of the answer is committed to the situation and/or task.
Instead, put 1/3 of your efforts explaining the context (situation and task), 1/3 with what the action(s) you took, and 1/3 on the results — your impact and its value.
3️⃣ What this does is three-fold:
(1) You demonstrate your ability to be concise and cut through the fluff.
(2) You give yourself more time to dig into what your interviewer cares about — how do you behave in a given situation.
(3) You illustrate the impact and value of what you did — why your efforts matter.
It’s such a simple framework, but even the most simplest of tools can be misused. The job market’s rough enough as it is — let’s not make it harder on ourselves.
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