STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Results. It’s used to prepare to interview questions related to soft skills.
The idea is to prepare answers using the STAR method for every skill and qualities listed in your resume and the job offer in a short and factual manner.
- Situation, explain the general situation in which a challenge arise
- Task, explain the task you got to do in that situation
- Action, explain how you handled that task
- Results, explain the results of your action and how it was beneficial for everyone
- It’s even better if the results exceed the initial scope of the task
When you don't have work experience
Soft skills are skills used in life in general, so you can use examples from your personal life to illustrate them.
Speak from your point of view
The point of a job interview is to assess if you are fit for the job. You therefore must talk about things from your point of view and avoid talking in “we” or “the team” when answering interview questions.
Example of STAR answer
- Give me an example of when you faced a problem at work. How did you handle it?
Situation - I was working in a florist shop with the manager and we were arranging an order of flowers for 2 weddings. The manager, who had taken the order, had mixed up the customers’ addresses and the flowers were delivered to the wrong venues.
Task - I had to get the flowers to the right place and apologise to the customers.
Action - I told my boss that I would deal with the mistake, leaving her to take care of the shop. I spoke to both customers on the telephone to explain, and reassured them that we would put things right straight away. I drove to both venues, swapped the flowers in time and apologised in person. I gave both customers a voucher for a bouquet as compensation.
Result - the customers were grateful that we had acted quickly. Later on, they both came back to the shop to spend their vouchers and have since recommended us to their friends.
You can find other examples on the website of UK’s Careers Service