STAR Method

  • One or two sentences per STAR. Easy to have too long/detailed answers when you are stressed
  • 45-60 secs/120-150 words answer. Too short it doesn’t cover enough details. Too long it becomes rambling
  • After the high level STAR, ask the interviewer if need to provide more details
  • Situtation: Scene and details of example. Make things as measurable as possible, as the interviewer lacks the context of your mind image.
  • Task/Goal/Role: your role/job/goal in the situation. Don’t mistake this for Action
  • Action: What YOU did to achieve the goal. Not what YOUR TEAM did, or what you WOULD do.
  • Result: need to emphaize on the (ideally measurable) impact of your action. Often this was not done enough by candidates
  • Focus on facts and avoid comment/conclusions. If you really need to include comment/conclusions, use the eval from the third party, not yourself.

Tell me about a time you took a risk and failed.

  • Defind failure definition upfront: not meeting expectation/goal/highest standards(maybe)
  • Try not to spend too much time setting the stage, and get to the punch line quickly
  • Start with the situation, and explain why it was challenging. Then go into what you specifically did to try and rectify it
  • Wrap up with your lessons learned, ideally with postive impacts of this learning to future events

Tell me about a mistake you’ve made.

  • How did you handle it?

Tell me a time where you disagreed with your manager

  • Disagree and commit. the bulk of your answer should be talking about how you delivered successfully in spite of not being on board with the initial decision
  • Decision was made after conflict, doesn’t matter which side won
  • Be clear about what you don’t agree with and offer alternatives
  • When I disagree and was wrong, it is because of unknown unkowns. Known unkowns would mean i didn’t do due diligence
  • Would be nice to define “right/wrong” but probably too much detail to cover in 1 min

Describe a time when you struggled to build a relationship with someone important.

  • How did you eventually overcome that?

Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure.

  • What was going on, and how did you get through it?

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully persuade someone to see things your way at work.

Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

Tell me a time you had received a negative feedback

  • Explain a situation where you improved your performance after receiving constructive criticism.
  • Talk about how you listened and made changes when a boss or client critiqued your work.
  • It can also be insightful to describe a time when your work was unfairly criticized, and how you were able to rebuff the criticism without making anyone look bad.
  • Do not make the mistake of going into excessive detail about any work slip-ups—instead, focus on your positive reaction to criticism.