Modern Interviewing is moving towards asking competency (skills) and behavioural interview questions. This challenging style of question / interview format is proving to be the most successful way for organisations to find their best candidates.

Behavioural questions can be difficult if you are not ready for them. Listed below are some examples:-

• “Describe a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done”.
• “Describe a time when you used persuasion to convince someone to do things your way”.
• “Tell me about a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem”.
• “Convince me that you can work successfully with a wide variety of people, situations and environments”.
• “Tell me about a time on any job where you faced problems that you doubted you could manage”.
• “Give me an example of you making a quick decision”.
• “Tell me about a time in which you had to use your written communications skills in order to get an important point across”.
• “Give me an example of a target that you had set yourself, and how you reached it”.
• “Describe when you had to think on your feet to get yourself out of a difficult situation”.

THe STAR Technique or Star Methodology is a way or communication your experience, skills and behaviour in a super powerful response to this type of devilishly tricky question.

STAR Techniques are so much more than a way of answering interview questions.

I believe that by forming the HABIT of framing your answers in this way is a priceless skill that will guarantee your success in all that you FOCUS on.

STAR is an acronym for:-

S – Situation, background set the scene

T – Task or Target, specifics of what's required, when, where, who

A – Action, what you did, skills used, behaviours, characteristics

R – Result – Outcome, what happened

The STAR Technique roles the information into a memorable way of presenting, by building STAR Stories.

The power of this technique is that though the information you are communication is entirely self promotional, it fly's under the radar, and will be received as a friendly, example of what you've done and how you did it.

Your not boasting, or bragging your simply answering a question by giving an example in your response.

This example or story will be concise around 2 minutes, but will allow you to weave two critical components into your answer.

1. That you understand how you and your role, contribute to the organisation in terms of MAKING or SAVING money. Whatever the role.

2. That you are the type of person that sets yourself targets, and that you measure the actions you take, and persistently fine tune until you hit your targets.

I promise you that done correctly STAR Stories will convey not only what you did and how you did it, but almost subliminally weave in those 2 critical components.

If you were recruiting; would you want to hire someone who understands how their actions support the bigger picture, no matter how small the role may initially appear.

AND

Who is self motivated, setting their own targets, and monitoring their own ongoing self development.

As a recruiter my clients pay me a lot of money to find people like this!

And though I believe many people possess these attributes, I would say that less than 1% can articulate their abilities through successful communication.

And this is where harnessing STAR Techniques will deliver you MASSIVE SUCCESS!

I have put together a free guide on how to effectively harness the STAR Technique, simply tell us where to send it.