Responding to Behavioral and Situational Interview Questions Using the STAR Method

Describe the situation. Set the stage for your story. It is best to describe relevant work situations.  However, depending on how much direct experience you have, you might be limited to using transferable experience such as academic projects, volunteer work, other types of employment outside of that company's industry. Be sure to highlight your specific role/responsibilities rather than provide a general context. Don't spend too much time describing the situation. The least amount of time should be spent on describing the situation, as employers are more concerned about your actions and the results of the situation. Limit yourself to two or three relevant pieces of information needed by the employer to understand the context and situation.  

Example: In my current role, teaching a class of 15 kindergarten students, I began teaching students the fundamental math skills of counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. Most of the class picked up the concepts quickly and were ready to process; however, 3 students had trouble grasping the concepts and were losing interest.

Describe the goal or task set out for you as it relates to the question being asked. Similar to describing the situation, this shouldn't take much time and you should limit yourself to one to two point that best highlights the task you needed to complete.

Example: I had to find a way to re-engage the students who were having difficulty grasping the concepts without slowing down the rest of the class.

Talk about the actions that you took to accomplish the task.  Be sure to provide specific actions that you took to handle the situation. You should spend the most amount of time describing your action as this is what employers use to establish whether you are fit for their organization. Clearly define and discuss a few things you did to impact the success of the task. Also when describing your actions, remember an employer is looking to hire you and not a team you worked with, so you should focus on using the word "I" versus "we" to highlight your specific roles and contributions.      

Example: The next time we focused on math, I prepared a fun group activity. While the class remained engaged in completing the activity, I was able to spend some 1:1 time with the 3 students struggling with counting. I was able to explain the process in a way they understood. Of the 3 children, 1 child still had some difficulty. As such, I sent some
guidance notes along with his homework.

Present the results that followed because of the chosen action. What was the outcome based on your action? You should spend slightly less time on describing the results than describing your actions. Highlight and discuss two or three most impressive results, what you learned from the situation and why you're a stronger employee because of the experience. Be as concrete as possible. If possible, quantify your results. 

Example: After some 1:1 focus and additional practice time, all 3 students are confident in their counting abilities and are now caught up with the rest of the class. I took what I learned from this situation and continue to apply this structure when faced with similar situations. I developed additional group activity assignments for other subjects and topics that can supplement my lesson plan, if needed again.