STAR Interview Basics

(Photo credit @bogomi)

Let’s dive a bit deeper into how to prepare to answer behavioral questions using the STAR method. 

The STAR Method is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result.

• Situation: Describe the situation you were in.

• Task: Tell me about the task or goal you were working to accomplish.

• Action: Detail the specific actions/steps YOU took in this scenario.

• Result: Tell me about the results you achieved from this scenario.

It’s really important to remember this structure and to consider how to craft your answers so they contain all of these parts. 

For many candidates I work with, I can easily tell when they did not prepare. They ramble for a bit in telling me the Situation & Task, make a face when they realize halfway through that they are rambling, and then rush through their Action and Results - which are often the most critical parts to share with an interviewer! Does this sound familiar? 

Let me help you prepare for Level 1 of interview questions. Once you master answering these questions, you’ll be ready to move to the next step. 

I’ve put together a great worksheet that you can use to prepare: Level 1: STAR Interview Worksheet. 

• Tab 1 gives you tips on what to include in your answers and provides general timing goals so you know how long your answers should be

• Tab 2 is a fillable worksheet with the top behavioral questions across the top, and spaces for you to fill in 2 versions of an answer to each question. It’s always a good idea to have more than one story prepared to answer each question to give yourself options during an interview. 

⭐ Click here to access the Level 1: STAR Interview Worksheet. ⭐

To interview well, you need to prepare, prepare, prepare!

(Photo credit The Jopwell Collection)

To interview well, you really do need to prepare, prepare, prepare! It’s a mistake to assume that glancing at your resume and the job description for 10-15 minutes before an interview will be enough to help you be a prepared interview candidate. It’s also a mistake to prepare several ‘perfectly written responses’ and expect that you’ll remember them word for word in an interview situation. 

Over the past decade or so, I’ve conducted countless interviews and mock interviews, and provided critical feedback to help candidates improve their responses. I’ve found that there are 3 main stereotypes of interviewees that I’ve encountered – do you recognize yourself in any of them? 

• Type 1: Overly confident in their speaking abilities. Verbal storytelling comes naturally to this candidate, so they tend to over-rely on this ability and don’t do much interview preparation. 

  • Does this sound like you? 

    • “If I prepare too much, I will get bogged down in trying to remember too many things and sound too rehearsed – and I’m pretty confident that I know my own resume and that I can answer just about any question that comes my way.” 

  • Challenge to overcome: 

    • Just because you feel confident and speak well doesn’t mean that you actually come across that way to a practiced interviewer. An interview is an important opportunity to show you can be focused with your answers and your allotted interview time slot. 

    • I find that this type of candidate is most likely to ramble when telling their interview stories and forget to emphasize key points. 

    • This can become a big problem because while the candidate may be highly engaging, I worry about their ability to think ahead on projects and be efficient with their time. It also causes problems in future interview rounds where interviewers are expecting to hear concise responses. 

  • What can you do? 

    • Recognize that preparation will help those who are good at storytelling to become stellar at it, and will not diminish your ability to sound natural. 

• Type 2: Overly confident in their writing abilities. Crafting well-written interview responses is a strength for this type of candidate, however many do not practice translating these statements into the spoken word. And since most interviews require you to speak at some point, you’ll need to become good at this. 

  • Does this sound like you? 

    • “I have written down the perfect responses to a zillion types of interview questions. All of those sentences are floating around in my head, and I feel confident that I will be able to find the right one, remember all of its components, and speak it out loud at the right time.” 

  • Challenge to overcome: 

    • Two challenges - the written word rarely translates perfectly to spoken word. Don’t believe me? Try reading your cover letter out loud to a potential interviewer as your introduction about yourself - trust me, it’ll feel really awkward. 

    • Trying to remember the ‘perfect statement’ slows you down. 

  • What can you do? Recognize that preparation will help those who are good at storytelling to become stellar at it, and will not diminish your ability to sound natural. 

• Type 3: Practiced yet not robotic, feeling confident with defined areas for improvement.  

  • Does this sound like you? 

    • “I am feeling pretty good about any upcoming interview. I’ve practiced my interview responses, both written and spoken, so I know what key skills I want to emphasize. I’ve reviewed the job description and feel confident I know ~80% of the questions that will be asked.” 

  • Challenges to overcome: 

    • Working on how to prepare for the less common ~20% interview questions that will come your way (instead of feeling completely unsure of what’s coming next). 

  • What can you do? 

    • Pat yourself on the back for recognizing that interview prep is important and that you’ve found a successful strategy for balancing preparedness and still sounding like a real person. 

** Using my methods, I’ve had multiple candidates who became Type 3 - and would tell me that they came out of their interview having prepared answers to >80% of the questions asked.** 

Let me help you move successfully from interview rounds to the offer stage. Head over to the Contact Me page and let me know more about your needs.

How Do You Know When to Take Career Risks?

(Photo credit @claybanks)

Venture capitalists are by definition investors who take calculated risks, and usually really, really big ones. Their goal is to invest in multiple companies with the assumption that the majority of them will fail, but at least 1 out of 10 will yield 10X or higher results (which will hopefully make up for the failed investments). They spread the risk out. They listen to hundreds, even thousands of startup company pitches and select the ones they think have the best chance of success, after evaluating the company’s management team, the financials, the tech’s potential, etc.

And even with all the resources at their disposal, they get it wrong ALL the time.

So please don’t think you have to have everything figured out completely before you decide to take a career leap. And know that you’re going to make some mistakes along the way - but that’s ok!!

Let me offer you some tips and strategies to help you with this type of career decision-making.

With VCs being taken in by the hype, how can you avoid joining a leaky ship (aka a bad startup)?

• Try thinking of making career changes as taking calculated risks. For some, it’s helpful to think of a chess game. How many moves ahead can you plan out and how does that help you decide what to do today? When/how do you need to shift strategy when your “opponent” throws up a surprise move (aka a life change, an industry shift, or an economic downturn)?

• Learn to identify your risk tolerance. I talk often with students/clients about identifying your ‘risk tolerance.’ Everyone has a different way of assessing risk in their career and in figuring out how much risk they can handle at any one time. Remember, it can also fluctuate based on your age, family dynamics, finances, etc.

  • Check out this article for more details on the RRIS method for improving your risk tolerance.

• Face your fears. You can also work to increase your risk tolerance by trying this fear-setting technique from this famous guy Tim Ferriss I knew in college.

  • The aim of the exercise is to name your fears so you don’t let them lurk in the shadows and prevent you from taking big actions. I was surprised by how helpful it was the first time I did it, that even though I scared the hell out of myself, it felt great to vocalize my fears and face them!

  • Here’s another take on this fear-setting exercise too.

Another way to make hard career decisions is by educating yourself so you aren’t leaping blindly.

• What universal skills do you have? You can educate yourself about your skills by taking assessments like StrengthsFinder.

• Learn about the startup landscape. You can also use some of the tools the VCs do to educate yourself about the startup landscape & specific niches within it (fintech, 3D printing, IoT, etc): CBInsights and VentureScanner.

• Get recommendations on top startups to join. Wealthfront also does a yearly career-launching companies blog post, and provides great criteria/methodology for how to choose among one of these organizations.

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Want personalized career guidance? Take a look at my Career Strategy Session options.