Interview tomorrow - STAR method

[yellowpetals]

Hi all,

Would really appreciate advice and wisdom. Have an interview for a fantastic role tomorrow - public sector on the arts/culture side. It's a bit of a side step for me and I imagine that I'll be competing against more experienced candidates.

They've told me the interview questions will use the STAR method. I have a terrible tendency to go blank when I'm nervous so I want to prepare as far as possible!

I have a list of essential and desirable criteria. It's a fairly senior role that involves a lot of communicating with external stakeholders and relationship building.

Using STAR in the past has felt quite straightforward - leadership/problem solving/team work - but I have a feeling this will be more geared to the criteria. Can anyone advise on how they might frame their questions?! Thanks so much.

Without knowing the criteria it's hard to say but it's usually just the 'tell us about a time when...' you demonstrated X or y criteria, so prepare stories where you did each of them.

Also pop the criteria into ChatGPT and ask it to generate interview questions for them based on that method. Might give you useful examples.

@Fitzcarraldo353 - that’s a brilliant suggestion with AI, thank you!

I'm job hunting myself at the moment so using all the tools I can!

Best of luck with the interview.

Second the ChatGPT suggestion - AI is REALLY good at this sort of thing.

Upload your CV then ask it to generate some STAR-based examples based on your experience.

If you are new to the public sector they will be a bit more relaxed on your star response. But basically, give a couple of sentences on the situational what your task was. Then the bulk of your answer should be the action you took and what result your actions had. Use the word I not we, they want to know what you did, not how you worked with the team. Have a reflection prepared too, what you may have done differently, if anything.

Don't spend time on the S and the T! Just a few sentences to set the scene etc

Spend your time on your A - and make sure this is action that YOU and you alone took, and the R ... that's where your time needs to go when you're explaining

And good luck!

Add another R at the end (Reflect). Looking back, would you do the same again? Why/why not?

This will add an extra element to your answers that others might not have.

Wow you lot are amazing! Thank you very much. I'm so nervous about tomorrow, but this has really helped me xx

I second the ChatGPT idea. Tailor your query to give you typical questions for x role in y environment using the STAR method. You can ask for answers to the questions, too. I found this really helpful for an interview last year. Good luck 🤞

I'm no interview expert but just remember 'I did this' 'I did that'.

How did it go @yellowpetals ?

@Fitzcarraldo353 - it went quite well I think, that's so sweet of you to ask! At the end they started asking about salary and my summer holiday plans, so I think that could be a positive sigN?! HOWEVER - it is a very competitive role that will have a lot of people who are better qualified applying (it's a bit of a side step for me) so I am trying not to get too hopeful!

They told me I should hear about a second interview early this week, so I'm expecting to hear today 😱 I will let you know. How is your job hunt going? Thanks again for asking 😘

That's great @yellowpetals . Hope you get some good news today/tomorrow. The market is crazy at the moment and SO competitive!

I have an interview on Thursday so am prepping today. Have a 10 min presentation task to prepare but they'll also send me the rest of the interview questions 24 hours ahead of the interview slot so will have most of tomorrow to prep STAR answers for them. Like you, it's a bit of a tangent for me and I'm sure it'll be competitive but I've got this far so fingers crossed.

@Fitzcarraldo353 - that’s great you have an interview tomorrow! Best of luck with it. Fantastic you can prepare before with questions and presentation, I’m sure you’ll do brilliantly.

I didn’t hear anything back yesterday, which is making me doubt myself a bit. It’s the 4th job I’ve interviewed for since last November and I am beginning to get so sick of it! Keep getting the feedback that I interview well and my applications are strong…but there are always more experienced candidates. My CV is a bit niche and years of being freelance and raising young kids has not helped 😩

The market is also insane as you say. Recently I was told a charity role (not brilliantly paid and very particular in terms of what experience they wanted) had over 130 candidates. 130!

But onwards…we will get there 🤞🏻 Best of luck tomorrow.

Hope you hear back soon, OP! 🤞🤞

Just a bit of advice I received years ago with STAR if you ever need it in the future.

• Spend the most time talking about the Action and Result - this is where you score the highest. A lot of times people get stuck spending too long on the Situation and Task which isn't what the interviewer is looking for. I was guilty for doing this 🙈

• Add another R to make it STARR the second R stands for reflection and how you reflected on the result and incorporated it into your next problems.

Wow I have never heard of this, worth knowing about as might have some job interviews soon.

Hope you hear soon 🙂

You think 130 is bad @yellowpetals ? I got an email from a great charity saying they'd had 550 candidates! Didn't get an interview for that one but have had 3 since October. Also have another one week after next. Just keep going! Fingers crossed you get some good news today.

Chat gpt the examples for ideas?

I learn the situation/task part of the example off by heart. The trick is to explain this as clearly and as quickly as possible before moving to the action and and result stuff which is where you score the marks.

@Fitzcarraldo353 - it’s crazy isn’t it?! I know there will be people who ‘blanket bomb’ job ads and that will impact the numbers, but still…I’ve never known it like this.

Are you in your 40s or 50s if you don’t mind me asking? I am late 40s and really hope this isn’t working against me in terms of recent in-house experience…

Anyway, very best for tomorrow - I’m sure you’ll smash it! Xx

Is it competency based? If so the competencies they're looking for will be in the application pack, so I'd prepare at least two real life examples for each competency, also, go that extra mile and talk about lessons learned after your results part, I'm senior management in the public sector and always look for this, you don't have to spend ages on it.

Sorry have just realised the interview was yesterday, doh! Hope it went well!!

I'm 48 @yellowpetals Hoping my experience will stand me rather than go against me. I did see today that the person who beat me to the last role I interviewed for had worked with the hiring manager at a previous charity so that's interesting. I'm definitely working my network so fair enough but annoying when it's someone else 😂

Fingers cross @yellowpetals
48 is a perfect age for having loads of experience, but not about to retire. It's still nearly 20 years off state pension age !!

Thank you @Fitzcarraldo353 and @IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads (fantastic name btw! 😻) I guess it's not so much that my actual age works against me, but more my career path to date - I've worked across a couple of different sectors and been freelancing for the past ten years or so. In one of the roles I interviewed for they said 'we want someone with more recent in-house experience'...but hopefully there will be others that don't feel so strongly.

I'm also slightly tearing out my hair as my most recent interview seemed so full of positive indicators - I really felt confident that I'd be called to a second interview on the back of it. But I STILL haven't heard anything today which is making me feel a lot less hopeful! 😭 I know it could be any number of reasons and no point speculating, but...