Rating Interview Responses using the STAR method

Behavioral interviewing assumes that past performance is an indicator of future performance. We ask people about their previous experiences in order to see if we can align their responses with our expectations of the job and situations we know they’ll encounter. 

Using the STAR method to gain more insight into these areas, you’ll identify a Situation or Task, ask about what Actions were taken, and what the overall Result was. 

Here’s how it works. 

1. Once you have candidates associated with your job, review their strengths, preferred work style, and potential caution areas.This will help you gain an understanding of how the candidate likes to work, what they bring to the table, and areas where they may need improvement. 
2. Next, review the Job Fit to see the candidate’s naturally aligning characteristics and potentially misaligning characteristics. Here, you’re comparing their results to how they relate to this specific job. What will come easiest to them and where might they need to stretch in this role?
3. Use the Interview Builder, which gives you a list of questions that are tailored to this specific candidate for this specific job. 
4. Create additional questions using the STAR method (below) to help you determine if the candidate has the potential to be a top performer.

Ask the interviewee to:

• Situation or Task: Describe a specific situation or task you needed to accomplish.
• Action: Describe what you did (even if you are discussing a group project).
• Result: What was accomplished? What did you learn?

Think of a situation or task that frequently occurs in this role and what your expectations would be for how a top performer would handle it. In order to do so, you’ll need to discuss these with the interview team and recruiter so everyone is aligned on what separates a top performer from an average performer for this role.

Listen for the answer that would be satisfactory for you and the interview team to know this person would handle this situation or task adequately.

You can use the Behavioral interview questions guide to dig deeper into how a candidate reacts in different situations to understand if they would be a good fit for the job.