Here's The Best Way To Answer A Job Interview Question

You've learned about crucial background review questions during a job interview, right?

You also should realize that you are going to be asked hundreds of more questions during an interview which can take about a few minutes to a few hours. The most extended job interview I've been to lasted for almost 3 hours!

The shortest one is about 30 minutes ...

Not only that, some interviews make you go through more than one process, for example, you have to present product brochures in front of other candidates, and then you present the same booklet to the sales managers, marketing managers or even the General Managers.

It all depends on the companies and the hiring managers ...

I remember an interview I went for that my friend had gone to the previous month. According to my friend, he had to make a presentation on a product at the end of the interview. I was looking forward to the presentation part, but at the end of the session, the interviewers let me go just like that. 

I was not asked to present anything.

Luck? 

I don't know. 

I was there for the interview only.

Here's the Best Way to Answer a Job Interview Question

And I mean any question ...

The answer's structure I'm about to share with you can be used to answer any job interview questions there is out there. All you need is a bit of adjustment to its content and perhaps how you answer the question. 

Plus, it is so easy to learn, and you can cook up your answer right after your interviewer finishes asking the question.

Just make sure you practice, practice, and practice using the structure ...

The STAR Answer Structure For Interview Question

Well, friend, it's just like a dish. 

Throw in enough ingredients, add some creative arrangement, and it will be a tasty one just by it's look.

Agree? 

The same goes for your answer ingredients. 

What needs to be in? 

Actually, your interview answer only needs to contain 3 things:

1. Your situation or task. You set the stage for your answer's story.
2. Your action is taken. What did you do? How do you go about it?
3. Your result. What was the outcome?

These 3 ingredients can actually be remembered by a simple acronym: STAR where ST - is your situation or task, A - is your action taken, and R - is the result or outcome you get. 

Clear? 

But I hear you asking, "Why to go through all these fusses?" 

Allow me to explain...

Whatever you put down in your application form and in your resume (CV) are just printed words, and it's only as good as your words. 

How do they justify them? 

They'll be asked you lots of questions, and those questions are 'behavioral' in nature. 

Pleazzz... layman?

Simple. 

You and me, we are the creature of habits. 

And habits rarely change. 

It sticks like a shadow under a hot sunny day thus making it predictable. 

See? 

That's how you get the 'behavioral' type of question which means plainly 'how would you react under given circumstances.' 

Now, are we clear?

So when you're asked, "In your previous employment, why you agree to be posted in the accounting department?". 

Your answer, "Actually, we had a situation in the account, and no one was able to handle it causing a long delay. Rather than waiting for things to change, I decided to go down and look at the situation myself thinking 'we are a unit and should behave like a unit.' At last, I discovered an imbalance in one of the yearly statement figures, corrected it, and the delay was reduced to zero in no time."

That's is how I put it plainly. 

The elements are all there... the STAR. Structure all your answers around that framework, and you'll never go wrong.

Highlight your STAR, let it be on center stage every time you answer the question for a job interview.

See you in the next post...