What is the STAR method and how do you apply it?

BETTER RESULTS IN THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

A star."What's the STAR method and how is it applied?" That's a good one.

The STAR method is a method for performing job interviews.

It'd be great if more people knew about it.Let's get into it.

STAR stands for "Situation, Task, Action and Result".

And it's really helpful.In an interview, we want to know what the candidates used to do for a living and if they could perform their associated tasks.

Do they get good results? Are they satisfied with the tasks?

That is the basis of the aptitude evaluation and we try to find out with questions like these:Can this person take on this position?

Have they done something similar in the past?We call them biographical questions.

The "S" stands for "Situation".The first question would simply be:Are you familiar with this situation due to your last job?

Or: please, describe a situation from your last job,and if it fits better with the new job.

Well, not better, it just has to fit the new job.I mean, for example, in a customer service office you also have to deal with difficult people.

My first question would be: Could you describe a situation where you were in a call with a difficult client?

That's the first step in knowing which cases they perceive as difficult.

For example, it may not fit in what we consider important for the position.

Then comes the "T" for "Task". We ask them,What was your role in that situation?

To get an idea of whether they had to comfort the customer or just write down their questions, for example.

What they did was refer clients.What exactly have you been doing for a living until now?

I mean, what was your main role?Then comes the "A" for "Action".

We need to know what this person has been doing until now.

For example, when a difficult customer has yelled at someone or when any problem has come up. The question is:What have you done to solve this problem?

And "R" for "Result".It's about evaluating how the issue has been resolved.

If it had turned out well, you can also ask it at the end.

That leads us to the fifth topic: reflection, self-analysis.

What would you do differently now in a situation like that?

The worst questions are those asking about their weaknesses.

Some say that's where you can gather if the person is self-critic.

That's not true. Firstly, because they've already prepared the answer.

Secondly, they know that you want to find something out with that question and they twist it to get something positive out of it.

If we focus the questions on situations such as:What would you change now about your performance then?

You can tell if they've looked back on it and thought that maybe not everything went perfectly.

That could happen.What have you learnt about it?How do you focus that kind of reflections?

Well, as for myself, I'd say that, in my current life as a freelancer,in which situation... What would I have done differently?

I definitely remember a workshop that just simply didn't work out.

And my clients couldn't agree on what they really wanted.

There were two people, and they definitely couldn't agree on the organization of the offered position at all.

Nowadays, I would clarify that beforehand.To me, when I organize job workshops, it's important to clarify that it's a particular position and which requirements we demand.

That way, we won't endlessly digress on how to describe another five job positions.

That's what happens sometimes.You try to merge two positions in one offer and that's not possible.

So we have to commit to a series of requirements,to a single position. It's that easy.