Interviews are used across all sectors and form an essential part of the application process for jobs and graduate schemes! In this post, we will discuss how to structure your interview answers and how to master an interview.
What is an Interview
An interview consists of multiple individuals, with one of those individuals primarily answering questions posed to them by the others. In simple terms, it is a structured conversation allowing a party or individual to gather the information they wish to know.
An interview in the recruitment process primarily consists of competency/behavioural based questions and will commonly consist of some basic questions. The basic questions tend to be open-ended questions allowing the interviewee to go into as much or as little depth as they feel necessary. Examples of basic questions are: Tell me about yourself, What are your weaknesses?, Why do you want this job?
Competency Based Questions
Competency-based questions get you to reveal past performance to help give an indicator of future performance. Competency-based questions give an informal feeling to an interview, and it is important to not fall into that trap (I confess I did). These types of questions target specific skills for the job and are more systematic than a general interview. If you can master competency-based questions, if you are in a good place to master the interview.
Competency-based questions take up the bulk of an interview, especially for graduate roles. Therefore it is important to master your answers to these types of questions. An example of a competency-based question is “Give an example of a situation where you solved a problem in a creative way” and “Give an example of a time you handled conflict in the workplace”. The employer is looking to understand and gain an insight into your behaviours within a practical and working environment and then assess that against what you will encounter at their company.
Competency-based questions can be difficult to answer but, fortunately, there is a great format for developing answers. If you use this format for your answers, you are starting on the front foot and on your way to giving an answer which will impress the interviewer. The format is STAR and it is a critical format to use to help master an interview.
What is STAR?
S – Situation – What situation were you in? Make sure you provide a context and give enough detail to the interviewer
T– Task – What was your responsibility in the situation you have described? What was required of you?
A – Action – What did you do? What actions did you take? This is your opportunity to make clear to the interviewer the contribution you made
R – Result – What were the results of your actions? It is better to highlight what you accomplished.
So how can we use this in response to an interview question? Lets find out!
Interviewer: “Tell me about a time you showed strong teamwork skills“
Situation
I am sure you have plenty of situations you have worked with within a team and showed good team working skills. The key is to select the best situation which gives you the best opportunity to showcase these skills. The circumstance you use forms the base and foundations of your answer. The best way to do this is by brainstorming different situations with the competencies you showed and select the key competency for each situation. After this, you will be left with a range of situations and relevant competency.
” At University I worked on a project consisting with a multidisciplinary team of engineers. My role within the team was as Chassis Engineer“
Task
When describing the task at hand, it is best to use as much detail as possible. Get specific. This portion of your answer will demonstrate to the interview exactly how you fit into the team. This can easily be confused with the following section action. The task portion is about setting the scene for your tasks and goals.
“As Chassis Engineer, I was responsible for designing the chassis, ensuring I integrated other engineers designs and it was structurally stable“
Action
This is where you explain what you did. Show off to the interviewer about your contribution. Highlight why your contribution was so good. This is your chance to show off.
“I worked closely with the team of engineers to integrate our designs efficiently. I did this by setting up a weekly design meeting to discuss any new developments and prevent our designs not synchronising. I designed the chassis using the CAD system Solidworks and ensured all new developments were included in my most recent design“
Result
Explain how your contribution was pivotal. This section of your answer is key to providing the results of your actions. How did they make a difference? Answering an interview question is like telling a story, and explaining the results is the big finale. If you can provide some numerical data e.g. improved the performance by 50%, make sure you include it!
“As a result, during the building process, the vehicle came together effortlessly due to the chassis, taking into consideration of the other components designs. Additionally, this chassis design created great synergy between the subcomponents, with the chassis being the framework between them all. The synergy created from the chassis was central to our vehicle finishing 2nd in the race“
Bringing it all together
Question: Tell me about a time you showed strong teamwork skills
Answer: (SITUATION) As Chassis Engineer, I was responsible for designing the chassis, ensuring I integrated other engineers designs and it was structurally stable (TASK) As Chassis Engineer, I was responsible for designing the chassis, ensuring I integrated other engineers designs and it was structurally stable. (ACTION) I worked closely with the team of engineers to integrate our designs efficiently. I did this by setting up a weekly design meeting to discuss any new developments and prevent our designs not synchronising. I designed the chassis using the CAD system Solidworks and ensured all new developments were included in my most recent design. (RESULT) As a result, during the building process, the vehicle came together effortlessly due to the chassis, taking into consideration of the other components designs. Additionally, this chassis design created great synergy between the subcomponents, with the chassis being the framework between them all. The synergy created from the chassis was central to our vehicle finishing 2nd in the race.
Are you looking to go even further? Tell the interviewer what you learnt from the experience, how you would improve your approach next time and how it will relate to the role you have applied for!
Summary
Here we have learned how to use the STAR method to answer an interview question. Following this method gives you a great foundation to develop impressive interview answers. It may seem like a trivial approach, but it provides the interviewer with everything they need and more if applied correctly. Developing a question with this structure for each key competency will put you on the right path to impressing the interviewer and help you master the interview. To ensure a great delivery, practise your answers to your friends and family and get familiar with providing the answers. Practising is something you should definitely as it will prepare you for when the interview arrives.
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