STAR framework for Behavioral Interview questions:
If you are interviewing, you will have to tackle a behavioral question at some point! It’s important to structure your thoughts and communicate clearly — so we recommend using the STAR framework that will help you ace these interview questions!
STAR Framework:
Situation: Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event.
Task: What goal were you working toward?
Action: Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount of detail and keep the focus on YOU. What specific steps did you take and what was your particular contribution? Be careful that you don’t describe what the team or group did when talking about a project, but what you actually did. Use the word “I,” not “we” when describing actions.
Result: Describe the outcome of your actions and don’t be shy about taking credit for your behavior. What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn? Make sure your answer contains multiple positive results.
STAR Framework Sample answer:
Situation (S): Conversion rate was falling off for my employer, XYZ, since large numbers of new visitors were not completing all the steps to convert into a first-time buyer.
Task (T): My goal was to analyze the web & mobile tracking data to figure out why this was happening and recommend product update that would result in at least a 15% increase in first-time buyers compared to the quarter before.
Action (A): By analyzing the data and looking at the funnel that every new visitor goes through, I identified that the conversion rate was still good on the desktop but it was falling off on the mobile devices. On further investigation, I figured out that most new visitors dropped off at the payment stage. My hypothesis was that the payment integration on mobile devices was confusing to the end-users. So I led a cross-functional team of product managers & engineers to run an A/B test and see if we can stop drop off on mobile devices at the payment stage.
Result (R): Our A/B test was successful and we increased our conversion rate by 20 percent.
Conclusion:
Next time you are asked a behavioral interview question, try out the STAR framework! It’s great for structuring your thoughts and helps you communicate clearly!
–MockInterview.co Team