PREPARE YOUR CANDIDATES FOR SUCCESS!

Finding the right candidate for any job placement can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. After all the effort, the last thing you want to happen is a bad interview performance.

 

All your work can go up in smoke if the candidate isn't properly prepared. Although you may not be able to accurately predict each and every question he or she may be asked, you certainly can prepare them for pretty-much any contingency. 

 

One of the most highly recommended methods to give your candidate the edge is the STAR method.

The STAR method is:

• S – Situation, background set the scene
• T – Task or Target, specifics of what's required, when, where, who
• A – Action, what you did, skills used, behaviors, characteristics
• R – Result – Outcome, what happened?

 

Learning this question answering technique will be invaluable for your candidates.

 

The STAR method technique will teach your candidate to answer tough work-related questions (not limited to job interviews) in a subtle, compelling and powerful manner.

 

People like hearing stories, facts are easier to remember if wrapped in a story, stories tend not to get interrupted; basically, stories are an ancient proven method of getting a message across! Listeners will remember more of your candidate's answers, and the messages within them, yet your candidate's message will be delivered in a friendly likable style.

 

As far as job interviewing is concerned, your candidate's success ratio will go off the scale.

 

How to build a STAR method Story

 

A Star story should be about 2 minutes long and delivered with energy and enthusiasm about a real experience your candidates have had (it does not have to be a work experience, as long as it describes a relevant skill or behavior).

Here is an example:

Question: Have you ever lead a team before?

This is another reason why the STAR method is so powerful. The above question is a terrible closed question. Your candidate could answer “yes” or “yes” on three separate occasions” and move quickly onto the next question. But Leadership is an important skill, and your candidate must not miss this chance to shine. Although a lot of folks would give the easy answer here, your candidates have a great chance to impress, and basically do all the interviewers work for them.

 

Let's build a STAR method story answer:

 

(Situation) “Yes; a relevant example being at my last company, where I was initially a software developer, in a team of 6 developing a new finance module for our core accounting product.”

 

(Task) “The project was critical as launch dates had been set with a lot of sales and marketing investment riding on the product being ready. However, the project was behind schedule when our team leader, unfortunately became ill and had to leave."

 

(Action) "I had been (sports team captain) at school, where I loved the challenge and responsibility of leadership. So I volunteered to stand in, and by using my technical analysis skills, spotted a few small mistakes made in the initial coding, that were causing the sporadic errors, and slowing us down. I then negotiated with our product director a small bonus incentive for the team, and budget for two pizza evenings, so we could pull a couple of late night shifts to correct the coding and catch up with the critical project landmarks."

 

(Result) "Though this took us 1.5% over budget, the software was delivered on time with a better than target fault tolerance. The project was seen as a great success as the additional project cost was minimal compared to the costs of delaying the launch, and the negative effect on our product branding. The team was delighted with the extra bonus and I have now been officially promoted to team leader as a result."

 

Your candidate needs to practice their answers out loud, to ensure it's continuity and that they don't go over 2 minutes. The example above not only answers the leadership question asked, but also conveys that your candidate has other skills and behaviors that the interviewer would be interested in.

 

Answering tough interview questions like this will work wonders, but answering poorly worded questions will really set your candidate apart.

 

They are many different ways to prepare your candidates for interviews. In the future, we will discuss many of these. In the meantime, if you would like to know how we prepare our candidates or have any questions or situations, specifically, that you would like candidates to be prepared for, we would love to discuss them with you.