Beginning of June, our partner organisation Girls in Tech Switzerland organised another career advising event. Christopher Lübbers shared his expertise, tips and insights around job interviews with us, have you missed it?
Here is the good news! We consolidate the main takeaways to share with you.
One of the guiding principles you can use
One of the guiding principles you can use for the next interview is the STAR approach. This approach helps you to prepare yourself and structure your interview answers. The approach applies as following:
Situation or Task Answering a question, you should focus on describing the situation or task you were faced with clearly. Be sure to:
- be concise
- be specific, details make all the difference
- stick to relevant facts for your actions and limit yourself to what is relevant
Action you took
Describe the action you took and speak in first person. Focus on:
- what you did, don’t explain what you might do
- speak in first person
- stat facts and be brief
Result you achieved
State the result of the action, what have you achieved. Talk about:
- the result and how the event ended
- how you demonstrated self-reflection and analytical skills
- what you really accomplished
Try a standard question, such as „Tell me something about you“ or „Describe a difficult situation you experienced at work and how did you handle it“ and use this approach to answer. Find something that you want to share and practice with your friends or colleagues at work and see how you could improve before going to an interview.
The STAR approach helps you to showcase your skills and expertise. Remember to tell a story rather than listing your skills, like I am open minded, flexible, analytic and so on. Find examples where you were able to prove or learn your skills and tell the story reflecting the skills. Don’t apologies for anything you have done or situation have been in. Use it to talk about your skills, such as being able to juggle a job and learning a new language as you just moved to another country, showing how organised and adaptable you are.
Very, is very boring, use emotional words such as fascinating, outstanding, truly. Research the top 5 words you can accommodate with and use them whole heartily. Try to use some gestures, don’t sit still. Prepare by getting used to one gesture and apply it at the next occasion.
Finally ask questions that help you understand the role and what tasks are involved with it. State open questions and ask for opinions from the interviewer.
And never forget, be human, enjoy the situation and smile, smile, smile – recruiters hire attitude as 70% of what is heard is how you say it.
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