Using the STAR method on a job application form

Sometimes it can feel like you need to be an ‘all singing, all dancing superhero’ to get through the application process for a job.

However mere mortals do succeed and here are some tips and hints to assist. This blog post will focus mainly on the more detailed questions on application forms and how to complete them.

We will look at the STAR acronym and how to use this to complete answers.

Some common themes for questions  are around leadership, communication, team work and problem solving and you can use STAR to help you structure the answer.

STAR is as follows; you can use this to divide your answer into roughly 4 equal parts.

S- Situation

T – Task

A – Action

R- result

If we unpack this even further …

Situation – Tell the reader more, what is the context, where were you and what were you doing? Doing a group project as part of your course ? Baking cakes to sell at a fund raising stall?  Volunteering at a festival or with a charity?

Task – What did you need to do to get this done?  What was the actual task?  Was there more than one task? Who was involved?

Action – What did you actually do to get this done?

Result- What was the outcome? Did you produce anything? Was it made on time and did it work? How successful was it? Did you get any feedback?

You can also use this technique when answering questions at interview. The interview is a two way process so they may also go on to ask you what you might do differently if you did it again. What worked this time and what didn’t work so well? How can you improve?

There is more help and advice on completing application on our website.

http://about.brighton.ac.uk/careers/cvs-and-interviews/application-forms/ Thompson Rivers University via Compfight