#star interview method

STAR method is widely used to answer questions in behavioral interviews. But are you using it the right way? So, let’s find out how to use STAR method to ace your FAANG interview.

A very hard decision that I had to make in the last year was deciding that one of my goals was no longer feasible with my set timeline. It was the fall of my senior year in college and I was training to compete in a power lifting competition at the beginning of December. Being an engineering student, my secdule was very difficult and the days were long. I found myself half way through the semester and I was missing work outs almost daily. My days were getting to be 16+hours on campus. I was unable to focus on school work and found myself thinking about the weight room. While in the weight room I would start planning out what I needed to do as soon as i got back to my computer. Something had to give. Once I had made the decision to no longer train for my competition and focus on my studies. As a result, all of my classes were completed successfully. My body took the off time to recover and heal during the down time. Once I resumed training in the new year I was stronger and eager to jump start my training. Although it is a year later, I am training for the same competition and I am stronger than ever.

The most stressful situation that vividly stands out to me happened during my Process Design I class. There was a semester long group project that was to be completed by groups of three students. The team that I was working with consisted of two classmates that I had worked with for the past two years. The three of us balanced each other’s differences and made a very strong team. It was two weeks out from the deadline, when one of our members was admitted into the hospital to a bad reaction to a change in her medications. She alerted us to her situation and that she would not be allowed visitors during her stay. We told her not to worry about school and that her health came first. This left me and the remaining team member to complete computer simulations and write a 150 page report on our own. At first we spent an hour or two in shock, but then quickly started to make a plan on how to make up for lost man hours and how to fill the creative gap that was not left in our team. We coordinated both of our schedules and spent 12+ hours a day in the computer lab to make up for this time. Even though we were worried about her, we trusted that she was in the good hands of her doctors and remained focused on the project. As a result, out two man team was able to successfully finish the project and our team member was able to regain her health and return to school.

In one of my classes in senior year, I was placed in small group with two of my other peers. The group was designed to function as a team to complete in-class assignments.  One of the members was a female student that I was not very friendly with. She had a drastically different personality than me. She was a cheery, giggly, gossip who dressed in designer clothing. We had to complete a graded assignment every class and I found it difficult to keep her focused on the task at hand. I made a point of only talking about the class assignment after exchanging polite pleasantries. Once the task was complete I would ask her questions about her research or personal life. I repeated this process every class and we became to respect one another and accomplish the task without requiring meeting out of class. By the end of the semester my team was able to successfully complete all the assignments with a professional decorum and become friends in the process.