L is for Learnings (STAR Bonus Part 5)

In our last four articles, we’ve covered the STAR format quite exhaustively. Hopefully, by now you understand how to structure your STAR response, and what specific points to emphasize to make your story as compelling as possible. 

There is one last component to STAR that comes into play when asked negative questions. Questions such as 

• Tell me about the biggest mistake you made that had tangible business impact 
• Tell me about a time a project you led went off track. What happened? How did you recover? 
• Tell me about your biggest weakness. (horrible question) 

You get the idea. Yes, those questions should still be answered with a STAR, but you will want to tack on a couple more elements. Think of your full answer as STAR-L-star. 

STAR-L-star 

A common fear I hear from candidates when faced with a negative question is this: “Is answering this question honestly going to paint me in a bad light?” 

Well, that depends on a few factors. One is around the intent of the interviewer in asking this question, and their level of expertise in interviewing. An inexperienced interviewer might just use your answer against you, but even with those, the second factor will play a major role. Which is: 

Does my story end on a negative note? If you’re answering your traditional STAR, and if the story is negatively pointed (i.e. yes, it ends on a negative note), then it’s all too easy for the interviewer to use it as a reason not to hire you. This is why you must immediately follow your STAR with: 

• Learnings. What did you learn as a result of that story? What would you have done differently for a better outcome? Note that these learnings must be internally-focused. For example, a learning of “I’ll never work with assholes again” will not have the effect you desire. Instead, “I learned that I need to modulate my communication to the intended audience, and then went on to take the Crucial Conversations class, as well as read a few books to learn how to communicate more effectively” would be a much better answer to the same situation. 
• star. Follow up your learnings with an example of how you applied them to better effect. This will also be a STAR story, but notice the lowercase. That’s to indicate it should be a very brief STAR story, no more than 1 minute in length. It should involve a similar situation to the one you described in your first story, but the Action step should describe how you applied the Learnings to overcome the situation. 

Conclusion 

By following the STAR-L-star format, you’re turning a negative story into a positive one. You’re ending your answer on a note of growth and applied learning. And what interviewer doesn’t want that? 

Based on my own experience working with clients, I’ve seen the value of live coaching in interview preparation. This is why I and other members of EIC have started an initiative called InterviewMentors. If you are interested in getting some private or group coaching on your story content and delivery, please check out our bi-weekly webinars, or sign up for coaching here.