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Feeling super nervous about that upcoming interview and not sure where to even start?
It's your dream job! You can't afford to fail the interview!
What are you going to do?
You have two options for framing your answersduring the interview: CAR and STAR methods.
How to Answer Job Interviews
So what are the CAR and STAR methods?
The CAR and STAR methods are the two most popular behavioral interview techniques to prepare for your job interviews.
Master these and face your interviewers with full confidence, head held high, ready to talk about yourself!
CAR: Context/Challenge, Action, Result
STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result
These techniques will help you answer in short, crisp, and focused ways.
And that's the first step to impress an interviewer — clarity of thoughts!
What is the CAR method?
It's an answer template that helps interviewers assess your skills and predict how you'll behave once you're on the job.
CAR helps you answer in a clear manner using a three-point structure:
Context: Situation or challenge you faced in your job/college.
Eg: A difficult boss/lack of team support/strict professor
Action: Steps or actions you took to resolve the situation.
Eg: Open and transparent communication with your team/boss
Result: Outcome or impact of your actions.
Eg: More collaborative working relations
Quiz
"I submitted an urgent project, working overnight, and met timelines." Identify the "Result" in this statement:
While "submitted" and "working overnight" describe the action and "urgent project" the context/challenge, the result is "met timelines". Meeting timelines shows how you met the challenge of submitting the project with a positive impact.
What is the STAR method?
It's similar to the CAR method but here Situation and Task are two separate parameters, unlike the CAR method, where Context includes the situation and task/role assigned.
The STAR method is designed to help you provide concise and relevant answers using a four-point structure:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Watch this short video to learn more about the STAR technique:
Quiz
Why is the STAR method useful during an interview? Select all that apply:
The STAR method helps you explain your problem-solving abilities with a clear, structured answer. You may be asked difficult questions, but by using the STAR method, you can face any question confidently.
Which is Better, CAR or STAR?
Both the CAR and STAR techniques are effective methods to answer interview questions. You can use either depending on the situation and the depth of response required.
If the interviewer is looking for short, to-the-point answers, CAR is better. For example, "Tell me about a time you met a deadline."
If the interviewer wants more detail or asks for a specific breakdown of your role in a situation, STAR is better. For example, "Describe a time you led a project and how you handled it."
The video below explains why STAR is better for a more detailed answer:
Steps to Follow if Using CAR or STAR
Review the job description to identify key skills.
Think of relevant situations to demonstrate the use of these skills.
Choose the STAR or CAR technique to frame your answers.
Practice your answers with a friend or mentor.
Speak confidently and naturally.
Let's consider a scenario:
Here's Veronica. She is facing an interview for the role of a marketing assistant.
Veronica used the STAR method to describe how she created a successful promotional strategy to help a product become successful among youth.
This is Veronica's answer:
"As a marketing intern at my previous company, I designed a new promotion strategy for a product that was not getting much engagement from the youth."
Quiz
The interviewer looks a bit dissatisfied with Veronica's answer. Where was she lacking in her response?
Veronica could have talked more about the impact of her promotional strategy on product sales and the engagement of the target audience.
Take Action
Get ready for your next dream job!
It's time to start practicing using these techniques with these resources:
This Byte has been authored by
Romana Parveen
Learning Experience Designer
MBA