What is the STAR method when interviewing? An experience
Years ago, when I was a Change Manager, there was a time when I needed to improve the autonomy of team members, giving them more empowerment to share decisions. Our Agile Coaches needed to be protagonists and often make decisions without my presence. That’s when the idea of including them in the company’s selection process came about, so that they had the opportunity to choose their co-workers and thus analyze which profile best fitted their needs. Not just from the manager’s point of view, but from the team’s point of view.
When I started the process of including team members in the selection process, they were unsure how to behave or what kind of questions to ask, so I made an agreement with them:
- The first two interviews I will conduct and you will observe the questions I ask, how I behave and in the end you will tell me what you think about the candidate.
- In the third and fourth interviews, you will be free to ask the candidate two questions and at the end, we will agree on hiring or not.
- The 5th interview, we will conduct together.
So we started interviewing potential candidates.
In the interview, we always tell the candidate that an interview is nothing more than people deciding whether it makes sense to work together or not and that today’s interviewer can be tomorrow’s interviewee. So, it is important to treat everyone with respect, in addition to encouraging that all responses are based on the STAR model, explained in every interview.
Rephrasing questions to STAR Interview Technique
It was interesting to see each team member evolving in their approaches and questions: One of our team members once asked the following question to a candidate for an agile coach position: “What is the most important value of the agile manifesto for you?”
I confess that I got a bit disappointed, because this question does not “change the price of the euro”, it is not exactly a question using the STAR Interview technique. That is, knowing what the value of the most important agile manifesto is for the candidate does not say about having practical experience or not.
I suggested the team member in a feedback a different approach to this type of question and, in the following interview, I was surprised by the same question posed in a different way:
“Can you tell us about a situation where you used an agile manifesto value to solve a problem?”
I was very happy to see the evolution of this specific team member and all the others!
As you may have noticed, I just used the STAR technique to write this article you just read! I described the situation or context, talked about the task of including them in the hiring process and their difficulties, listed the tasks we performed until they reached the level of autonomy I expected, and shared the wonderful results of being happy and engaged in choosing her companions and companions on the journey!
Did you see?
This is a very common thing, right?
How about starting to include your team in interviews and using the STAR model as a way of working?
Remember:
Management is too important to leave to the managers!
Conducting the interview with the STAR technique
When interviewing a candidate, it comes in handy to have a copy of the behavioral questions close to you, as well as to explain to those involved (interviewer and interviewee) how the interview will take place. Explaining the use of the STAR model to the candidate will help him to perform better in the interview.
The STAR technique in the interview consists of asking purposeful questions and relying on answers based on real experiences and not just on theoretical concepts.
What are some STAR interview questions?
You can use some purposeful questions like:
“Give an example of a project where the goals were not clear and describe how you handled the situation.”
We’ve all been through situations where the goals weren’t clear, haven’t we? This question helps to understand a little better how each professional sees and acts in this type of situation.
How about this question “Tell me a situation where you were not motivated and how you handled the situation.” We can all feel unmotivated at some point. It is not? How about hearing how the professional acted to regain his motivation? Does it not seem interesting to you?
How To Use the STAR Interview technique to hire great people?
I always use a framework to help guide our process. It is not a perfect recipe, but it can help you and your team to implement a more inclusive and purposeful hiring process:
1 – Define the vacancy and the reason for hiring very well
If you don’t know why you want to hire or what problem the professional needs to solve, you will hardly make an assertive hiring. For this reason, I highly recommend that you start the process by creating a Team Competency Matrix and making it clear which competencies are required for the professional to perform his role well.
2 – Set up a vacancy with very clear descriptions of what is expected of the vacancy candidate.
Focus on the content the candidate needs to know, technologies and tools, processes and practices, and interpersonal skills.
3 – Evaluate the resumes with your team and ask the candidate to fill in the behavioral questions
Evaluating the resumes with the team will help you select the best candidates for the actual interview. Management 3.0 behavioral questions help a lot to understand the candidate’s experiences before asking him to donate part of his time to participate in an interview. What I always talk to professionals about is: If based on the resume and behavioral issues we don’t feel comfortable asking the candidate for an interview, then it’s best not to call them.
4 – At the time of the interview, be cordial.
Remember that if you’ve called a professional for an interview, we want them to be approved! With that in mind, we need to provide conditions for him or her to do well, right? So be cordial, break the ice and make it clear that this is a conversation between professionals deciding if their experiences and expectations make sense for both of them. Don’t forget to give space for the team to ask the questions in the STAR.
5 – Decide with your team whether or not to hire the candidate
The team and manager both need to agree on hiring a professional. Remember that the team usually has more context than the manager and that no one is smarter than collective knowledge with a clear purpose. I recommend talking about the positives and negatives right after the interview. Thus, the verdict is closer. If a professional meets the desired requirements, even if there is something to be improved, hire them soon. Avoid making long and complex selection processes. At the end of the day, they are human beings and need kind and respectful treatment.
Final tip: By doing this, do you guarantee that all hires will be assertive? Of course not. There is no silver bullet for hiring. They are human beings. We can all talk about a selection process. But STAR is not about that. It’s about empowering people to choose their co-workers, develop them to become better and make better decisions. Train your professionals to participate in the selection process and see how much it will help you and your team to make better decisions.
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