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Master the STAR Technique to Ace any Interview

Tips and tricks to face and ace the behavioral interview

It is totally fine to feel butterflies in the stomach when interviewing for a job, especially when you are still a college student. You have limited experience, and it is probably the first time you are facing a panel of big wigs. However, the interviewers are well aware of candidates’ emotions at this stage. Remember, they are here to select, not reject.

Basic Preparation Goes a Long Way

Besides being punctual, greeting interviewers with a smile, and following social etiquettes to the T, take a measured and careful approach while giving an interview. Experienced interviewers often pose hypothetical questions like ‘How will you handle a situation when one of your future teammates is non-cooperative?

These kinds of questions are known as situational interview questions. You can crack them easily if you master the STAR approach, an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

STAR Technique – The Key to Unlocking Behavioural Questions

The STAR technique would stand you in good stead even when behavioral interview questions are posed. Behavioral interview questions place you in scenarios that you would have been in the past. These questions usually seek answers to how you got yourself out of a tricky situation. Besides answering situational and behavioural questions, the STAR also gives you valuable tips on keeping your answers brief and direct.

Well Prepared is Half the Job Done

Before facing the interview:

  1. Remind yourself of the activities you fared well in, particularly those that relate to the job description.
  2. Always ensure that the answers portray you in a positive light.
  3. Remember to explain one event thoroughly without mixing up several incidents.

There will likely be specific questions around the competencies for the position you are being interviewed for, so it’s best to prepare for such questions by noting down a suitable event in advance. Remember to answer in the context of all four parameters of STAR. Talk about the Situation, the Task to be resolved, what Actions you took, and the Results when answering the questions. Later, describe it in detail, highlight the most challenging part, and tell them the actions you took at that time and how you arrived at a solution. Once you have answered, pause and wait for the next question.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Even if you failed, tell them the truth, and explain how you got close to resolving it by taking the right approach. Interviewers usually want to see how you would approach a particular situation. Do also understand that when an interviewer poses a behavioral question, they look at how you positively portray failures.

However, it would be best if you never resorted to exaggeration. Do not show your team or teammates in a negative light. Job interviewers always prefer to hire honest and positive people.

Finally, practice answering hypothetical questions by putting yourself in an interviewer’s shoes. Do not rest until you are happy with the result.

Conclusion

Successful candidates have testified to the efficacy of the STAR technique, making it decidedly the best strategy for facing an interview. Moreover, it creates a system that candidates can easily remember when they respond to interviewers. This method makes you feel prepared and cautions you to be brief while answering.

So go ahead and rock that upcoming interview—no more butterflies in the stomach.

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Why I Picked Jaipuria for my MBA, and Maybe You Should Too

“Jaipuria helped me go from where I was to where I wanted to be.”

When I first stepped inside the Jaipuria campus, I brought experiences that not many students could claim they had undergone.

After 12th grade, I worked as a car cleaner before achieving the highest sales numbers of an Italian clothing store. I even had my own business (pushing it to grow with a turnover of over 80 Lakhs), which I then had to wind up. I accomplished all this by the time I finished my B.Com.

After this, I wasn’t sure what to do.

I would have probably given up on joining a B-school because my academics weren’t as strong – who would give an average student any opportunities?

Jaipuria Jaipur did.

Without this institution, I would definitely not be writing this piece with an offer letter in my inbox outlining an annual package of 27 Lakhs from Aron Global, one of Singapore’s most prominent supply chain managers.

As I write this, I think about my initial days here, when I sometimes wondered, “What can further studies teach me about running a business that I don’t already know from building my own and completing B.Com.?”

The answer is more profound than academics or business models and marketing jargon.

Jaipuria is not just a B-School in India, but they believe in taking in students from diverse backgrounds such as mine and turning them into more than cookie-cutter professionals.

In my marketing classes, as I read through concepts and applied them in competitions and case studies, something struck me.

I realized that I was not just learning the formal terms for the problems and issues I went through during my entrepreneurial days. I was gaining fresh perspectives while translating my practical knowledge and experiences (of running a business and doing retail) into strengths. I became more articulate in my speech and more confident in not just my wins but also in my losses.

Even then, as placement season came about, I felt nervous. Sure, Jaipuria believed that academic qualifications weren’t everything (and rightly so!) but would the professional world out there too?

The cohort, the professors, and the placement cell provided unparalleled support at each step I took to answer this question. Having that backing with me made all the difference.

My creativity, compassion, leadership skills are values that Jaipuria shaped, all while promoting a healthy environment that prioritized well-being through their vibrant culture, lush fields, and guidance initiatives.

Whether a job placement or a prize in a competition, any victory is just a byproduct (and not the destination) of the journey that Jaipuria provides. The institution grooms us to be self-assured individuals with a solid knowledge base and the ability to respond spontaneously to challenging situations.

When placements began, my final set of interviews spanned six hours, with the result coming out at almost midnight. Such milestones require resilience and street smarts to an extent. Jaipuria prepared me for all of this and more.

With Jaipuria’s values instilled in me, I went from being rejected for numerous opportunities because of my marks to becoming one of the youngest hires of an established international company. While this opportunity is just the beginning, the values that brought me here will stay rooted in me throughout the rest of my career.

As I look back, I want to urge B-School aspirants to choose a holistic environment that adopts a multi-faceted approach to teaching.

While you mull over which program to join, remember that as long as you have an insatiable appetite to explore ways to make an impact and permit yourself to make mistakes as you experiment beyond the conventional, Jaipuria will give you the space and unwavering support to flourish.

Watch the full interview of Mahavir here.

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