How can you stand out from the competition and help an employer remember you? Use the Situation, Task, Action, Results (STAR) method. This will help you present your skills and experience to employers in a unique, effective way.
The Situation, Task, Action, Results (STAR) method, which should be applied to your resume writing and job interviews, will help you create statements that demonstrate your on-the-job impact while also highlighting your past experiences and achievements. These statements, which are focused on how you made a difference in your workplace, are viewed more favorably by an employer than unstructured statements or lists of duties that leave questions about your impact.
How can you use the STAR method? Follow the steps below.
Situation
Describe a specific, on-the-job situation that presented a challenge that you resolved. This should include precise details (including who, what, where) so the employer can understand the nature of the situation you faced. You should also include information about your roles and responsibilities in this section. Be careful not to overwhelm the interviewer with details; you don't want them to get lost or disinterested in the story
Task
Describe what your specific assignment was in the situation you explained above. What goal were you working toward? What were your duties? This component of the STAR method helps the employer understand how your role fits into the big picture of the challenge at hand.
Action
Describe in specific detail what you did to solve the situation. What were your actions? How did you implement them? Remember, the employer does not want to know how your supervisor or team responded, but what you did to remedy the situation.
Result
Describe the direct results of your actions. How did your work help resolve the situation? Did you save the organization money? Did you increase capacity or improve your department's response time? Use numbers whenever possible to quantify your results; in so doing, employers can more easily discern your impact.
Using the STAR Method in Resumes
The STAR method is particularly useful when detailing your work experience. It helps the employer understand not only what you did at each of your jobs, but how your work impacted the organization. Here is an example of a resume entry using the STAR method:
Inherited a cumbersome client referral system that delayed representative response times by two weeks. My task was to improve representative response times. Designed and implemented a new client referral system, including data analytics, automated responses, estimated wait times and easier access to basic information. Decreased client response time from two weeks to three business days. These changes increased the percentage of satisfied clients from 39% to 82% in less than one year.
Let's break it down.
Situation
Inherited a cumbersome client referral system that delayed representative response times by two weeks.
Task
Improving representative response times.
Action
Designed and implemented a new client referral system, including data analytics, automated responses, estimated wait times and easier access to basic information.
Result
Decreased client response time from two weeks to three business days. These changes increased the percentage of satisfied clients from 39% to 82% in less than one year.
Using the STAR Method in an Interview
The STAR method can help you structure your responses in an interview setting. How? Here is an example.
"Tell me about a challenging situation you faced at work, and what you did to resolve that challenge?"
Situation
"I work as a medical assistant in a free clinic for homeless individuals. The clinic provided free health care to those who did not have insurance or the finances to pay for health care. We had severe overcrowding in the clinic, and individuals would wait for hours to receive care."
Task
"My job was to create efficiency in the clinic to help manage the overcrowding and reduce patient wait times."
Action
"I reorganized their current file management system and created a new appointment tracking system."
Result
"As a result of these efforts, we reduced the average wait time for patients from three hours to one hour and increased the number of patients seen in a single day from 12 to 20. This allowed the clinic to assist more people in need."
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