STAR interviewing
STAR interviewing is a well-known behavioral interviewing technique that more hiring managers are using when interviewing for medical sales reps, pharmaceutical sales reps, pathology sales reps, and clinical diagnostic and research lab sales reps.
STAR stands for:
| Situation or Task
|
Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event. |
| Action you took | Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did — not the efforts of the team. Don’t tell what you might do, tell what you did. |
| Results you achieved | What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn? |
Employers want to know more than just your skills and experience — they want to know how you will behave day-to-day and how you will react in unusual or stressful situations.
To prepare for your next job interview, look back at your resume and think of several situations you can describe, keeping in mind the requirements of the job you’re interviewing for (think of instances that will highlight how well you fit this position), and remembering to emphasize the positive outcome that resulted from your actions.
Here are two great articles to see for help: Behavioral Interview Questions and Nail the Behavioral Interview. Both have lots of good tips you can use.
(thanks to http://www.quintcareers.com/STAR_interviewing.html for the chart)
Written by Peggy McKee - the medical sales recruiter
Get top medical sales candidates at PHC Consulting
| How to Get Into Medical Sales Learn how to get into this great field - insider secrets & tips. | 30/60/90 Day Sales Plans |
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[...] Behavioral interviews focus on past job behavior and performance (what did you do in a given situation) with the idea that this information will predict your future behavior and performance. Behavioral interviews are really much more informative for employers than a “what do you know how to do?” interview, and more and more hiring managers are using some version of it. (Here’s a post on STAR Interviews.) [...]
[...] Behavioral interviews focus on past job behavior and performance (what did you do in a given situation) with the idea that this information will predict your future behavior and performance. Behavioral interviews are really much more informative for employers than a “what do you know how to do?” interview, and more and more hiring managers are using some version of it. (Here’s a previous post on STAR Interviews.) [...]