Sample interview questions using the STAR technique

This is general list of basic questions can be used as an overview of generic questions. You'll find many of them are very familiar, which is an indicator of how prevalent the STAR technique has become in the employment industry.

Remember- The interview questions must be tailored to the job.

You will note that each of these questions is very simple, uses the STAR technique, and will generate a lot of information.

Note: The Examples questions below need to be seen both individually and as a group of questions for addressing job criteria.

Questions:

Organizational skills

• How do you prioritize your work?
• How do you manage high volumes of work?
• How do you deal with conflicting priorities from managers?
• How do you work with multiple deadlines?
• What are the problems you experience with high volumes of work?
• How do you set goals for managing workloads?
• What are your Key Performance Indicators?

Communications

• How would you demonstrate your communications skills?
• What forms of communications do you use regularly on the job?
• How do you communicate with clients?
• What volumes of inquiries do you handle on an average day?
• What's your preset turnaround time for a phone inquiry?

Interpersonal relationships How do you maintain good working relationships in the workplace? What's a good interpersonal relationship in a small team? How do you deal with conflicts in the workplace? How do you deal with difficult or demanding colleagues?

Team roles

• How do you describe your role in your current team?
• What are the elements of a productive team?
• What do you contribute to your team?

Leadership

• How do you deal with team conflicts?
• How do you integrate new members into a team?
• How do you approach building team skills?
• How do you structure team roles?

Examples

When creating your questions, you use the Relevant job criteria as your base. Each question addresses the required criteria

For example, your Competencies list will look like this:

Competencies:

• Customer service
• Retail sales
• Stock management
• Display work
• Complaints

So you ask for examples like:

• Give an example of handling a difficult customer
• Give an example of doing shop display work
• Give an example of doing retail stock management
• Give an example of solving a problem in customer service

Each question covers a range of skills, competency levels, and gives specific information and performance indicators. These are all high value skills in this job's range.

Question	Relevant job criteria
Give an example of your problem solving skills	Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Technical questions Communications Leadership Interpersonal relationships Team roles
Give an example of how you control the quality of your work	Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Technical questions Communications
Give an example of working under tight deadlines	Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Technical questions Communications Time management
Give an example of handling conflict in the workplace	Communications Leadership Interpersonal relationships Team roles
Give an example of developing and promoting an idea in the workplace	Innovation Organizational knowledge Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Technical questions Communications
Give an example of creating Key Performance Indicators for staff, and what basis you used to do that.	Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Leadership Team roles
Give an example of exceeding your Key Performance Indicators	Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels
Give an example of resolving a customer complaint	Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Communications Technical questions
Give an example of using your supervisory skills with trainees	Communications Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Leadership Team roles
Give an example of your team building skills	Communications Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels Leadership Team roles
Give an example of solving a complex technical problem	Technical questions Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels
What are your greatest achievements?	Communications Competencies Knowledge base Experience levels