How do you use the STAR method in an interview?

The STAR method is a way to answer a behavioural interview question with one real example, told in four parts: the Situation, the Task, the Action you took and the Result. Interviewers ask these questions because past behaviour is treated as a good guide to future behaviour.

What does STAR stand for?

• Situation: where you were and what was going on. A group project, a casual job, a society role.
• Task: what you were responsible for in that situation.
• Action: what you did and how you did it. Spend most of your answer here.
• Result: what happened, what you achieved and what you learned.

The University of Queensland's careers team adds four tips. Give one example, never an overview of a whole job. Pick one skill to focus on. Put a number on the result where you can. Describe your own work.

Action is the longest part. UTS Careers suggests roughly 30 seconds or less to set the scene. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) tells its candidates to balance each answer by focusing on the action and the result.

What is a behavioural interview question?

A behavioural question (spelt behavioral in the US) asks what you did in a real situation. The Australian Public Service Commission says they usually begin with "Tell us about a time when..." or "Describe a situation where...".

UNSW's careers guide sorts interview questions into three styles:

• Behavioural questions ask about a past behaviour that gave a specific result. STAR fits these best.
• Competency questions ask you to show a particular skill. STAR works here too.
• Situational questions give you a hypothetical, usually starting "What would you do if...". UNSW says there are no right or wrong answers, so describe your thought process.

What are common behavioural interview questions?

Here are the themes to prepare for, with an example of each:

• Conflict in a team: Tell us about a time you worked in a team that disagreed.
• Disagreeing with a manager: Tell us about a time you disagreed with your manager or supervisor.
• A mistake: Describe a situation where you made a mistake and how you fixed it.
• Communication: Describe a situation where you felt you had not communicated well.
• Deadline pressure: Can you please describe an occasion when you have faced conflicting deadlines?
• Initiative: Tell us about something you led or organised.
• Customer service: Describe a time you dealt with a difficult customer or client.
• Organisation: Describe a time you have effectively demonstrated organisational skills?
• Analysis: Can you describe a task when you have analysed a set of complex data?
• An ethical call: Tell us about a time you were asked to do something you thought was wrong.

Sydney's sample list also asks ethics questions as hypotheticals, such as your next steps if you believed a colleague was breaching your profession's code of ethics.

Organisation and analysis questions from UNSW, communication and deadline questions from the University of Sydney. The rest are ours.

What does a good STAR answer look like?

Five invented examples, written by TAC.

Tell us about a time you worked in a team that disagreed

• Situation: In a second-year marketing subject, my group of four had a week left on a report and two members wanted to change the topic.
• Task: I was coordinating the group, so I had to get us to one plan without losing the week.
• Action: I asked both sides to write down in one paragraph why their topic was stronger against the marking criteria. We read them together, voted, and I split the remaining sections so each person owned one.
• Result: We submitted on time and received a distinction. I now settle disagreements against the criteria before anyone argues about preferences.

Describe a time you dealt with a difficult customer

• Situation: I work weekends at a clothing store, and a customer came in angry that an online order had arrived damaged.
• Task: Store policy sent online returns to a different team, and my job was to keep the customer from leaving without a fix.
• Action: I let her finish, apologised, checked our stock, swapped the item from the floor and logged the return with the online team myself so she didn't have to.
• Result: She left with the item that day, and my manager added the same step to the store's returns checklist.

Tell us about something you organised

• Situation: As events officer for a uni society, I ran our first careers night after the previous one was cancelled.
• Task: I had six weeks to book speakers, a room and catering on a small budget.
• Action: I emailed past members now working in the industry, booked a free room through the faculty and kept a shared spreadsheet of every task and deadline.
• Result: Three speakers came, the room was full, and the society now runs the night every term.

Tell us about a time you disagreed with your manager

• Situation: In a summer internship in a marketing team, my supervisor planned to send customers a 25-question survey.
• Task: I was building it and had two weeks to bring back enough responses.
• Action: I asked for ten minutes with her, showed her how many people had quit partway through our last two surveys, and suggested ten questions with the rest optional. We agreed to test both versions on a small group first.
• Result: More people finished the short one, so we sent it and I reported on time. I learned to bring evidence and something to test when I disagree with someone senior.

Tell us about a time you were asked to do something you thought was wrong

• Situation: In a third-year group assignment, one member offered a high-scoring report from a friend who took the subject the year before, and suggested we reuse whole sections.
• Task: I was doing the final edit and submission, so my name was on the declaration that the work was our own.
• Action: I told the group I would not submit copied work, asked him not to share the file, and split the unfinished sections so the deadline still worked.
• Result: We wrote our own report and submitted on time with a credit. I learned to raise a problem early and bring a plan with it.

What if you don't have much work experience?

Use what you have. A UNSW career coach says students without much formal experience can draw examples from coursework, co-curricular projects, mentoring or leadership programs, volunteer work, sport, music, student societies and community activities.

What if you have never faced that situation?

Work out which skill the question is testing, as the University of Sydney's careers centre suggests, and look for any time you used that skill. If nothing fits, be honest, as the Public Service Commission advises, and talk through what you would do. That turns it into a situational answer, where UNSW says to describe your thought process.

How do you prepare STAR answers before the interview?

• Read the job description and selection criteria closely, and write down the skills they ask for.
• Use the job description to guess the questions, then run a mock interview with those questions, as the Public Service Commission suggests.
• Write one STAR story for each skill, plus a few spare examples beyond those in your application.
• Say each story out loud until it is short and natural. UNSW suggests a mock interview with a careers coach. Check whether your own careers service offers one.
• For an online interview with AI, UNSW advises speaking clearly, getting to the point and linking every answer to the role with a specific STAR example.

In the room, the Public Service Commission says it is okay to take time to think, ask for a question to be rephrased and bring notes. If a question throws you, UNSW suggests telling the interviewer you need a moment.

What are the do's and don'ts of a STAR answer?

• Do say "I" when you describe team work.
• Do prepare a story about something that went wrong: a conflict, an error or a problem.
• Do match each example to a capability in the job description.
• Don't label a difficult colleague, customer or manager. Describe what the person did, such as handing work in late.
• Don't go in unprepared. UNSW counts a lack of preparation, which leads to generic answers, among the biggest mistakes candidates make.

From the University of Sydney's interview tips, ASIC's tips for candidates and UNSW's interview guide.

Can you use STAR in a written application?

Yes. The Public Service Commission describes STAR as one way to answer selection criteria in writing, and suggests using only one or two of your strongest examples for each criterion. UQ's careers team says the same approach works in a written cover letter. Our guides to writing a cover letter for an internship and whether a cover letter is necessary cover the letter itself.

What should you ask at the end of the interview?

UNSW suggests asking about the role, the team, development, culture and the next steps, and advises against raising salary in a first interview. Our guide to questions to ask in an interview groups the best ones by what each answer tells you. To know what graduates earn before an offer arrives, see our Graduate Salary Survey.

What did TAC readers tell us?

We asked our community about their worst interview experiences.

Many described interviews that ended with no reply at all. Some had a screening call turn into a full interview, so have your stories ready before any call.

Sources

• UNSW, How to prepare for a job interview (behavioural, competency and situational questions, the two example questions, STAR for AI interviews, examples from coursework and societies, mock interviews, taking a moment, questions to ask, salary in a first interview, generic answers)
• Australian Public Service Commission, Cracking the code: interview and other assessment (how behavioural questions begin, past behaviour as a guide to future behaviour, preparing with the job description, what is okay in the interview, be honest)
• University of Sydney Careers Centre, Interview tips, read 8 October 2026 (sample questions, the skill a question tests, conflicts, errors and problems, "I" in team work, describe behaviour, no personal judgements)
• UTS Careers, 4 Common Types of Interview Questions and How to Answer Them (15 December 2016), read 8 October 2026 (roughly 30 seconds or less to set the scene)
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Interview tips for candidates, read 8 October 2026 (questions based on the position description's capabilities, focus on the action and result)
• Australian Public Service Commission, Cracking the code: applying for an APS job (the STAR model for written selection criteria, one or two strongest examples)
• University of Queensland Career Development, STAR Template (2025) (what each part of STAR covers, the four tips, STAR in a written cover letter)

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