STARRS stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection, and Strengthen. This 6-step STARRS method will make you better at interviews forever!
Youth Ambassador Alexa-Jane Moore says:
When I was back at university, I wanted to do a summer internship to make myself more employable. I had done lots of things at university that these employers were keen to hear about, in telephone interviews and then assessment centres… but I needed a way to put these experiences across!
I had always used the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result). It wasn’t enough, so I expanded this to my own STARRS method as employers always asked me, ‘how would you do X better next time?’
STARRS provides you with the opportunity to ‘Reflect‘ on your experience and ‘Strengthen‘ it by thinking how you would do things better, next time.
The STARRS method
Situation
- Explain the situation you were in.
- Aim to answer the questions ‘what/where/when’, for example, “In the third year of my business studies degree” or “when I was working as a retail assistant in a shop last summer”.
Task
- What did you do, and what did the task or role involve?
- Explain your tasks and responsibilities briefly.
Action
- What did YOU do to meet the objective of/complete the task?
- You might want to cover what you did and how you did it, including what skills you used.
Result
- What was the outcome?
- Did you make a difference?
- Can you quantify this?
Reflection
- What did you do well?
- What didn’t go as well as you’d hoped?
Strengthen
- After reflection, what would you have done differently?
- What could have been improved to achieve an even greater success?
The STARRS method is a neat formula that you can adapt to any situation. It’s easy to follow and remember when you’re in a stressful situation like a job interview. It covers all the points that employers are looking for and helped me secure numerous offers for summer internships.
About the author
Alexa-Jane Moore was a Youth Ambassador with Youth Employment UK and winner of the ‘Youth Ambassador of the Year’ award. She has a keen interest in issues affecting young people. These include: unemployment, careers guidance, mental health and voting. She has written about these issues for The Guardian and Targetjobs.
