Based on the competencies you identified for Exercise 2—and for other competencies you may need for jobs that interest you—identify between 10 and 15 examples of stories from your experience, as described in this chapter. Write each out in the STAR (situation/task, action, result) format. Practice saying them out loud, and then revise each to take between one and three minutes.

Exercise 2

Find a job description that interests you. Based on the tasks and qualifications, list the job competencies and specialized skills the company seeks, for example, detail orientation, customer service, innovation, data analysis, financial modeling, and so on. Now write at least one behavioral interview question that would elicit information about each competency. Figure 3 will give you some ideas, and you can invent your own.

Figure 3

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Business Communication: Tell me about a time when you delivered a presentation. | Describe a report you wrote for a business audience. | Can you tell me about a time when you worked with people who are different from you? What communication challenges did you face, and how did you resolve them? Relationship Building: Describe the best working relationship you've had. What did you do to make it successful? | Tell me about a time when you had to work with someone you didn't like. | Describe a time when it was particularly difficult for you to gain credibility with someone. What did you do? Problem Solving: Tell me about a time when you were assigned work that you didn't know how to do or had difficulty completing on your own. How did you handle it? | Please give me an example of when you had to solve a particularly challenging problem. Teamwork: Tell me about a time when you had to step in to help a group or team complete a task/project/ assignment. What did you do? | Give an example of a conflict with a coworker. How did you handle it? | Think of a time when you had a major role in developing a team that became very successful. Tell me one or two things you did that contributed to the team's success. Time Management or Planning and Organizing: Tell me about a time when you faced a strict deadline and how you handled it. | We all miss deadlines sometimes. Can you think of when this happened to you? How did it happen, and what was the result? | Tell me about a time when you had too many things to do, and you had to prioritize your tasks. Work Ethic: Tell me about a time when you had to cut corners in order to finish a project or meet a manager's expectations. | Describe a task you truly disliked and how you handled it. | Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond in order to get a job done. Ethics: Please give me an example of when you felt that your personal ethics didn't align with a company's. | Tell me about a time when your manager or client asked you to do something that you didn't think was appropriate. How did you respond? | Can you think of a time when your ethics and those of a coworker or teammate caused a conflict between you? What happened? Decision Making: Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split-second decision. | Tell me about a policy you didn't agree with but had to comply with anyway. What did you do? | Tell me about a difficult decision you've made in the last year. Persuasion or Influence: Tell me about a time when you convinced someone to see your point of view. | Can you give me an example of how you successfully persuaded another person even when that person didn't personally like you (or vice versa)? | Please describe how you persuaded someone to implement an idea you proposed. Customer Service: Tell me about a recent situation in which you had to deal with a very upset customer or coworker. | I'd like to hear an example of when you exceeded a customer's expectations. | Tell me about a time when you had to bend a policy to accommodate a customer. What happened?