5. Describing Examples: from experience, for yourself, and for others
Whether you write about your experiences or tell them to someone as an anecdote or answer to an interview question, you will need to include clear and concise examples of what exactly you did to practise that skill or deal with that situation. This section will become a resource for techniques and examples that can help with doing this, from recording key aspects of your experience at the time to preparing detailed structured examples for things like personal statements.
For now, here’s an example of the STAR(R) technique for structuring an answer or example. You can use and adapt this to a wide range of situations, from reflective writing assignments to job interviews and more. Practising it often will turn it into a good habit for telling relevant stories, which you will need to do to communicate to interviewers, managers, teammates, clients, and more.
S
Situation
Set the scene, describe the context - where and when
Example
I was working for Acme Products Ltd in their sales team.
A customer called to complain that we hadn't replied to their product query for the last two weeks.
T
Task
What were you required to do - the problem, the objective, the job at hand
Example
Answering the phone, I needed to reassure this important customer, address their immediate inquiry, find out what went wrong, and satisfy their original query.
A
Action
What you did - method, process, solutions, application
Example
I apologised and said I would take responsibility for resolving this.
I investigated why the query hadn't been answered, finding that we had an incorrect phone number and an email address that wasn't regularly checked.
I informed the customer, corrected the details and offered a goodwill discount on their next order.
R
Result
How it all turned out - did it work? Were you pleased? Was anyone else?
Example
The customer was very pleased with my care in investigating, and with the discount.
They continued to order from us and even posted a positive review online.
(R)
Reflection
What did you learn from the experience? Skills, strengths, weaknesses, ways to improve.
Example
I learned that communication was key to resolving this.
It was professionally and ethically right to take responsibility for the complaint, and dealing with the problem step by step meant that I identified the mistakes that had caused the issue.