A. Vocabulary

You will see or hear the following words as you do the following activities. Do you know what they mean?

B. The STAR Method

Some job interview questions are situational. This means the question is about a specific problem that happens on the job. The interviewer wants to see how you will fix the problem.

Remember: Employers want employees who are strong problem solvers. This means the person tries to fix the problem by themselves instead of immediately going to their co-worker or manager for help.

The STAR method is a way to answer situational interview questions using a story. Do you remember what STAR stands for?

C. Read a STAR Story

The following STAR story answers this question:

“Tell me about a time you had to deal with an angry customer.”

As you read (or listen to me read) the STAR story below, drag and drop the labels into the correct box.

Last year, I was working during the lunch hour at a restaurant. There was a family of five sitting at one of the tables. It was a father and mother with three children. The father looked upset. It was my job to serve this table. I saw the father looked upset, so I went to the table and asked him if there was a problem.

“Is there a problem?”

The father was upset about the food being cold.

“I’m sorry about the food being cold, and I understand why you don’t like it. Would you like me to get you something else or have this food heated up?”

The father calmed down. He asked me to reheat the food. I took the food to the back, to the kitchen, and asked the cook to reheat it. The father was very happy once he got the food back and it was warmed up.