Practicing interview response techniques can help you prepare for the interview process. Understanding how to structure a response can help you answer interview questions in a more memorable way for your interviewers. A useful method that can guide you in practicing your answers is the CAR interview method. In this article, we discuss what the CAR interview method is, how to use it and some example questions with sample answers.
what is the car method in job interview
Challenge
The beginning of your response engages the interviewer and creates a common understanding of the setting and situation. Set the context for your response by defining the challenging aspects of your achievement. Discuss the importance of the situation to highlight the impact you were able to make. Explain the role you had within your company to show that what you accomplished was more than what your employer expected of you in your position.
Can you describe a time you demonstrated leadership?
Challenge: “The company I previously worked for had many employees enrolled in school and I was in a department that had people that were about to graduate in the next three months.
Action: I anticipated that most of them would be leaving the company soon so I began requesting to be assigned some of their more important tasks. I planned to redistribute the delegation of responsibilities gradually, starting with my work in order to minimize the effects of losing many employees at a time. After successfully taking on new duties, I proposed similar redistribution plans for upper management to implement throughout the company
Result: Through these strategies, the company was able to transition from being fully staffed to understaffed with minimal loss in revenue and resources.”
What’s your greatest weakness?
Challenge: “In my last position in a small company, my office was understaffed the entire time I worked there. My coworkers and I were always busy and we all had different responsibilities, so our work didnt overlap or involve much teamwork. Because of this, I had difficulty asking for help from my coworkers knowing that we all had tasks to complete that didnt coincide with each other.
Action: When we were nearing our fiscal year-end, our workload was steadily increasing. Before I would begin falling behind, I took the initiative to ask my manager for additional help in each department.
Result: While only some departments were able to receive additional staffing, our management took our situation into account when scheduling deadlines. This helped to ease the stress for the entire company and allowed some staff to have downtime or assist other departments comfortably.”
How to use the CAR interview method
Here are the following steps you can take when using the CAR response technique:
Identify one job description you’re perfect for
Choose from the list of companies you’re vying for (better yet, with whom you have an interview already lined up). We want to get you comfortable customizing stories based on the role and company you are interviewing with.
How to tell when you are being asked a behavioural interview question
When you hear the words: “Tell me about a time when…” it’s highly likely that the hiring manager is asking you a behavioural interview question. Other variations include:
“Describe a time when…” “Give me an example of…” “Have you ever…?”
It is very common to hear career coaches, hiring managers or executive recruiters advising candidates to use the CAR interview technique – in fact, I first heard about it from an AESC member search consultant at Russell Reynolds. But why is this particular interview technique so popular?
Well, the CAR interview technique (Context – Action – Result) is cited so regularly because it is considered an effective way to demonstrate how you apply your working style, skills and knowledge to a range of career experiences. Therefore assisting executive recruiters and hiring mangers to understand how an executive candidate will react in any given situation. In summary, the idea is to use career experiences to demonstrate your fit for the executive job at hand.
BlueSteps members have access to BlueSteps Executive Career Services, which provides them with expert resume writers and experienced career coaches who are ready to partner with you for your career advancement. Topic
CAR ExplainedContext: First explain the surrounding context for which you were required to act upon.Action: Describe your actions to remedy the problem or to create new opportunities.Result: What was the outcome of your actions / how did the organization benefit?Interview Example Question: Describe one challenging situation you had to overcome? CONTEXT: When I started at Toy Stores Ltd in 2003, our selling strategy was too reliant on retail store income and we were losing out to online vendors. Current employees were very resistant to change as it was the way they had done things for a long time.ACTION: To see how we could proceed, I surveyed all employees and conducted market research. With the research clearly demonstrating we needed an online sales point, I suggested we move forward while addressing all the employees concerns. I built a new team with current employees and new technical staff and we created an online store.RESULT: The online store saw an increase of overall sales by 300% in the first 2 years, bringing Toy Stores Ltd. back to profitability and ensuring the business was prepared for the future. All employees welcomed the results with great personal satisfaction because they were involved in the process from the start.Line from Job description we attempted to answer: ‘Proven experience in mentoring & developing leaders/teams’ While I am sure you can come up with much better examples in your own careers, the idea is to demonstrate skills, behaviour and knowledge that applies directly to the position they are advertising, allowing executive recruiters or hiring managers to visualise how you will perform in the role. Create your CAR examples by choosing key competencies from target job descriptions and find experiences in your career where you have demonstrated your ability to succeed in each area. Also, remember to look for culture fit statements such as, ‘works well with diverse teams’ or buzzwords such as ‘proactive, solution-oriented or flexible.’ Using these or related terms in your CAR examples will allow you to demonstrate your fit without it seeming forced – the story format avoids the need to say ‘I am this…’.
FAQ
What are the 3 methods of job interview?
- Behavioural interview.
- Situational interview.
- Case interview.
What are 4 styles of interviews?
What is the car framework?
What is the car framework for storytelling?
