- Inside: The framework you need to answer “tell me about a time” interview questions.
- SITUATION: Where were you? …
- OBSTACLE: What was the problem?
- ACTION: What did you do to solve the problem?
- RESULT: What were the results of your actions?
SOAR Life Skills-Job Interview Questions for adults with special needs/disabilities
A Simple 4-Step Approach to Telling Hiring Manager About Yourself
Do your research and prepare four or five bullet phrases relevant to a business challenge or a market threat or potential opportunity that the target firm or industry faces.
Each bullet should be no longer than 3-seconds and associated with action-oriented successfully completed tasks (“I started this”…“I developed and successfully executed that”…“I spearheaded something and brought it to something other”). The bullets should also touch on your positive attributes and personal characteristics – all combined, a big order I know.
What Behavioral Interview Questions Ask
According to Ashton Carter, “Tell me about a time when …” is how many behavioral interview questions start. Your answer should describe how you approached your previous job duties, responsibilities, challenges and interpersonal relationships in the workplace.
Behavioral interview questions differ from, say, situational interview questions, which typically quiz a job candidate about a process or procedure related to functional expertise. An example of a situational interview question is, “How do you migrate data from one server to another?”
The SOAR interview process is more technique than process. Its a convenient way to remember how to answer behavioral interview questions. SOAR is a recipe for providing succinct and comprehensive answers to the interviewers questions. It means that you describe the situation, objective or obstacle, action and results.
Some career coaches and recruiters refer to this as the STAR technique, which is situation, task, action and results, explains Indeed. If you explore STAR versus SOAR model examples, youll see theres hardly a difference between SOAR and STAR.
SOAR Model Examples for Responses
Using the SOAR technique will almost guarantee that youre providing a complete answer to the interviewers question, provided you use understandable examples from past work experience. For example, the interviewer might ask, “Tell me about a time when you had to collaborate with another department on a project.” To get an idea of SOAR method interview examples, consider the following response to this question:
“Last year, our sales department discovered that residential customers were dissatisfied with the delivery time of items they purchased on the weekends. I was the salesperson designated to work with the shipping department on reducing delivery times. The first order of business was to streamline communication between sales orders and the shipping department. We asked IT to enable 24-hour capability for marking online purchases for shipment, instead of waiting until the next business day.”
“Finally, we asked customers placing orders to provide us with feedback through a new web survey. The result was that we saw customer satisfaction with shipping delivery increase to 98 percent and, on average, we shaved 1.5 days off the regular shipment time.”
One of the most common interview methods is behavioural-based interviewing, but why is this technique so pivotal to identifying the right candidate? The purpose of this technique is to ascertain your skill compatibility, cultural fit and competency for the position. Often, you will be prompted to provide in-depth examples that demonstrate your ability to complete certain tasks or provide insight on how you would approach a scenario. By responding to these questions, you are providing insight and highlighting to the interviewer your key skills and attributes as a prospective employee. Preparation and research are key when interviewing; therefore, creating and practicing answers to common behavioural questions that align to the role will demonstrate that you can articulate your responses and provide relevant examples of your experience which will assist the interviewer in understanding your point of view.
Aside from STAR, there are other techniques that you can use to answer behavioural interview questions. They are called SOAR and CAR. SOAR stands for Situation, Obstacles, Action and Result while CAR means Challenge, Action and Result. Whether you choose to use either STAR, SOAR or CAR, having a technique will assist you in answering behavioural interview questions effectively.
Using the STAR technique you could respond as follows: S Situation – In my current role, generating the sales report required a manual process, and because of the many steps involved, it is very labour intensive and time consuming. T Task – I analysed the business and discovered that the sales reporting requirements incorporate assessing different variables that affect forecasting and sale results. A Action – I decided to create an automated report that could be utilised across various reporting objectives including forecasting that required minimal input. R Result – I improved the accuracy of forecasting by X% and reduced reporting time by X hours per week, which resulted in savings of X amount per week.
FAQ
What is the SOAR method of interviewing?
What are soar questions?
- Situation. This is where you set the scene. …
- Objective and Obstacles. What was your objective and what was in the way? …
- Action. What action did you take? …
- Result.
Why is SOAR an effective method to use in interviews?
What are the 10 most common behavioral interview questions and answers?
- Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure. …
- How do you handle a challenge? …
- Have you ever made a mistake? …
- Give an example of how you set goals. …
- Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
