Why is STAR used?

What this lesson covers

This lesson sets out the agenda for the STAR module: the need for structured interviews over traditional ones, the elements, benefits and limitations of STAR, and why critical incident and behavioural event interviewing are considered superior to it. It then explains why structured interviews are preferred. Traditional interviews tend to ask hypothetical questions, such as why a candidate wants to join the company or what job they would like. These only test imagination. What a person has done recently in a similar situation is the best predictor of what they will do in an upcoming job, so structured interviews focus on how candidates handled past challenges. The video also argues that companies which select very carefully end up with people of broadly similar IQ, yet performance still varies widely between the best and worst hires. That variability comes from competencies, not IQ: how people handle themselves and others, whether they take on challenges and go the extra mile, and how committed and persevering they are. IQ together with EQ predicts performance, and the STAR technique is a practical way to assess these qualities.

• Hypothetical interview questions test imagination, not past behaviour
• Recent behaviour in similar situations is the best predictor of future performance
• Among highly selected candidates IQ is similar, so competencies explain performance differences
• IQ plus EQ, not IQ alone, predicts performance
• STAR is a structured interviewing technique built around past challenges