About Freestyle, SAR Triangle Questions and Short Stories

Great! You have a face to face job interview ! Now you can show what you are able to. But which questions you will be confronted ? I can reassure you: A job interview is NOT a black box and usually follows a classic pattern. So up to you : Prepare yourself well!

I assume that you have the classic topics like clothes, jewellery, make-up, hairstyle, punctuality, writing utensils, politeness, farewell etc. under control.

Here is the classic 6-phase session of an on-site interview:

Warming up: At the beginning of the interview, the relationship with the candidate is established and the ice is broken.

Freestyle: Afterwards, the candidate is given the opportunity to talk about himself/herself and his/her motivation and to present his/her career.

SAR triangular questions: The experiences, behavioural preferences and personality of the candidate are examined more closely.

Information and questions: The applicant receives information about the vacant position and the company.

5th feedback: The applicant is asked about his impressions and open points.

Warming down: at the end a friendly farewell

The tricky phases of freestyle and SAR triangles require the highest concentration! Sensitive topics are casually tackled here. Of course, there is no patent solution, because one job interview differs from another depending on the company, the position and the background of the applicant.

Sometimes the procedure is adapted and the information about the company comes directly after the warm up. Watch out: You think you're safe and you get careless, you get chatty and you drift away from the content of the questions.

FREESTYLE:

Classic freestyle questions are coming along harmless from the interviewer and are usually open W questions: How, Why, When...you can answer with high variety. Typically, it is not just about getting to know each other. The first impression of: How do you talk, what do you stress on, how quickly do you finish the conversational are, how focused are you, how well could you fit into the company and the team, how sensitive are you to the interviewer's intentions.

Question: Take me through your resume briefly

Right: Summarize your career briefly and clearly. Give a short explanation of your changes in your career. Sometimes wait to see if there are any questions coming in between.

Preparation at home: Summarize your resume orally at home in front of the mirror in 1-2 minutes.

Wrong: Start with Adam and Eve or ask a counter question: "Where should I start?" Also dagerous: At the occasion of interposed questions, you stray from the goal and get involved in trivialities, become emotional and tell about life.

Question: What are you interested in this particular job?

Correct answer: Respond to the advertisement, briefly tell what you have already researched about the company and derive a stringent motivation. Do not ask any questions yet, but return the ball to the interviewer.

Preparation at home: Study the job advertisement carefully, research the company background, read news about the company and include it in your reasonning.

Wrong: Flat platitudes like: I want to make the next step, I want to develop my career, I think your company to be very exciting, I look for more responsibility, etc.

Question: Why are you looking for a job?

Correct answer: Briefly describe your current situation and how it feels for you. Here you can get a bit personal. It is important that your counterpart can understand your motivation. This can also be emotional: Commuting distance, private circumstances, lack of internal opportunities, unemployment, etc.

Preparation: You can also practice this at home in front of the mirror! 2-3 minutes.

Wrong: Classic mistake, happens again and again: Don't bitch about your current company, the boss, the team or anything else. Even if you think you have not said much. All nuances are registered exactly and then you say much more than you ever wanted to.

SAR TRIPLE QUESTIONS (also known as STAR questions): Time for meaningful short stories:

After the interviewer has a general impression of you, he goes into details. These questions are well prepared from his side. The questions again appear flat, but have been carefully chosen and are evaluated at different levels. The questions are typically based on past situations in professional life. The interviewer will extrapolate and compare your behaviour and skills with the tasks and situations in the current company. It is therefore essential that you prepare short stories!

You should have 4-5 short stories in stock, which you pull out of your sleeve like playing cards. They should reveal special characteristics or skills of yours. Again and again I hear very impressive stories that demonstrate a whole range of competences at different levels. But please always short and with moderation!

SAR triangle principle: Demonstrate competence :
For all short stories the following triangular scheme is best followed. SAR (situation, action, reaction). The story describes a situation that you have mastered in the past (action) and thus achieved a result (reaction). Triangular questions examine the soft factors such as self-, social and leadership skills. The trick behind the triangular questions: It is difficult to invent your own achievements. Contradictory statements are easily noticed and will make the interviewer suspicious.

At A_Action you describe very concretely which steps have been taken and what was the special own contribution to the success. It does not describe what the team or group has done, but what you have personally contributed. Use the word "me", not "we" when describing actions.

The short stories in the SAR modus can also be weaknesses that you have worked on and do therevore demonstrate self-competence. Or strengths in dealing with others, decision making, interdepartmental cooperation, team behaviour, behaviour when dealing with disgruntled customers, difficult bosses etc. You have more in your hands here than you think.

There is a great danger of getting lost in descriptions of the initial situation or your own commitment. It is essential that you come to a conclusion within a reasonable time span of two to three minutes, without the interviewer having to push the story forward with his or her questions. You don't want to wait for piercing interposed questions, do you?

Your advantage of the SAR Triangle preparation with short stories:

Stories should be adapted to the future working environment. It would be unfortunate to demonstrate your leadership skills with great stories if you apply for a specialist role. The prepared stories give you some security. Especially people who are rather reserved, come to blossom when they can tell about your daily work and the challenges they have mastered. They can demonstrate competence without embarrassing questions about classic strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, if you don't know exactly what you can answer, use a short story that most likely covers the topic of the question. In this way, you can also steer the conversation in a targeted manner before it gallops in a direction that is unfavourable for you.

My motto is: Practice and have fun in doing so. The next interview is waiting for you!

By Dr. Irmtraud Lang,

Irmtraud Lang has been recruiting executives and specialists for the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years. She is owner and CEO of gloor& lang. Irmtraud Lang has founded the company Talent Training GmbH to support talented people in their job search. (homepage to come)