Speed-dating. What image does the term conjure up for you? Stress. Anxiety. Uncertainty. Awkwardness. Without the element of enjoyment, a job interview has about the same amount of pressure (or perhaps more). In a very short period of time, all eyes will be on prospective prospects to see whether they are in fact the correct match. Here are some tips to hack the interview using the SOAR method.
What comes next now that you’ve gotten an interview? Congratulations, too, by the way!
The secret to acing any interview, however cliché it may seem, is to make sure you stand out from the competition. And it most definitely won’t occur with subpar responses. A candidate may show self-awareness and unquestionably leave a lasting impression by providing strong and memorable replies. Instead than just providing the facts, tales and anecdotes might be used in this situation. A personal touch makes you more relatable to the interviewer and has a greater effect than merely repeating the “best practise” response that the interviewer has heard a million times.
Let’s look at a practical and useful structure that might help us organise our “story.” The SOAR model will not only help you prepare specific responses for interview questions, particularly behavioural ones, but it will also provide you a framework to help you stay focused (Read: prevents you from meandering off topic!).
Using the SOAR model
Your “narrative” is divided into four parts by the SOAR framework: the circumstance, the hurdles, the action, and the outcomes.
(Note: STAR, which stands for situation, tasks, replace, and obstacles, is a variant of this paradigm.)
Situation
Set the stage by giving some background information and a succinct summary first. Give them a vivid but succinct description of the situations you encountered (Think: environment, role, department, timeframe, etc.).
For instance, in my second year of college, I was chosen to serve on the planning committee for the first Thinkfest, an occasion that brought renowned thought-leaders, trend-setters, and artists together to present various ideas centred on a major subject.
An interviewer won’t fully understand the difficulty, your function, or your talents if you go right into a discussion of challenges you encountered or how you dealt with them without offering any background information. Furthermore, your communication abilities will suffer as a result (Think: speed-dating without introducing yourself).
Tasks / Obstacles
Now, describe the difficulties and problems you faced. Describe your duties and what was expected of you if you’re utilising the STAR structure.
As an example, even though each committee member had a distinct position, our work overlapped and it was unclear what each of our duties was. Being the committee member with the least experience made it difficult for me to be heard.
Action
You will now be in the limelight to discuss how you handled that annoying employer, difficult circumstance, uncooperative colleague, or whatever challenge you encountered! You should continue by describing how you came up with a strategy and the specific actions you followed to fix the issue.
For instance, I had several suggestions for what we should accomplish, but team meetings were often tense and nobody paid attention to anybody! I made the decision to write the team an email outlining my thoughts in the hopes that I would have an opportunity to be heard. I offered that the student body vote on three ideas in an online poll to choose the theme. I also suggested creating subcommittees for areas like logistics, sales & marketing, event planning, and location. We would operate much more productively and transparently if we held a meeting to clearly define roles, duties, and expectations within the subcommittees. Fortunately, my email was warmly received and resulted in a productive written exchange of ideas where readers were really reading and thinking before answering!
Set the stage by giving some background information and a succinct summary first. Give them a vivid but succinct description of the situations you encountered (Think: environment, role, department, timeframe, etc.).
For instance, in my second year of college, I was chosen to serve on the planning committee for the first Thinkfest, an occasion that brought renowned thought-leaders, trend-setters, and artists together to present various ideas centred on a major subject.
An interviewer won’t fully understand the difficulty, your function, or your talents if you go right into a discussion of challenges you encountered or how you dealt with them without offering any background information. Furthermore, your communication abilities will suffer as a result (Think: speed-dating without introducing yourself).
Results
Your opportunity to shine is now! Describe how your action turned out. To demonstrate how well the issue was resolved, quantify the findings as necessary. Try to avoid inflating numbers, despite how tempting it can seem. It may not seem significant to claim to be a gymnast when you can barely do a somersault (same thing, right? ), but it’s simple to get taken by surprise. It’s crucial that you can demonstrate value addition by highlighting the impact—large or small—you have.
For instance, both the survey and the notion of a subcommittee were quite helpful. Working in distinct teams with defined job objectives allowed us to save a tonne of time. We learned via the polls that the committee’s preferred options were the least popular ones! This was a crucial lesson to learn straight away since it demonstrated the value of market research and the danger of assuming. As a marketing strategy, we used extensive polling on the student body’s preferences for speakers, opinions, events, etc. throughout the planning process. Through this, we generated a lot of enthusiasm, and ticket sales were greatly above expectations. After a week of sales, we were completely sold out, and owing to popular demand, we had to extend the event by one day. The first event was so popular that it has since become the most well-known occasion on campus.
Make in your mind to keep your anecdotes succinct and to the point to avoid losing the interviewer’s attention or deviating from the topic at hand. Humour may help break the ice but keep your jokes and tales brief and on point—no more than two minutes.
You’ll have a good chance of getting selected if you’ve mastered the skill of powerful “storytelling.”
How do I begin, then?
Brainstorm! Record every significant event in your personal and professional life, no matter how unimportant it may appear. These often signify life lessons that aid in gradually moulding our character and way of thinking. Then, consider how your experiences relate to the sample behavioural interview questions listed below. Describe your experiences using the SOAR/STAR framework in more detail, and then practise giving your responses. Keep in mind that the objective is to utilise anecdotes and tell tales that meaningfully and enduringly convey your talents, aptitudes, and self-awareness.
Practice Issues
- Have you ever had to interact with a challenging individual (a student, coworker, or teammate)?
- What was your greatest success in school or in your previous job?
- Do you consider yourself to be a team player?
- Have you made any serious errors? Exactly how did you manage them? What have you discovered about them?
- What would you do if you were working on a team project and your colleagues weren’t sharing the workload or performing to standards?
It could be difficult for you to tell your narrative clearly. However, perfecting and mastering effective communication strategies is not that tough. You may participate in Internshala’s Business Communication Skills course to gain knowledge of verbal communication concepts and to enhance your vocabulary, fluency, and enunciation. Additionally, you’ll discover excellent body language techniques for telling stories.
Hope this information was useful for you. If you are still looking for more career advice, click here.
