Interview answers need rehearsal

Some interview questions can be answered briefly, with little extra detail. For example: "When did you leave your last job?" or "What was your major in college?"

Unless you have a very good reason to elaborate, these questions should be answered in just a word or two.

AMY LINDGREN

WORKING STRATEGIES

On the other hand, some questions beg for a more detailed answer. In particular, those that start with "Tell me about ..." or "Describe ..." require you to paint a picture with your words. And, unlike standard questions such as "What's your greatest weakness?," situational or behavior-based questions can't be easily anticipated.

That doesn't mean you can't try to prepare. Instead of creating answers to specific questions, develop a few anecdotes about different work events in your life. Then, when an interviewer asks a question that would best be answered with a story, you may have one or two in mind.

Just like good jokes, good anecdotes must be practiced. Doing so can help avoid some of the most common errors: taking too long to get to the point; having no point; giving irrelevant details; and trailing off at the end, instead of concluding well.

One way to prevent those errors and create a structure for your anecdotes is to use an outline. A business model with which you might be familiar is commonly called the

STAR (situation, task, action and result) method.

Here's what each part stands for, in terms of storytelling:

Here's an example of the STAR model used for an interview answer:

Question: "Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work and what you did about it."

Answer: (Situation) "I was running a large copy job on a very tight deadline, and I accidentally used the wrong paper for the project. Unfortunately, the paper choice mattered, because they needed the lightest-weight paper so the packets could be mailed more cheaply.

(Task) "I needed to correct my mistake quickly and with the least cost to the internal copy center.

(Action) "I stayed late to run the job on the correct paper and hand-delivered the boxes to the department that needed them. Then I spoke with the department head about the extra copies on heavier paper that now existed.

(Result) "The department head decided to use the higher-quality copies for samples to mail individually to his special customers and to bring to meetings with his superiors. Overall, it would have been better not to have made the mistake, but I made the best of the situation by finding a new way to use the extra copies. I was able to charge the department head for the extra copies, and he was able to distribute his project more widely than he had planned."

See how it's done? Now imagine that you needed to tell that story but hadn't practiced. It would be easy to blurt out details that you didn't mean to share or to forget some points about how you took responsibility for the situation. Practicing, perhaps including writing down your anecdotes, prepares you to answer well.

To try this yourself, imagine questions that could come up and then prepare a response for each one. Here are a few sample questions: