How to prepare for a job interview: common questions and the STAR method

Research the company and the role

Preparation starts with the job posting itself. Reread it and highlight the main responsibilities and required skills: these are the topics the interviewer will want to hear about. For each one, find an experience in your background that proves it.

• The company: what it does, its products or services, its customers, its recent news (official website, annual report, press releases, careers page).
• The team: who the role reports to, who you would work with, what the posting says about the context (new role, replacement, growth).
• The format: number of rounds, who will be there, length, any test or case study. Asking for this when you are invited is completely normal.

Nail "Tell me about yourself"

It is often the first question, and it sets the tone. The interviewer has your resume in front of them: they don't want it read back line by line, they want to understand in one or two minutes who you are professionally and why you are here. A simple structure:

1. Present: your current role or situation, in one sentence.
2. Relevant past: two or three experiences or achievements connected to this job.
3. Future: why this company and this role are the logical next step.

I'm a digital marketing specialist with five years of experience, currently at an agency in Manchester that works with retail brands.

I run social media and email campaigns for four clients, from the content calendar to the monthly report. Last year I took over a client newsletter whose unsubscribe rate kept rising: I segmented the list and changed the sending schedule, and within three months unsubscribes were back to their usual level.

Now I'd like to work in-house, on a single brand and for the long term. Your role brings social media and email together, with a product team close by, and that is exactly why I applied.

Practise out loud with a timer, without memorising the script: remember the three parts and the examples, not the sentences.

Answer with the STAR method

Questions like "Tell me about a time when…" are behavioral questions: the interviewer assumes that what you did in the past shows how you will act in the future. The STAR method, introduced in 1974 by the consultancy DDI as part of its structured interviewing system, helps you answer them clearly and completely:

• S for Situation: the context, in one or two sentences.
• T for Task: what you were responsible for, the goal or problem to solve.
• A for Action: what you did, concretely (say "I", not only "we").
• R for Result: what changed, measured if possible, and what you learned.

Situation: as a project manager, two teams, support and development, kept passing urgent tickets back and forth, and some customers waited several days.

Task: I was asked to bring response times back to an acceptable level without hiring.

Action: I got both team leads in a room, we wrote a simple rule together for who picks up which ticket, and I ran a fifteen-minute check-in every morning for a month to handle the unclear cases.

Result: the average time to pick up an urgent ticket went from three days to under one day, and the teams kept the check-in, once a week.

Prepare five to eight stories like this, each one reusable for several questions (conflict, failure, prioritising, initiative, teamwork). To phrase measurable results, the XYZ formula you use on your resume works just as well out loud.

Common questions and what the interviewer is checking

Tough questions

Your weaknesses

Avoid the fake weakness ("I'm a perfectionist"); interviewers hear it constantly. Pick a real area for improvement that isn't central to the role, and explain what you are doing about it: a course you took, a habit you built, a result you can already see.

Salary expectations

When and how pay comes up varies by country and company, so be ready from the first conversation. Research before the interview: salary ranges in comparable postings, published salary surveys for your field and region. Give a range rather than a single figure, make sure the bottom of it is still acceptable to you, and say whether it includes bonus or benefits.

A gap in your resume or a career change

A period without work doesn't need a detailed justification. One factual sentence is enough ("I spent a year caring for a family member", "I took time to retrain in web development"), followed by what makes you ready today. The calmer and briefer you are, the less space the topic takes.

Some questions, about family plans, religion or health for example, often have nothing to do with the job. You can bring the conversation politely back to the role and your skills.

Questions to ask the interviewer

Asking nothing suggests you aren't very interested. Write down two or three questions that genuinely help you decide, for example:

• What would the first three months in the role look like?
• How will success be measured after a year?
• How is the team organised, and who would I work with most?
• What are the next steps in the process, and when should I expect to hear back?

Video interviews

• Test the day before: link, software, microphone, camera and connection, on the device you will use.
• Frame yourself: camera at eye level, light in front of you, a plain and quiet background.
• Look at the camera when you speak, not at your own image.
• Have a backup: the interviewer's phone number, in case the connection drops.
• Keep notes near the screen, but as keywords only: reading shows.

After the interview: debrief and thank-you

Right afterwards, take ten minutes to write down the questions you were asked, the ones that tripped you up, the names of the people you met and the next steps they mentioned. This debrief helps for the next round and for your other interviews: a question you fumbled today is a question you have prepared tomorrow.

The same day, a short thank-you email restates your interest and one strong point from the conversation. If the date they gave passes without news, a polite follow-up is normal: see our guide on following up after an interview. And to keep track of several processes at once, track your applications in one place.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. DDI: The STAR Method (introduced in 1974 with Targeted Selection)