Best Job Interview Method | CAAR Not STAR

0:00 hey all' Andy here helping you build a career you love if you're here with me live we're in part two job interviewing with the car technique we're going to have a little session right now on the car technique in relation to the star technique and really kind of the differences the nuances how to compare and contrast these two it's going to be a great show now I'm going to assume because this is a double feature that you've already seen the first part of this of this

0:30 double header which is called the job inter let me sure get the title right the job interview formula guaranteed to get you hired if you're watching this on a recording where you're not with me live I will make sure that there is a link in the card I think it's up there so you could watch that first so I'm going to I'm going to talk a little bit more about what the storytelling formula is that I like that's basically my vernacular for how do you answer questions in a job interview now we

1:00 just got done talking about what it is you're really trying to do when you're responding to somebody in in a job interview when they ask you a question and you're answering something where a lot of people the big mistake that job Seekers make is you're trying to speculate what questions are going to be asked and then what your best response would be to highlight the skills that you have in relation to the job description and it's all very backwards and bad and not nearly

1:27 as potent as recognizing and anticipating what the employer's goals and problems are and then figuring out from your standpoint what is the experience that I have that I need to share with them in the interview in relation to the questions they ask me but what is it I want to tell them doesn't matter what questions they ask me I know what I'm going to tell them because I know what they need to know in order to know whether I can help them achieve their goals by overcoming their

1:56 problems a lot of that can be done from the desk and when you do that you're going to be on offense and you're going to make sure that you're sharing the right kind of stuff in the right in the right way remember employers are buyers and everybody you're a customer of some things things products and services you do not buy features and you do not buy skills you buy transformation you buy outcomes that you anticipate or expect or hope to achieve as a result of buying a product or buying

2:28 a service and listing a coach hiring an employee whatever it is employers are no different now like I said I'm going to assume that you have a base understanding of what this technique is but any question that you get asked can be answered this way I'm going to run through some slides and then I want to do some comparing and contrasting into what to what this does in relation to the into the car technique so this storytelling formula is what I just shared in part one of this double

2:58 feature the car tech technique it's really kind of two A's in the middle the first piece when you respond and you're going to tell a story irrespective of what the question is is you want to give them context color about why you were doing what you were doing this serves as a primer to move the listener's emotional state to the place you want it which is thinking you are a total badass right knows her stuff is important they called her in because she's the fixer or she

3:30 knows how to handle the am ambiguous issue that this is or we're not quite sure what to do they called in somebody with experience something like that yes you're building up a little drama but you're really trying to highlight what were the goals or what were the problems that you were dealing with the next thing that you want to roll through is what I call the first part of the approach this is really the methodology or you might hear me call it the framework The Playbook

3:57 the steps but all of the steps all in order and all in aggregate all together that is a grouping that you're going to explain what this does to refresh your memory from the first part is it it helps give the listener an outline of what you are about to tell them it gives them a map of the discussion so you're not going to explain your activities and your steps and the things that you did and investigated and implemented and all you're going to tell them I did this

4:28 this this this and this just to let them know here's what's coming then you're actually going to walk them through so the the third part which is the second part of the approach is really more about here's the actions I took within the steps I just highlighted for you and then you're going to you're going to recap it or bookend it with the result now if you've done the context portion of the explanation correctly you've actually foreshadowed at a minimum a low level of the

4:58 result that you you've achieved and if if you if you recall back to the example I just gave you in the previous session where you're you're you're highlighting the things that you're trying to achieve or the things that were broken or the despair you were in or whatever it was The Listener is going to assume that you're mentioning that because you're telling them what you actually achieved they're going to make that natural inference so this is just

5:22 a recap of of of what each of the stages is and here again I wanted to go through that quickly because I'm going to assume that just watched the 42-minute pre previous session where I went into nauseating detail about this now what I'd like to do is I want to actually take you through a a more detailed View at what the context is and what the benefits of of setting it up the way that I'm describing it as well as how it might be similar or or unlike the star technique and

5:55 I'll explain what the star technique is as well all right so the first thing is I want to look look at this for each of the different stages of the car technique so when we're talking about the context we're talking about why the story matters if you get asked a question in an interview and you just start talking the first thing I did was the second thing I did was number one you didn't give them any any literal context they don't know why the story was important they don't know what

6:23 you were trying to achieve they don't know why you were chosen they there's just a lot of things they don't know and remember back to the first part we're trying to elicit feelings that we want them to have because they're going to hire you based on how they feel about you the interview is about saying things to them that are planting the right feelings that you want them to have so you want to make sure that you're you're giving them insight into why this matters were you losing customers we

6:50 had a customer service system and a department but we we seem to have a twice the the you know double the industry average of losing customers every year our retention rate was only 50% or 70% when it should have been 90% or it should have been 20% or whatever it was that translates into losing 500,000 customers a year it's very very difficult for us because it's much easier to to

7:20 sell to an existing customer and treat an existing customer so just give me some kind of idea why is this important even if you were the IT project manager enlisted to build a new system so instead of saying well the situation was I was an I I'm an IT project manager and I was asked to implement a CRM system that's how a lot of people explain that kind of stuff so what were the goals and the

7:43 problems we're talking about what the business goals and business problems were we wanted to implement a new system so that we can streamline the calls reduce the amount of number one make sure that everybody could answer the questions more quickly to free up time to potentially discuss new features opportunities things we could upsell better serve or whatever it might be but you want to give them some very very specific insight into what those goals or problems were and

8:11 it can be done very very quickly what this does is it primes the result and it moves their emotional state to the place you want it I'm using the word Prime because it's actually technically a textbook psychological term when you prime something anything when I prime a speech when I prime a show when I prime an email you want to move the person the audiences or the person you're you're you're communicating with you want to move their emotional state to the place you want it right

8:41 I'm excited to announce they know something good is coming that kind of stuff so if you prime your responses correctly it I not to exaggerate for effect if you prime them correctly if if the rest of the answer is gobleg it almost does doesn't matter as much because they they anchor on their first feeling and if their first feeling is I'm not sure where this is going then you have to dig yourself out of a hole you've primed poorly so you might think well I'm just explaining it in an

9:12 orderly fashion yeah but I don't know where this story's going I don't know where you are I don't know about how long it's going to take I don't know if we're on step three or step 30 or how many of these we need to go through I don't know how if I have to hang on to all the information people do this in Friendly conversations and they really do it badly in interviews so you want to

9:30 make sure that you're priming and it also gives you a chance to insert at A Min a minimum result in the beginning remember repetition is helpful because you're going to give them the result at the end and recap it but it's nice to hit them twice with it get them excited up front this also captures and keeps their attention Allah the interview intervention methodology as well this also gives you a chance to oh goodness I hate when this happens hang on I want to

9:59 get this back up I don't know why it does that it gives you a chance to give them context above yourself why is this important how many of you ask me Andy how can I sound more senior Andy how can I get a higher level position well one of the first things you're going to need to do is you're going to need to to elevate what you're talking about and why it's important i' I've I've given

10:25 this example a few times in the past couple of years but I was working with a woman who was being hired to kind of be the Enterprise pmo person kind of the senior ranking person right below the CIO for all the programs in this Capital markets financial services company there were like 200 different projects going on that she was going to need to manage and she'd never held a position this high and so when I was prepping her for an interview I said to her okay how would

10:54 you explain they're going to ask you how you've built pmo programs before how I just and I always ask because I want to know what what raw material I'm working with when when I'm coaching somebody I said how would you explain that to me and she started walking me through well the first thing I would do is I would get a list of the projects and this and that right so so that's very lowlevel very prescriptive and very tactical but instead if you want to elevate your level of discussion

11:24 even though they're asking her about a futuristic question and not something historical she'd say well one of the first things you need to do so from a contextual standpoint is understand what the corporate strategy is what what the primary drivers are what projects are going to give us the most Roi and accelerated return on on on on cash flow and accelerated payback periods in relation to the goals we want to accomplish and so on and so forth so you elevate the discussion

11:54 you go one step above you she's not going to work on the corporate strategy or she's not going to prioritize the projects from that standpoint from a goals standpoint what she's going to do is she's going to identify the projects that it's going to take in order to help achieve those goals but the but the but the scope and some of the boundaries are going to be set for her well that doesn't mean she can't talk about how to get off on the right foot by recognizing that

12:20 this step needs to come first you don't just start assembling projects just because you have them on the docket that's what I'm talking about when it gives you a chance to elevate it if you're talking about something that that happened right the woman who's in the example that I just gave with the Flapjacks in part one she didn't set the direction she was handed an objective because they knew that there was market share to be gained there she wasn't the one who came to them and

12:45 said hey I think we you need to give me $200,000 so that I could run a project so that we can gain market share for people under 50 no she was handed that objective but the discussion starts up there that's part of the context it elevates you it elevates the discussion then the other thing is you are at the center of everything that you do you have to be so a lot of you ask me along the

13:09 way well Andy I did this and I was part of a team I even mentioned in the in the Flapjacks example when she said well I didn't do all of this work it doesn't matter you're telling a story from your Viewpoint so what you're doing is you're talking around yourself I was handed this we did this and then here's what I did with it even though I didn't develop it that's what I'm talking about so when you're when you're when you're setting up the context you can also give

13:38 color as to where you are in the in the picture why were you selected I was and and they chose me because I'm the resident expert on because I have done this 17 times you with me part of the context right it's not in in in the star technique that's not usually the situation but this is part of the context in the Andy car technique so what why is this important all of this not only primes

14:11 the story The Way You Want It primed but they are immediately immediately as in immediately going to start thinking wow you're important that sounds dire or that sounds like a really hard task we needed to break in because we knew there was there was oil on the coast of Africa and we didn't have anything there right like the other example I gave you elevates your position the other

14:41 thing it does these are the feelings and I know I talked about this in part one but I wanted to to lay this down for you here it shows that you're going to have an impact it it it in many cases you have to realize you've only given them context what happens the moment you give somebody context their imagination runs wild so they start thinking wow that sounds complicated you must have been able to overcome you must really know what you're doing you must you must have a track record of

15:11 reliability that they turn this over to you are these not plausible assumptions when you set the table for yourself who's who's following me on this give me I'm tracking in the chat because this is really important this is the part that most people either skip entirely or totally screw up this is the part you're going to need to practice the most even though you're going to say it so fast because number one you need to remember to say it and number two you need to say it in his

15:45 few words as possible 10 20 seconds tops cool all right what's the other thing from a communication standpoint it will capture their attent it will capture their attention and it will move their emotional state to where you want and for those of you I know I'm little right now in the slide but if you don't have the interview intervention $7 book package where I will ship this to you anywhere in the world for $7 us you get the ebook the audiobook in this $30 hardbound I'll send it

16:18 to you anywhere if you want you can learn you you can learn more about this now to put this in relation to the star and you heard me probably in in the earlier package say I don't necessarily have an issue with the situational aspect of the star technique because my car technique and the context is is somewhat analogous except the insides or or really what what the what the details are that you should be including in the context are often very difficult because a lot

16:52 of people say well the situation was my boss asked me to investigate an in an Innovative way to roll out Flapjacks that's a situation it's also what you were tasked to do but that's what a lot of people do and they isolate it to the level that they're currently on which I don't ever want you to do I always want your first step in a response to be a step up get that right there you know what write that down first step up goes up what what's the first thing I could tell them

17:30 that's above me because you got handed something wait even if you took a initiative and you did it out of thin air it was still because of something that was coming coming down right y'all get that your first step should be up not sideways so in the star technique a lot of people just they want to just tell them a simple diminutive thing and I want you I don't want you to think think that way and and and I also want to say this I don't have to say this over and over again I don't really

18:04 care what you call the steps you could call this anything you want I just want this is what I want you to put in there the stuff on the left column call it whatever you want all right and I think you you really lose you lose the opportunity to to capture their attention and remember something you know I was I I talked a lot about this in part one where I says you you are shooting for

18:31 feelings not details right you you want them to feel something when you prime anything this way it makes them listen differently and I want you to think in terms of if I get this step correctly I will change how they listen to me because everything will they will start making automatic assumptions that everything that you're about to say is brilliant why because you already

19:01 told me the problem you solved it looked like that was must have been a Herculean effort and I'm just going to assume that you know what you're doing instead of not giving them that detail not letting them make those inferences right and I talked about this in interview intervention right you want to get the benefit of the doubt not the detriment of the doubt if you miss this step you're not going to get that okay that's the context now let's talk about the approach

19:29 this is the system everything you've done in your life is a system you've never done one thing where it did not have require multiple steps it lit unless somebody slid a piece of paper across your desk and your only job was to take a stamp and go boom you've done more than one thing and so I want you to explain you know there were a series of steps I have a framework for this I have a methodology I have a seven-step approach I have a three-step approach I have a two-step approach I

20:01 don't care how many steps it is give them a number and tell them what's coming you reverse engineer everything you did you know I I know we chuckled about the Andy closet story but I have five steps to organize the closet everybody has five steps it doesn't matter how many clothes you have whether you have three t-shirts like I do or 3,000 of whatever my wife has in her closet it's the same series of steps it goes in a pile I inventory everything I have some organization to put them in

20:33 groups the shirts go together maybe the colored shirts go together maybe the stripe shirts go together then I have priorities and criteria based on the weather it's spring spring stuff goes first then I put it back then I put it in there then I double check it to make sure a shirt isn't out of place that's a system you didn't just organize the closet right you with me who's with me everything you do is hard or at least you could make it sound El eloquent all right so every reverse

21:05 engineer you lay out all the steps together and by this I mean you say them all at once you don't explain them oh well when I organize my closet I organize my closet like I organize everything else there's an inventory right I there's an assembly there's priorities then I Implement according to the priorities and then I double check it that's it you're going to lay them all out just like I gave you that seven-step example with the Flapjacks in the previous session this gives

21:38 the listener and it gives you a map now I'm going to tell you about each of these steps and you any of you that tend to lose track or that tend to run off right you get lost in the weeds first thing I did second thing I did on number three here's what was important number four number say them out loud just say them out loud you're giving them a map oh she's on her fourth step awesome hey Susie what

22:10 was the most challenging part about that fourth step we have all kinds of problems when we usually get to that one you're going to get some of that let them ask then you tell them you give them a little more detail and it also shows that you have a big picture understanding people pay more for systems than they do for tasks I mentioned that in part one I'm going to mention it again when you show them that you have a framework or a methodology it makes you sound smarter it makes

22:38 you sound more experienced it makes you sound more organized it just makes you sound more expensive and that's and that's what we want right it gets you paid more the other thing is it it it it it shows that you again you're you're reiterating here in the second part because you already did that in the first part with the context is you're elev that discussion to say look this fits inside a formula it's not just this one thing here often there could be breaks in many steps or there could

23:09 be breaks in the handoffs OR there could be breaks within each of the steps so that's the feelings you want them to to to have that you are more senior that you are very organized that you are more complete that you are that you are even more detailed and this is what helps keep their attention because they know where you are and they know how long you've you have to go likely right they have an understanding of where the story is they know why it's being told now they can see

23:40 all the details of what you're actually saying and what you're about to tell them all right good good good good good good all right well now in the star technique the second step is is the task now again I don't want to split hairs because depending on who's defining what the star technique is but most people and their understanding or their interpretation of the star technique is okay tell them what your T what you were tasked with I was tasked with building a CRM system okay well okay

24:13 that sounds fine versus there were seven steps to building this system this is my methodology this is my Approach right it's it's it it it's all in the the receipt of what you're saying how you say what you say is just as important as what you say but making sure that what you're telling them is complete so that they can get a feeling that you're coming in with the formula is going to make them feel better so just be careful there and a lot of times in in in the star technique people

24:46 are rushing through these two this the situation and the task because they think they think all the gold is in the activities when I would tell you the accent is in step one and step two that's where you win it it's over by now it's already over before I get done with the slide because they already are thinking yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because once you tell them why you were doing something they're going to think you were successful then they're going

25:14 to look for it well do they understand how to do it if you've already told them this very quickly you got them inside of 30 seconds they know you understand what that project is going to look like what the steps are going to look like whatever else you say is gravy from here on out because you've already told them the result you already told them what happened generally or at least they assumed but don't worry we we can save some bonus stuff for the end all right next thing

25:43 is all right you told them the five steps now what now you're going to get in and because they understand that you have the methodology you just need to fill in a little to show and substantiate so the first thing I did when I organize the closet is okay Step One is the inventory what that means is I got I want to inventory everything what that entails is I take everything out I fold all my short sleeve T-shirts I fold all my long sleeve T-shirts I hang all my

26:12 buttons Downs I fold my pants or I put them on a hanger I got my suits my sport coats my this and that and all that stuff is what I inventor that's what I'm talking about that's the details that's the actions so what you're saying is I inventoried that and I'm telling you what I inv right make sense I gathered the requirements I had to determine what the issues were who was involved the stakeholders assemble the committee meetings and so on right then you're

26:39 going to cover the highlights high points only please you don't need to take them down into the weeds not unless they ask and remember this is about story pacing if you think that explaining how the sausage is made is going to make it taste better better to me you're sorely mistaken follow me I don't need to know how you grind the pork how you encase it and all that right like I right I I I basically I make sure that they're all uniformly made and every

27:13 sausage link is 6 in and this and that and it's this diameter and it's whatever right you give me the highlights boom boom boom I measure it I cut it chop it you focus on you remember here's where I sit in the content to this world and so don't worry about well there was this team and I had to hand them this and there were seven Consultants from BCG who had to gather I don't need I don't

27:37 know I don't need to know all that those are details that are weighing down your story not to mention worst of all they're making you sound less important the spotlight needs to be on you they're interviewing you not the seven Consultants from Boston Consulting Group got this cool and it also you're guiding The Listener by showing him where you are in the story okay so second step is after I inventoried everything then I need to make sure that I grouped it all together prioritized it this

28:08 and that that entails this and so on step three step four and so on okay what this does is again you're continuing to drive home the organizational aspect that you have that's just ingrained in you but it also is showing them now that you're giving them enough information so that they feeling okay yeah yeah yeah she knows what she's doing yeah yeah yeah she knows what she's doing as long as you don't say anything totally out of left field that's so counter to what they

28:38 think unless you're going to say hey you might be thinking but I discovered this and here's why like super fast they're going to they're just going to assume you know what you're doing they're going to assume all the other details we're all in order it's true it's true next thing what are the what what are you what what are you trying to elicit they know their stuff they know how to solve problems wow in all those steps there must have been a whole

29:08 bunch of problems so they they must know how to handle a lot of problems there must have been a lot of different customer questions different scenarios different size customers not to mention the through the entire car technique you're you're gaining a reputation as a great communicator wow if they answer their interview questions that way can you imagine them giving a presentation to the management team that's what's happening in their mind that's what they're gauging when you're talking to them and you're going to keep their attention that way now in the star technique

29:42 this is where you talk about your actions and while it's similar in in in my car technique the difference is when you're talking about actions in the star technique what you tend to do is you tend to talk about them isolated or or serially with no context to the bigger picture and so with the car technique I want to I want to reiterate you're always going back to here's where I am on the map and that's okay step one step two of seven right so by the time I got to the third step all of your

30:16 activities are in some inside some kind of formula with the star technique most people don't do that most people don't do that they they're very very point they're very very Point solution oriented when they use the Star Tech Techni so I want you to make sure that What's Happening Here is whoever is listening to you will know exactly where you are at any moment in time it's a big big deal when I talk about memory labels they're not remembering what you said they are sending themselves signals

30:47 that say wow she's she's organized she's a great communicator they don't remember why they drew those conclusions and if you want more on memory and how memory works and how quickly people forget stuff where's where's my little beauty it's all that's all in the interview intervention book which you can which you can certainly grab and then yeah that does get you paid less and then the result what you're doing here is you're going to reiterate so we were losing 50% of our

31:17 customers which was about 62 million a year all right you're foreshadowing the result when you set up the context but when you get to the result now what you're going to say is okay so we got done with the project and then after a year we measured it not only did we get that 62 million back but we also increased it to 80 million okay on the on the on the communication on on the communication of

31:51 the result you you hit the result you foreshadowed and additionally what we noticed was our new sales went up as a result of because we had more time because we were able to solve their problems faster it created more time for our our csrs or customer service reps or agents to because the customers weren't upset we solved their problems so quickly they were so happy with us even though that something broke it gave us more time to sell them all the services they didn't have and

32:22 we noticed an uptick that that was sourced from existing customers our Revenue also went up 10% that is a benefit extension Andy you're so awesome thank you so much for making my pulse you know go down and my job search easier and I found my job faster and I got paid more so my wife is happier that's a benefit extension right all you that join my program your spouses your partners your children your grandchildren they're all going to be happier because you're going to be happier

32:52 and easier to live with that's a benefit extension you get the idea but this is also a spot where they made an assumption that what you foreshadowed initially occurred now you get to surprise them at the end with even more benefits that's what you want what does Andy do to you all but wait there's more there's another bonus I'm throwing in right it's the same thing I do that with you guys haha right you get you get this right so you're getting a chance at the end to crescendo

33:30 all right and then I want you to make sure for those of you that go to the Andy School of everything that you are citing results in relation to the great eight what are the great eight there's a bajillion videos on my YouTube channel where you can check that out there's probably a whole bunch of shorts on YouTube there's Instagram videos LinkedIn videos Tik Tac videos Twitter videos X or whatever they're calling it these days you get the idea but you are focusing on impactful

34:01 accomplishments and goals that employers have such as Revenue generation increasing Market increasing Revenue increasing Market awareness attracting more customers making them happier so customer service as well as corporate positioning and you know corporate growth and risk management you're also looking at employee happiness you're looking at Cost reduction you're looking at process efficiency those kinds of things those a great eight so you can find find out more about that on my YouTube channel but this is what you're doing when you cite the result it shows impact

34:34 it shows you have subject matter expertise but it shows that you are a needle mover what did I call them be a truck not a trailer right I move the needle what What feelings do you want them to get at at this stage wow that that sounds great wow that was important wow you can make a great impact I know why you did it I know what you did I know what happened this is putting a beautiful

35:01 bow on the end of your story and it again gives you an opportunity to surprise them and if you say to me well Andy well I I didn't really exceed in fact I underperformed don't use that story you need something where you can Crescendo not not not zon out in in in the in the in the general star what I find is that most people they just simply say and here's what happened you're missing so so many opportunities to sell yourself so so so really you want a crescendo

35:34 upsell yourself exceed the benefits that you foreshadowed if possible and that's that now back to me so I hope you I hope you enjoyed that I really I just I'm I'm I'm constantly trying to to show you different ways to to think about how you share yourself in a in a in an interview and I get asked a lot well Andy when I'm forced to to use the star technique as if that is even a good

36:07 idea and any company that forces you to answer questions a certain way I think is ridiculous however that's okay they can be ridiculous I don't care about them I care about you because you're here with me and I want you to have a better life and a better career if that's what you want so so I just I want you to understand how you can make analogies and if if they say to you please use the star technique then just say the situation is and then inventory it right

36:35 cook cook up the first course meal or first course of your meal just like I outlined in the context and then if you want to say well the task was I have this project and I I did seven steps or whatever then just give them your framework and here are the activities they're not going to know the difference and the result's going to sound like the result so you'll be fine so I hope you enjoyed that context then approach one which is your outline or your framework remember

37:03 people pay more for playbooks and then second part of the approach the second a approach two is going through and back through your inventory of steps and you're telling them the actions at each steps for illustrative purposes only and then the fourth step is the result all right if you enjoyed that part of the show make sure to click the like button that's the little thumbs up thing on YouTube I think it's a thumbs up up thing well it's been a while since I've seen

37:29 yep a thumbs up thing make sure you click that share this people need help if all of you how many of you are here 148 still here with me for the two-parter if if every one of you sent that to one person that's another 148 people that is not nothing that is a big honking deal so I hope you enjoyed that all right if you're watching us on the recording I'll see you next week