The Ultimate Guide To Ace Performance Based Interview Questions

Are you looking to crush your next interview and land your dream job? Chances are you’ll need to be good at answering performance-based interview questions (or PBI questions) to reach your goal.

With the Great Resignation still in full effect, job seekers are taking advantage of the opportunity to find more fulfilling roles and companies. Employers are interviewing more candidates and using performance-based interview questions to assess talent, personality, and performance.

When interviewing with prospective employers it’s critical to effectively communicate your passions, hard work, and results achieved. Unfortunately, a lot of that key information gets lost when responses are not concise and organized. As a result, your interviewer spends extra time comprehending and sifting through all the information you’re telling them. Or even worse, zones out completely!

My Past Struggles with Interviewing

I used to struggle with job interviews, especially for jobs I was excited and nervous about. Specifically, I struggled with talking too much and getting completely off topic when asked performance-based interview questions.

After conducting research and talking to professionals in the workforce about this problem, I discovered the star method for answering performance-based interview questions. This method boosted my confidence, conciseness, and helped clearly communicate why I was the best job candidate. As a result, I was nailing job interviews which typically resulted in receiving job offers!

The star method for interviewing is a tried-and-true strategy for answering performance-based interview questions. Every time I meet with a potential employer for an interview, I utilize this technique.

In this guide, I will:

• Define what performance-based interview questions (PBI questions) are with examples
• Define what the star method is
• Walk you through how to use the star method to answer performance-based interview questions
• Offer tips that have helped me crush my interview

Let’s start with defining what performance-based interview questions are.

Performance-Based Interview Questions (or PBI Questions)

Performance-based interview questions are synonymous to behavioral interview questions.

According to The Muse, “Behavioral interview questions ask candidates to share examples of specific situations they’ve been in where they had to use certain skills—soft skills especially—or explain how they navigated certain types of scenarios”. [1]

You have most likely been asked a PBI question if it has started with “Tell me about a time when…” or “Describe a situation when…”

Some common examples of questions I have asked or been asked are:

• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker
• Describe a time you dealt with failure on a project, task, etc.
• Tell me about a time when you needed to demonstrate strong leadership skills to solve a problem
• Give me an example of a time you felt very overwhelmed with your work, how did you handle that?
• Tell me about a time when you had to influence a decision in a team or with a client, how did you go about that?

These types of interview questions help employers get a sense of your personality, culture fit, approach to different situations, and results achieved. Often, this can make up 50-75% of the interview questions you’re asked from my experience.

So, what’s the best way to answer performance-based interview questions? Let me introduce, the star method.

What is The Star Method?

It’s a framework that helps tell a story the interviewer can follow along with. It also helps communicate the key pieces of information concisely instead of going off on tangents or getting off-topic.

STAR is an acronym which can be broken into a 4 step process:

1. Situation: Give background and context of the situation you want to elaborate on
2. Task: Give information on the task you were working on
3. Action: Describe how you addressed the task or problem
4. Result: Elaborate on the results achieved from the action you took

This approach will help keep your answers more focused and clearly tell a story. Additionally, these 4 steps will ensure you have covered all bases that your interviewer is looking for.

I have been in countless interviews where job candidates did not use a framework like the STAR method which made it extremely difficult for the interviewers to follow along.

How To Use the STAR Method

To use this method, answer the question using the acronyms of the letter in order. Start with the Situation and end with the Result(s). Let’s get into an example below:

1. Describe the Situation

   • This is where you set the context and background for the interviewer(s). Try to include only the necessary details without being too wordy. For example, if one of the performance-based interview questions you are asked is to tell them about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker,
     1. Do:
        • Say what position and company you were at when this happened
        • Describe why there was a conflict with your co-worker i.e. you were working on a project with a co-worker where you both disagreed about the estimated budget
        • Keep it as objective as possible
     2. Don’t:
        • Mention anything not relevant to the conflict with the co-worker
        • Talk about the personality of the co-worker
        • Give your opinions on the coworker or other members of the team

2. Elaborate on the Task

   • The task is meant to put a focus on you and how you fit into the scenario of the question. Using the interview question from above,
     1. Do:
        • Talk about your role, responsibilities, and objective during the time of conflict with your co-worker. i.e., you were an Analyst who was working to create a budget report for the following year for two different departments
        • Describe how you encountered conflict with your co-worker on this project
        • Describe how the conflict impacted the work
     2. Don’t:
        • Talk negatively above the co-worker or put the focus on them too much
        • Continue elaborating on the situation or getting off-topic from the question

3. Describe the Action You Took

   • This section is meant for you to describe the action you took to resolve the situation or problem
     1. Do:
        • Spend more time on this part of the answer
        • Be as specific as possible about the process you took
        • Showcase your contribution and strategy
        • Highlight your initiative
        • Mention things like, I asked to speak to that co-worker privately, inquired more with them about the disagreement we were having, heard their perspective, and shared my perspective
     2. Don’t:
        • Give generic answers like “we talked it out and everything was fine”
        • Be vague about the approach you took

4. Share the result(s) you achieved

   • Many candidates miss this critical element when answering performance-based interview questions. Employers want to know what results you achieve because they are evaluating how you can be an asset to their organization.
     1. Do:
        • Try to quantify results as much as possible i.e. we were able to hear each other’s perspective, negotiated a compromise, and collaborated on a resolution to have both departments meet 95% of their budgets
        • Highlight qualitative results – i.e., we were able to strengthen our working relationship and collaborated on subsequent projects together
        • Highlight positive results
        • Share your reflections and learnings
        • Describe results that show a benefit to your customer
        • End on a positive note
     2. Don’t
        • End on a negative note
        • Be shy or conservative about sharing your results, employers need to hear about the great work you have accomplished
        • Continue talking about the same topic after sharing your results

The STAR method will take some practice to get used to. But over time, this mental framework will become part of your subconscious process of answering performance-based interview questions. Save the infographic below to help you practice and use as a cheat sheet.

STAR Method Infographic

Tips

Understand the Intent of the Interview Questions

The first tip is to think about the intent behind the questions, which can help guide your answers. For example, if you are asked about how you handle setbacks in your work, ask yourself what you think the interviewer is trying to learn.

It could be that they are trying to learn how you deal with challenges, what your reaction is to challenges, and how you get back on track as quickly as possible when facing a challenge.

Taking the time to think about the intent of the questions will help guide your answers and prompt you to talk about the information you think they are seeking.

Don’t Be Shy

The second tip is, don’t be afraid to elaborate on your achievements, results, and hard work. It can sometimes feel like you are bragging but, your prospective employer won’t know unless you tell them. I personally have felt uncomfortable about sharing my successes. To address this, I do two things; keep my answers as objective as possible.  Convey I am confident about my work but am also a learner.

Be Personable

Don’t underestimate the power of how quickly building rapport and relationships can boost your chances of hearing “You’re hired!”. From the first email I receive for scheduling a phone interview to sending a thank you letter after each interview, I always focus on being personable and developing relationships.

This is a crucial skill that will get help you stick out from the competition. Ask your interviewers questions around their interests, passions, subject matter expertise, and more. Genuinely show people you are interested in them and you’ll boost your chances of interviewing success.

A great book I HIGHLY RECOMMEND filled with awesome tips around interpersonal communication and building genuine relationships is: How To Talk To Anyone: 92 Little Tricks For Big Success In Relationships

👉 Pick it up here

Next Steps

If you have an upcoming interview that you are excited about, take the time to practice and rehearse using the STAR method technique. I highly suggest reviewing this list of performance-based interview questions to practice getting familiar with these styles of questions. This will help you get more comfortable using the framework and as you start to practice, your answers will flow more naturally.

The star method has garnered a lot of success for me in my interviewing history and I hope it does for you. Interviewing can be a difficult, anxious, and frustrating process. But by using this technique to answer performance-based interview questions, you’re more likely to stay on track, stay focused, and share your experiences in a way that resonates with your interviewers. I wish you the best of luck in your job searching journey. If there’s any support or inspiration you need, please be sure to contact us or comment below!

(Just a heads up, I may earn commissions from links in this post)