Employability Award Interview Guide
4. During the Interview
During the interview, you will be asked behavioural based questions related to your Award experiences and will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panel too. These interview questions follow the pattern of "tell us about a time when you....".
When responding to questions, select an appropriate example from your experiences and structure your response using the STAR technique. Below is an examples. You should be familiar with this from your written application.
| STAR | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE: Communication |
| S | Situation Describe the context. | During my involvement in a summer research project investigating the impact of environmental factors on a specific species of wildlife, effective communication played a pivotal role in ensuring the success and cohesion of the team. |
| T | Task What were you expected to do? | My role in the project was to lead a sub-team responsible for collecting field data. Effective communication was crucial to coordinate tasks, share findings, and maintain a cohesive approach to the research. |
| A | Action What action did you take? | To facilitate communication within the team, I initiated regular team meetings where we discussed project goals, individual responsibilities, and any challenges encountered in the field. Additionally, I established a shared online platform where team members could upload their data, findings, and observations in real-time. This streamlined the information flow and allowed for immediate collaboration. Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of the project, I organized cross-functional meetings with other research sub-teams to ensure a holistic understanding of the overall progress. This helped identify potential correlations between different sets of data and facilitated a more comprehensive analysis. During challenging periods, such as adverse weather conditions impacting our fieldwork, I proactively communicated updates to the entire team. I emphasized the importance of flexibility and devised contingency plans to mitigate potential delays. |
| R | Result What did you achieve? (where possible include tangible data to support a clear result that has impacted the business process, the team, the client, the project, etc.) | The effective communication strategies implemented throughout the research project contributed to the seamless collaboration among team members. The shared online platform improved data accessibility and collaboration, fostering a culture of open communication. This, in turn, led to a more comprehensive analysis of the research findings and enriched the overall quality of our project outcomes. |
| Link to future work practices How will this capability be beneficial to your future work practices? (Being specific as possible to your future industry or role) | This experience shows the significance of my clear and regular communication in this research endeavour, where collaboration and the exchange of information were essential for success. It also highlights my adaptability in response to unforeseen challenges, reinforcing that I would be a value asset to a research team through my effective communication. |