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⛔️ Don't use the STAR format
Vincent Xu
November 03, 2024
Immediately-actionable career insights for ambitious individuals.
Read time: 6 minutes
Top performers exhibit this trait in spades.
Even if they’ve already ‘succeeded’ — e.g., nailed an important assignment at work — they never just stop there. Instead, they always think about the next steps:
‘What’s something that went well this time, which we can amplify in the future?
‘What didn’t go so well, that we should improve on?
‘Are there new experiments we can try to push the boundaries even more?’
The same principle comes to play in interviews and networking (especially if you look at these as a recruiter’s way of assessing “who will be a top performer if they’re hired?”).
Show that you’re a superstar and consistently thinking ahead by adopting a simple shift in how you talk about your previous experiences.
Ditch the ‘STAR’ framework, and adopt the ‘CARL’.
➡️ What the heck is the ‘CARL’ framework?
Let’s say an interviewer asks you ‘Tell me about a time when you had to use data to solve a complex business problem.’
***Note: questions like this DO NOT only come from interviewers! E.g., if you’re networking with someone to impress them / get in their company, they’ll usually suss you out during the chat. When I was at Google, I’d say something like this to folks who network with me: “you know, this role will require a lot of quantitative reasoning. Is this something you’d be good at? Are there times you had to do this in the past?”
99.9% of resources out there will point you to the ‘STAR’ format for answering these questions. But we think STAR is seriously outdated, and not optimal.
We recommend the ‘CARL’ framework.
➡️ Don’t get me wrong — ‘CARL’ and ‘STAR’ are not polar opposites.
In fact, the ‘Action’ and ‘Result’ sections are generally the same.
➡️ BUT…..CARL is undoubtedly superior to STAR and will make you stand out during interviews / networking.
The traditional STAR method is overused, robotic, and dedicates too much time to the background (the ‘S’ and ‘T’…..basically 50% of the formula!). Not optimal.
More importantly, STAR leaves out ‘Learnings’ — aka next steps. What went well that you can amplify, and what didn’t go so well that should be improved.
Trust me — the interviewer (or person you’re networking with) WILL be impressed that you went the extra mile, and gain more confidence in your ability to think critically.
➡️ “Okay — sounds promising, but it’s still a bit theoretical. Can I see a tangible example of STAR vs. CARL?”
Let’s say there’s 2 interviewees answering the same question. Their responses are comparable, until it gets to the last step.
Interviewee 1, using STAR:
“….thus, the new campaign solution led us to achieve a 20% revenue improvement.”
VERSUS
Interviewee 2, using CARL:
“….thus, the new campaign solution led us to achieve a 20% revenue improvement. This whole experience reinforced my knack for questioning the status quo. Many Product Managers before me didn’t want to ‘rock the boat’, thus did not bother designing drastically new solutions that deviated from incumbent ways of doing things. I was the first one to suggest and try the RESTful API route! In the future, I’ll always keep an eye out for ways to improve the way we do things – even if this means I have to worker harder and design new solutions from scratch :).”
I mean — if you were the interviewer, who would you go with? 😉
***Curious to see more? HERE is a full example of a ‘CARL’ vs. ‘STAR’ response.
💡 TAKEAWAY: Beyond just ‘CARL’, the North Star here is to always push the thinking. Even if you’ve just obtained superb results, there’s always a ‘what’s next?’ Find ONE place in your own life (e.g., that interview or work presentation coming up) where you can immediately start applying this principle!
🙏 If this or previous insights resonated with you, I’d highly appreciate you sharing the signup link with 2-3 colleagues/friends — they’ll thank YOU for sharing, and you’ll win some brownie points with them #networking 😊.
Until next time,
Vincent (LinkedIn)
***Other ways we help you land your dream job —
Tested-and-proven resume templates — see here.
Courses to nail your resume + interviews — see here.
Highly-customized 1-on-1’s (our 2024 fellows landed offers at Google, Amazon, Meta, Bytedance, LinkedIn, and dozens more) — we’re currently at-capacity, but reply to me here if you’d like to be placed on the waitlist.