Microsoft - STAR Method
I have my final round with Microsoft coming up. Should I only use the STAR method for the 'tell me about a time' questions, or would it also be applicable to questions such as what is my biggest strength or weakness? Alternatively, I was considering adding, 'I'm happy to discuss specific examples if you would like to know more.' after my response to questions such as what is my biggest strength or weakness. What has worked well for you guys? What do you think? I'm worried about giving to much information if they expect more of a response of 'what is it and why' #interview
The strengths and weaknesses questions are so dumb and I’ve stopped asking them. I also don’t think STAR works well for them. When someone asks you your greatest weakness you should probably just pivot and spew out the usual BS of “right now, my biggest growth opportunity is around my presentation skills. I’ve joined toastmasters and have asked for feedback from peers I trust after every presentation”. But again, it’s a dumb question and I haven’t found any correlation between programming ability and this question.
You'd want to aim for structure. What I generally see are people overconfidently going into interviews focused on Leetcode but not paying attention to how they talk about their past experiences. If it helps, I had tremendous help in behavioral interviews with this deck https://9to5cards.com/product/the-behavioral-interview-deck/ #behavioralinterview
STAR works most of the time. It's better to talk about the experiences you had and STAR does a great job there