The STAR technique

Well Good Morning everyone! As I said on my blog I've decided to create this Thread to help Bobby out with his mock interviews. It will be a little harder to ask him questions as he worked out of hours, so never actually got to see any customers. He worked in a retail business, mainly stacking shelves and working in the pit ( well the yard, but no air con so it was like a sweat box in the Summer ) pulling in deliveries.

Remember STAR stands for

S The situation he was in
T The task he performed
A The action he took
R The result at the end

Okay I'll give you an example and when Bobby decides to get up, sooner than later he can answer.

So Mr. Bojangles tell me a time you helped increase productivity in your store?

Well Miss Lexington I used help to train new members of staff, so the task I performed was to help the new staff members out ( The Task ). ( The Action ) I took was to create very basic training sheets so they could understand how to use the RF scanners and learn about SKUs or price tickets. ( The result ) was it helped the store with productivity and efficiency. No one had ever thought of doing it before

😯 well that's great. Mr. Bojangles, so it shows you are able to take the initiative, which is important here at Dolls R Us😉

Who's next to ask Bobby a question?😁

Well here at the Gibbmodoll interview we call you Mr Bobby, but my question is, how good are you at DIY, painting, woodwork, hanging curtains, painting floors and mixing concreate and mortar?

Thats the real interview:).

But if you want the fake one, here it is:(, (Why do you want this job?)

Lady-J (y)

How are you with the public as you may need to interact with them from time to time.

I think he needs to say he's really good at chatting up the Lady's, so they buy more Mr Story, Lady-J (y)

Well Good Afternoon Lady-J and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity for an interview. I can paint, but DIY isn't my strong point. If however you have an apprentice scheme I could learn while I earn.

The reason I would be very interested in this post is I've heard that Gibbmodoll are a very good employer in the area who treat their staff fairly and very well.

Also I understand there are a lot of females on site, whom I would enjoy meeting on my tea breaks and from what I can see it looks like the surroundings are very nice and I like the countryside.

I try to give attractive ladies compliments. I wouldn't say its chatting them up and you can just go for a drink with a lady as a friend. But that's one of my pleasures in life, beautiful women😉

Oh I have done on a few occasions

The situation was that a customer wanted to know how thick some Childs paint was for their daughter

The Task was to find out out if possible the thickness of the childs paint

The action I took was to pick up a small container and read the instructions on the back, it gave me no more information, so i explained to the customer if it was not suitable if they kept the receipt, even if they had tried the paint and bought it back, within 30 days we would refund them.

The result was the customer purchased the paint and the customer went away happy and satisfied

My motto was the customer comes first and pays my wages, even when they ask silly questions😉🤣🤣

As you can see I was using the STAR technique there Mr. Story

Thank you Mr Bobby, for good answer, Lady-J ;) ;) ;) (y)

Here’s a perennial question at interviews:

“What do you consider to be your weaknesses?”

People!

I spent most of my working (for someone else) career in direct sales. Interviewing is very much like selling a product. Only in this case the product you're selling is, yourself. The key to selling anything is to point out it's features and how those features will benefit the buyer. In order to do that, you must first listen and determine their needs. Then gear your sales pitch accordingly. The salesman should be confident and knowledgeable about their product, but must never appear pushy. The idea is to help the buyer make an informed decision. The buyer must never feel as though they're being sold something, but rather being offered an opportunity to buy. Or in this case, acquire a valuable asset to their organization.

Most everything I got from the Job Center (n) Lady-J

Well, at least that is an honest answer, which is what an employer would appreciate

Question (Why do you want this job?)

Answer, (because all the really good jobs are gone:(), Lady-J(y)

Another honest and fair answer.

Or you could always use the explanation that Bridget Jones gave when she was asked the same question?

Yeah, remember that one(y), about right, lets hope his boss is a Lady, ;)Lady-J(y)

………… or a plushy doll 🤣

Well unfortunately the Jobcentre probably told those folk that didnt really want to work in the first place that if they didnt take the job they would be on sanctions, meaning no benefits at all.

They like to use sanctions occasionally to threaten folk!

Well my charm dosent seem to work on real women Lady-J. I tried to pay my ex female boss a compliment many years ago and she thought I was odd🤣🤣 if it did I probably would be married by now😁

It only seems to work on dolls, but then I find dolls more logical. Also they appreciate compliments😉

Well she doesn't need to be plushy, TPE or Silicone would be fine, as long as I don't have to lift her up🤣🤣

Yes I understand what you mean Mr. Franz, before working in retail I ran a Kitchen and Home Office showroom. I didn't exactly sell the product, but I still had to get the customer interested in making an appointment to see a salesman or designer, so I had to sell the idea to the customer of our product and its benefits. I enjoyed that job, but these days a lot of the companies have gone bust.

I also worked for a company called Moben & Dolphin years ago in my home town, same kind of job, but Kitchens & Bathrooms, but the company didn't want to update the showroom. I wanted my showroom to look the best it could, to get the footfall in the door, we had a peach coloured bath in one of the front windows and a outdated kitchen in the other. I tried to fight my corner with the area manager. In the end they did the dirty on me

I stayed later one night and 3 guys turned up to measure up. I asked them what they were doing and they wouldnt tell me, next day the area manager turned up to tell me the store was closing and I was being made redundant.

6 months later the company went into receivership, the only part that exists Sharps Bedrooms didnt really get on with the Directors of Moben & Dolphin. Sharps then came to my home town I applied 2/3 times, got interviews, but never got the job