# STAR Story Bank: [Your name]

> A reusable bank of interview stories, each written in STAR form
> (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or the shorter CAR form (Context,
> Action, Result), indexed by the competencies it can prove, with a
> coverage matrix that shows which competencies still lack a story.
> Based on common structured and behavioural interviewing practice.
> Replace every `[bracketed]` value and every row marked *Example*.

<!--
Guidance: How to use this template
- Build the bank once and keep it across job searches. Before each
  interview, copy the relevant story IDs into `career/interview-prep`.
- Aim for eight to twelve stories. Each good story proves two or three
  competencies, so you need fewer stories than questions.
- Draw stories from your brag document (`career/brag-document`): it
  holds the dates, numbers and links that make a Result believable.
- Use the same story ID everywhere (STR-NN), so prep sheets and notes
  after interviews point to one source.
- Worked example: the fictional Mei Tanaka, a product analyst. The
  stories STR-01 to STR-03 match the example in `career/interview-prep`.
  All people, organisations and figures are invented.
- Related templates: Interview Preparation (`career/interview-prep`),
  Brag Document (`career/brag-document`), Job Search Tracker
  (`career/job-search-tracker`), Promotion Packet
  (`career/promotion-packet`). Interviewers: Technical Interview Rubric
  (`career/technical-interview-rubric`).
-->

## Document control

<!-- Guidance: Light control for a personal file. Note which competency framework you index against, because employers name the same skill in different ways. -->

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Owner | [Your name] |
| Target role family | [Product analytics, engineering, operations, sales] |
| Competency list used | [Your own list / employer's published values / role posting] |
| Number of stories | [N] |
| Classification | Personal; remove confidential client and employer details |
| Last updated | YYYY-MM-DD |

### Revision history

| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | YYYY-MM-DD | First eight stories |
| 1.1 | YYYY-MM-DD | *Example:* Added STR-06 after a failure question went badly |

## 1. Competency list

<!-- Guidance: List the competencies your target roles test. Take them from postings, the employer's published values or a career ladder. Give each a short code so the matrix in section 4 stays readable. Pitfall: a list of twenty vague traits; ten specific ones are easier to prove. -->

| Code | Competency | What interviewers look for |
|---|---|---|
| [CMP-NN] | [Competency] | [Observable behaviour] |
| CMP-01 *(Example)* | Ownership | Takes responsibility past the job description, follows through |
| CMP-02 *(Example)* | Analysis and judgement | Frames the problem, uses evidence, knows the limits of the data |
| CMP-03 *(Example)* | Influence without authority | Changes decisions of people who do not report to you |
| CMP-04 *(Example)* | Conflict | Handles disagreement directly and fairly |
| CMP-05 *(Example)* | Failure and learning | Names own mistakes, shows what changed afterwards |
| CMP-06 *(Example)* | Ambiguity | Makes progress when the goal or data is unclear |
| CMP-07 *(Example)* | Customer focus | Starts from the user's problem |
| CMP-08 *(Example)* | Delivery under pressure | Prioritises and ships to a deadline |

## 2. Story index

<!-- Guidance: One line per story, so you can scan the bank in a minute before an interview. The "Strength" column is your honest view of how convincing the story is (High, Medium, Low); replace Low stories over time. -->

| ID | Title | When | Competencies | Strength | Last used |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [STR-NN] | [Short memorable title] | [YYYY] | [CMP codes] | [High / Medium / Low] | [APP-NNN, date] |
| STR-01 *(Example)* | Pricing test rescue | 2025 | CMP-01, CMP-02 | High | APP-022, 2026-10-02 |
| STR-02 *(Example)* | Disagreement on metrics | 2025 | CMP-03, CMP-04 | High | APP-022, 2026-10-02 |
| STR-03 *(Example)* | Missed forecast | 2024 | CMP-05, CMP-02 | Medium | APP-021, 2026-10-09 |
| STR-04 *(Example)* | Onboarding drop-off | 2026 | CMP-07, CMP-06 | High | none |
| STR-05 *(Example)* | Board pack in four days | 2025 | CMP-08, CMP-01 | Medium | none |

## 3. Stories

<!-- Guidance: Write each story in full once, then practise telling it in about two minutes. Spend most of the time on Action, and say "I", not "we", for your part. End with a number and with what you learned. Pitfall: a long Situation and a vague Result. -->

### STR-NN: [Title]

| Part | Content |
|---|---|
| Situation | [Where, when, what was at stake, in two sentences] |
| Task | [Your specific responsibility] |
| Action | [Three to five steps you took, with the reasoning] |
| Result | [Measured outcome, with a number and a date] |
| Learning | [What you would do differently, what you now do as habit] |
| Competencies | [CMP codes] |
| Evidence | [Link or document in your brag file] |

### STR-01 *(Example)*: Pricing test rescue

| Part | Content |
|---|---|
| Situation | In 2025 a pricing A/B test for a subscription app ran for three weeks before I found that a tracking bug counted some trial users twice. Leadership expected a decision that month. |
| Task | As the analyst on the test, I had to decide whether the data could be trusted and recommend what to do. |
| Action | I traced the duplicate events to one release, measured how many users were affected, and showed that the bias favoured the new price. I proposed re-running with a clean holdout and a pre-agreed stopping rule, and explained the cost of a two-week delay against the cost of a wrong price. |
| Result | The decision came two weeks late but was correct: the re-run showed no lift, so the old price stayed, avoiding a change the flawed data had favoured. |
| Learning | I now run a tracking check on day one of every test. |
| Competencies | CMP-01, CMP-02 |
| Evidence | Test write-up and postmortem in the 2025 brag document |

### STR-03 *(Example)*: Missed forecast (CAR form)

| Part | Content |
|---|---|
| Context | My third-quarter 2024 demand forecast was 18% too high, and operations had staffed to it. |
| Action | I owned the miss in the weekly review, found that seasonality was missing from the model, added seasonal features, back-tested on two years of data and wrote a postmortem. |
| Result | Forecast error stayed under 6% in the next two quarters, and the postmortem format became the team standard. |
| Competencies | CMP-05, CMP-02 |

## 4. Coverage matrix

<!-- Guidance: Mark each story against each competency: P for primary (the story is a strong answer) and S for secondary. A competency with no P is a gap: find or create a story for it before your next interview. -->

| Story | CMP-01 | CMP-02 | CMP-03 | CMP-04 | CMP-05 | CMP-06 | CMP-07 | CMP-08 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STR-01 *(Example)* | P | S | | | | | | |
| STR-02 *(Example)* | | | P | S | | | | |
| STR-03 *(Example)* | | S | | | P | | | |
| STR-04 *(Example)* | | | | | | S | P | |
| STR-05 *(Example)* | S | | | | | | | P |
| **Primary count** | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |

*Example gaps:* CMP-02, CMP-04 and CMP-06 have no primary story. STR-02
could become primary for CMP-04 with a clearer account of the
disagreement; a new story is needed for CMP-06.

## 5. Question map

<!-- Guidance: Common behavioural questions mapped to stories. Have a first choice and a backup for each, so you do not tell the same story twice in one interview loop. -->

| Question | Competency | First choice | Backup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem nobody owned. | CMP-01 | [STR-NN] | [STR-NN] |
| Describe a decision you made with incomplete data. | CMP-06 | [STR-NN] | [STR-NN] |
| Tell me about a time you changed someone's mind. | CMP-03 | STR-02 *(Example)* | STR-01 *(Example)* |
| Tell me about a mistake you made. | CMP-05 | STR-03 *(Example)* | STR-01 *(Example)* |
| Describe a tight deadline and how you met it. | CMP-08 | STR-05 *(Example)* | STR-01 *(Example)* |

## 6. Practice and feedback log

<!-- Guidance: Practise aloud and time yourself. After each real interview, note which stories you used and how they landed, then improve the weak ones. -->

| Date | Story | Setting | Time | Feedback | Change made |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YYYY-MM-DD | [STR-NN] | [Mock / real, APP-NNN] | [mm:ss] | [What worked, what did not] | [Edit] |
| 2026-09-30 *(Example)* | STR-02 | Mock with a friend | 3:40 | Too long on context | Cut Situation to two sentences |

## 7. Writing checklist

- [ ] Every story has a measurable Result and a date.
- [ ] Your own actions are clear ("I"), and others get fair credit.
- [ ] Confidential names, client data and internal figures are removed
  or generalised.
- [ ] At least one failure story with a real lesson.
- [ ] Each story can be told in about two minutes, with detail ready for
  follow-up questions.
- [ ] Everything in the story is true and you can defend it in detail.

## Standard and licence note

Based on common behavioural and structured interviewing practice (the
STAR and CAR answer formats). Original text written for this
collection; people, organisations and figures are fictional. Template
licence: MIT.