Vocations · Career Resources

Your best stories,
told in two minutes.

Write an interview answer as situation, task, action and result. The page times it, shows whether the action carries the answer and flags what to fix, then keeps your stories ready for the questions interviewers ask.

Open the builderWhat you get
$5one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $5

Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Job search kit, $29 for 34 items.

The builder

The worked example has three stories from a high school student: two strong and one first draft that needs work. Everything saves in this browser.

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What you get

Vocations · Career Resources$5

What you finish with
A bank of interview stories written in the STAR shape, each under two minutes when spoken, tagged to the kinds of question they answer, with the gaps in your bank visible and a log of timed practice.
Who it is for
High school and college students heading into first job, internship or scholarship interviews, adults changing careers, and the counselors and teachers who coach them.
Format
Browser tool with three tabs: write with live checks, a story bank with a coverage grid, and timed practice with a self-check. Prints story cards; copies an answer or downloads it as text; downloads the practice log (.csv) and a file you can import later.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Job search kit ($29) and the Vocations Suite pass ($99), and 1 more bundle. It runs in your web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Everything you type stays in this browser and is saved there as you go; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Career Resources space in Caveat Vocations.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Load the worked example and look at the third story: the checks show what a first draft is missing.
  2. Start a new story from something real: a job, a team, a class, a family responsibility. Write the four parts; keep the action longest.
  3. Fix what the checks flag until the answer runs one to two minutes and ends with a result and a lesson.
  4. Tag each story with the kinds of question it answers, and use the coverage grid to find the gaps.
  5. Practice out loud with a drawn question and the timer. Print the story cards to read the night before.

Open the builder

How the checks work

Plain rules you can see, not a score from a black box.

The shape of a strong answer

Behavioral interview questions ask about something you actually did, on the idea that past behavior is a fair guide to future behavior. STAR keeps an answer on track: set the scene briefly, say what you were responsible for, spend most of the time on what you did, and finish with what happened. Career services offices and hiring guides commonly suggest one to two minutes for a full answer.

Speaking time is estimated at 140 words a minute, a deliberate pace; casual conversation runs faster, and nerves speed most people up. Time yourself on the Practice tab to find your own pace.

What each check looks for

Balance: the share of words in each part, with the action at 40 to 60%. I against we: first-person words in the action. Result: a digit or a word like doubled, saved or placed. Lesson: words like learned, realized or next time. Filler: a list of words such as basically, really and kind of. They are rules of thumb: a strong answer can miss one, and meeting all six does not guarantee a job.

Nothing you write is sent anywhere or read by a program. The questions are an original list of common behavioral questions.

Sources

  1. U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Structured Interviews: A Practical Guide (2008). Behavioral questions about past experience and how they are rated.
  2. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy. Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success. Communication, teamwork, problem solving and professionalism activities for youth.
  3. National Association of Colleges and Employers. Career readiness competencies (communication, teamwork, leadership, professionalism and others); naceweb.org.

The example stories are made up. The checks are writing guides, not a prediction of how an interviewer will rate an answer. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.