The Hidden Reason Strong Candidates Still Fail Behavioural Interviews
Many senior and highly experienced professionals leave behavioural competency interviews feeling puzzled, frustrated, or unfairly judged. They know they have delivered results, led teams, and navigated complex challenges, yet their answers somehow fail to land with the interview panel. The issue is rarely a lack of experience or capability, but rather a misunderstanding of how interviewers assess responses using the STAR format.
Too often, candidates view STAR as a storytelling technique when in reality it is an assessment framework designed to measure evidence, consistency, and behavioural indicators. Interviewers are not simply listening for impressive achievements; they are scoring your answers against predefined competencies and behavioural benchmarks. Without understanding this scoring lens, even excellent examples can fall short. This article explains how interviewers really use the STAR method, why senior professionals are often caught out, and how to realign your answers for maximum impact.
Understanding the Purpose of Behavioural Competency Interviews
Behavioural competency interviews are built on a simple principle: past behaviour is the best predictor of future performance. Employers use this approach to reduce risk by assessing how you have actually behaved in real situations, rather than how you think you might act. Each question is carefully mapped to a competency such as leadership, decision-making, stakeholder management, or resilience. Interviewers are trained to listen for specific behavioural evidence that demonstrates proficiency at the required senior level.
This means your answer must go beyond experience or seniority and instead show how you think, act, and influence outcomes. For senior professionals, this can feel reductive, as years of expertise are distilled into a single example. However, understanding this intent allows you to tailor answers that align directly with the competency being assessed.
How Interviewers Really Use the STAR Format to Score You
While candidates are encouraged to use the STAR format to structure their answers, interviewers use it as a scoring tool rather than a narrative guide. Each element of STAR corresponds to different scoring criteria, with particular emphasis on the Actions and Results sections. Interviewers often have a scoring matrix that allocates marks for clarity of situation, relevance of actions, complexity of decision-making, and measurable outcomes.
Vague descriptions, over-emphasis on context, or jumping straight to results can result in lost marks. Importantly, interviewers are trained to listen for “I” rather than “we” to ensure individual accountability is clear. When candidates do not explicitly articulate their actions and decision rationale, interviewers are unable to award higher scores, regardless of how impressive the outcome sounds.
Why Senior Professionals Commonly Underscore Their Own Performance
Senior professionals frequently assume their level of responsibility is self-evident, which can lead to under-explained answers. They may summarise complex decisions too quickly, believing the interviewer will infer competence from their job title or seniority. In reality, interviewers are instructed not to make assumptions and can only score what is explicitly stated. Another common issue is over-collaboration in answers, where candidates emphasise team effort at the expense of their own leadership contribution.
While collaboration is valuable, behavioural interviews require clarity about your specific role, influence, and judgement. Senior candidates may also skip operational detail, yet this is often where decision-making and behavioural evidence is most visible. Understanding this tendency is crucial to adjusting how you present your experience.
What Interviewers Are Listening for at Each STAR Stage
At the Situation stage, interviewers are assessing relevance, scale, and complexity rather than background storytelling. The Task stage is used to confirm accountability and clarify what success looked like in that scenario. Actions carry the greatest weight, with interviewers listening for decision-making, prioritisation, stakeholder management, risk handling, and leadership behaviours. They want to hear why you chose a particular approach, not just what you did.
Results are assessed for impact, measurement, and reflection, including lessons learned or improvements made. As leadership expert Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets managed,” and interviewers apply this principle rigorously when scoring results. A balanced STAR answer makes each stage explicit and purposeful.
How to Align Your STAR Answers With Interviewer Expectations
To perform strongly in a behavioural competency interview, preparation must focus on alignment rather than memorisation. Begin by analysing the job description and identifying the competencies being assessed, then map your examples directly to those behaviours. When structuring answers, consciously expand the Actions section to explain decision logic, trade-offs, and leadership judgement.
Use precise language to highlight individual contribution while still acknowledging collaboration appropriately. Quantify results wherever possible, even at senior levels, to demonstrate impact and accountability. Most importantly, practice delivering answers with the interviewer’s scoring framework in mind, ensuring no part of STAR is implied rather than clearly stated.
Conclusion: Turning Experience Into Scorable Evidence
Behavioural competency interviews are not designed to diminish senior experience, but to translate it into measurable, comparable evidence. When candidates misunderstand how interviewers use the STAR format, strong careers can be undermined by poorly structured answers. By recognising STAR as an assessment framework rather than a storytelling tool, senior professionals can take control of how their experience is evaluated.
Clear articulation of actions, decisions, and outcomes allows interviewers to score confidently and consistently in your favour. Preparation at this level is not about rehearsed scripts, but about strategic clarity and alignment. If you want to ensure your experience is recognised and rewarded at interview, working with an experienced interview coach can make a decisive difference. A small shift in approach can unlock the full value of everything you have achieved.
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