SOAR (Situation, Obstacle, Action, Results) model of Job Interview

Employers often interview with the belief that past performance is the best indicator of future performance. Proving your skills requires supportive examples that demonstrate your expertise as well as practice expressing these examples. The S.O.A.R. model provides an easy outline for demonstrating your skills.

S - Situation Think of a situation in which you were involved that resulted in a positive outcome

O - Obstacle Describe any obstacles you encountered

A - Action Describe what action you took in this situation to overcome the obstacle and achieve your results.

R - Results Describe the position outcome(s) of your actions.

Example:

Skill: Leadership

Situation:
During my junior year in college I was elected Vice-President for Professional Activities with the XYZ Student Association. I was responsible for securing speakers for our meetings, advertising the programs to the members, introducing the speakers and evaluating each program.

Obstacle(s):
Previous attendance at meetings with speakers had decreased substantially. I was charges with the responsibility to develop a program to address the professional development of our association and increase attendance by 25% over our last year's figures.

Action:
I recruited a team to help me with the program design and speaker selection. I developed a survey to determine the members' professional interests and ideas for possible speakers and topics. My team and I had each member complete the survey. Then we randomly selected members for a focus group interview. I had learned about this research technique in my marketing research class and thought it would help us identify why attendance had dropped. As a result of the information we gathered for the surveys and interviews, we selected speakers for the year and produced a brochure describing each program and featured speaker.

Result:
Under my leadership, attendance increased 150% over the previous year.

Courtesy of BGSU