{"id":"career-star-answer-teamwork","audience":"college","category":"career","technique":"format","track":"writing","title":"Shape a real group project into a STAR interview answer","free":false,"task":"An interviewer will ask, \"Tell me about a time you worked on a team.\" Turn your survey project into a STAR answer: exactly 4 numbered lines labeled Situation, Task, Action and Result in that order, under 120 words total, plain text. Action must say only what you did yourself, not what teammates did, and Result must use the corrected survey count.","materialLabel":"Your notes on the project (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"PROJECT NOTES (Sam Okoro, junior, Business 340: Research Methods)\n\nTeam of 4: me, Lena, Arjun, Bea. Assignment: survey students about the campus shuttle and present recommendations to the Transportation Office.\n\nWhat happened:\n- 2 weeks in, nobody had started the survey and Arjun was missing meetings\n- I made a shared task list and set two 30-minute check-ins a week\n- I wrote the survey questions and got the professor to approve them\n- I posted the survey in 6 dorm group chats and the commuter club newsletter\n- we got 120 responses?? -> no, after removing duplicates it was 82\n- Lena built the slides. Bea did the charts. Arjun wrote the conclusion in the end\n- the Transportation Office added a 7:40 a.m. shuttle run after our presentation\n- we got an A-\n\nInterview: Assistant Project Coordinator, Delmont Logistics, next Wednesday","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":4},{"type":"maxWords","max":120},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Getting an essay, not lines","why":"The AI writes STAR as four long paragraphs with bold labels, too much to say in an interview.","fix":"Show it: \"1. Situation: ... 2. Task: ... 3. Action: ... 4. Result: ...\"","checks":["numberedItems","r0"]},{"title":"Taking credit for the team","why":"The AI blends everyone's work into 'I', so you'd claim the slides and charts.","fix":"Add: \"Action covers only what I did. Lena did slides, Bea did charts.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Missing the corrected number","why":"The AI may grab 120 responses, the first number in your notes.","fix":"Add: \"Use 82 responses, the number after removing duplicates.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total and it often lands 20% over.","fix":"Cap each line: \"each line under 25 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Forgetting where it's going","why":"AI adds bold and headings that show up as stray symbols in your interview notes.","fix":"Add: \"Plain text, no bold, no headings.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Shows the STAR labels","patterns":["situation","star"]},{"label":"Says how many lines","patterns":["\\b(4|four)\\b.{0,25}(line|part|item)","exactly \\d+","numbered"]},{"label":"Credits only your own work","patterns":["only.{0,25}(i did|my own|me)","lena|bea|teammate"]},{"label":"Uses the corrected count","patterns":["82","correct","duplicate"]},{"label":"Sets a length limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)","under \\d+"]}],"hint":"Interviewers want your part, in a shape you can say out loud. Show the four labels, cap each line, say who did what, and which number is right.","rubricLabels":["The 4 lines are labeled Situation, Task, Action and Result, in that order","The Action line describes only Sam's own steps (task list, check-ins, writing the survey, posting it) and doesn't claim he built the slides or charts","If the Result gives a response count it says 82, not 120, and it doesn't invent outcomes not in the notes"]}