This document provides guidance on how to construct positive and failure stories for interviews. It explains that positive stories should use the STAR framework to describe a situation, task, action taken, and result achieved through demonstration of a skill. An example positive story about taking initiative on an internship project is given. For failure stories, it recommends outlining the situation, misstep, failure result, lesson learned, and action steps taken. Qualities like resilience, authenticity, and ability to learn from mistakes should be conveyed. Overall, the document coaches on effectively communicating experiences in a structured way to highlight strengths and lessons learned during interviews.

15. “AKA I’m not “Perfection” and that’s perfect in itself”

16. “AKA I’m not “Perfection” and that’s perfect in itself”

17. “AKA I’m not “Perfection” and that’s perfect in itself”

24. POSITIVE STAR STORIES
A positive STAR story is a
structured example of a time
when you exhibited a personal
strength or skill.

25. Step #1: Translating your strengths into skills
1. Empathy
2. Positivity
3. WOO
4. Developer
5. Connectedness
Interpersonal skills,
emotional intelligence,
teamwork, critical thinking,
passion, work ethic,
coaching, teaching

26. Step #2: Communicating your skills with “STAR”
statements
Situation
• Context
• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
Task
• The objective,
issue or obstacle
you had to over
come.
• Why is this story
significant?
Action
• The “how”
• What did you
consider/ do to
overcome the
situation
• What skills were
applied
• Your vs. team
actions
Result
• What was the
result of your
actions/decision
s?
• How are they
relevant to the
skill/job?
• Needs to be
employer centric
Link
• The Lesson
• How will I use
this in the
future?
Skill demonstrated: Initiative
Fill out the 5 areas for each of your skills

27. Step #2: Communicating your skills with “STAR”
statements
Situation
• During my
internship at
McKinsey this
past summer, I
participating on a
recruitment
planning call.
Task
• During this call,
the team was
brainstorming
more engaging
ways to market
McKinsey’s
internship
program.
Action
• I saw an
opportunity to
contribute and
suggested
creating a
marketing video
• After the meeting,
I created a
workplan detailing
the timeline,
steps, and
resources
required
• I presented the
plan and outlined
the benefits to the
Recruitment
Manager and got
his buy-in and
proceeded in
creating the video
Result
• After creating the
video, I received
praise from both
the Recruitment
Manager and the
Managing Partner
of the office for
taking initiative
and ownership
over the project,
even as an intern
Link
• I am a highly
proactive
individual and will
be constantly
searching and
pursing for
opportunities to
create an impact
in all of the work
that I do.
Fill out the 5 areas for each of your skills
Skill demonstrated: Initiative

28. What is a failure story?
A failure story is an example of a time when
something went wrong and the lessons you
learned and steps you took to correct the issue.
These types of questions are very likely to
come up in interviews – and ones that you
definitely need to prepare ahead of time for!

29. How to create a failure story
Situation
• Context
• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
Misstep
• What did I
do wrong?
• How am I
accountable
for the
mistakes
made?
Failure
• What
happened
as a result
of my
actions?
Lesson
• What did I
learn
through this
failure?
Action Steps
• How did I
overcome
OR what will
I do now?

30. How to create a failure story
Situation
• Entered the
National
Consulting
Case
Competition
with a team
3 others
• This was the
first case
competition
for most of
us
Misstep
• Before
presenting, I
started to
psych
myself out
and loss
confidence
in myself,
became
very
nervous.
• During the
presentation
, I forgot
what I was
going to say
Failure
• As a result,
our
presentation
did not have
a cohesive
story line
and we did
not make it
into the
finals
Lesson
• I learned
two things:
1) believe in
yourself is
extremely
important,
and 2) we
are all
human and
it’s OK to
mess up
Action Steps
• I was
resilient and
didn’t let this
experience
deter me
from
entering into
other case
competitions
• I practiced
with other
smaller-
scaled
competitions
and re-
entered the
following
year

31. What a good failure story will demonstrate
Resilience Authenticity Ability to Learn
✓ ✓ ✓

32. What a good failure story will demonstrate
Resilience Authenticity Ability to Learn
✓ ✓ ✓

33. Resilience Authenticity Ability to Learn
✓ ✓ ✓

34. What a good failure story will demonstrate
Resilience Authenticity Ability to Learn
✓ ✓ ✓

36. MENTOR & COACH
PEER
CONNECTOR
LEARNER

37. What a good failure story will demonstrate
Resilience Authenticity Ability to Learn
✓ ✓ ✓