After 6 failed mock interviews, my mentor said my STAR stories are ‘painfully long’ and lack focus. They recommended a 3-step compression technique from someone with 50+ mock sessions. Has anyone successfully streamlined their STAR responses for execution questions? Need advice on cutting fluff while keeping essential metrics and decision points intact.
star’s a starter tool, not scripture. real pros use STAR as scaffolding then burn it down. your problem? you’re narrating process docs instead of telling a STORY. try this: record yourself, transcribe it, then delete every other sentence. still makes sense? congrats, you’re halfway there
Don’t worry! Try the ‘Twitter method’ - pretend each story section has a 140-character limit. You’ll be amazed how sharp it gets! 
I had the same issue! Switched to ‘STAR-Lite’ - Situation/Task in 1 sentence, Action in 3 bullets (max 5 words each), Result with $$$ metric. Saved me from another rejection. Ex: ‘Boosted retention (17%) via [1] gamified onboarding [2]…’