This common teamwork question is a chance to show you’re an active and valuable team member. Focus on your specific contribution and how you enabled the success of others.

Question: “Describe a time you collaborated on a project.”

STAR Method Breakdown:

• (S)ituation: “Our marketing team was tasked with creating a comprehensive end-of-year report for our clients, which involved pulling data from sales, content, and social media teams.”
• (T)ask: “My specific role was to gather and synthesize the content and social media metrics. The challenge was that each team tracked their data differently, and we needed to present it in one cohesive narrative.”
• (A)ction: “To facilitate collaboration, I created a shared Google Sheets document with a clear template for each team to input their key metrics. I scheduled brief, 15-minute check-ins with the leads from the other two teams to ensure we were aligned on which data points were most important. When the social media team had trouble exporting a specific metric, I worked with them to find a manual workaround, which saved us valuable time.”
• (R)esult: “Because of the clear template and regular communication, we compiled all the necessary data two days ahead of schedule. The final report was clear, consistent, and well-received by clients. My manager noted that it was the smoothest cross-departmental project she had seen.”

For more answers on teamwork, see our STAR Method Example: Teamwork .

This example supports the article Behavioral Questions on Teamwork.