SOAR Method: Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result

The SOAR method is a structure for behavioral interview answers built around a challenge: Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result. Recruitment firm Aston Carter describes it as an alternative to STAR for behavioral questions. The difference is one letter: SOAR replaces the Task with the Obstacle.

What does each part of SOAR mean?

• Situation: where you were and your role, in one or two sentences.
• Obstacle: the specific barrier. A deadline cut in half, a missing budget, a key person leaving, a system that failed.
• Action: what you did to get past it, step by step.
• Result: the outcome, with a number if you have one, and what you learned.

SOAR vs STAR

STAR asks “what was your job here?” SOAR asks “what made this hard?” For questions like a challenge you overcame or handling pressure, the obstacle is the interesting part of the story, so SOAR puts it up front. For a routine success story, STAR is usually enough.

SOAR example

Example answer (operations coordinator):

• Situation: I coordinated deliveries for a regional warehouse during the holiday peak.
• Obstacle: Our main carrier cancelled two days of pickups with 24 hours’ notice, leaving about 600 orders at risk.
• Action: I called our two backup carriers, split the orders by postcode between them, and asked customer service to email affected customers before they noticed a delay.
• Result: All but 40 orders shipped on time, and those 40 went out the next day. Afterwards we added a second carrier to the peak-season plan.

Tips

• Keep the Obstacle concrete. “It was challenging” tells the interviewer nothing.
• Do not blame others for the obstacle. Describe it neutrally and focus on your response.
• Practice both STAR and SOAR versions of your best stories, so you can pick the one that fits the question. The behavioral interview questions guide lists common prompts to rehearse.