You’ve made it to the final interview. The resume passed, the assessment day went well, and now it’s just you and a recruiter in a room. The hard part should be over.
And yet this is the stage where well-prepared candidates still stumble. Tragically, it’s not because they lack the right experience, but because they don’t know how to tell their story in a way that lands with the recruiter. Competency-based questions are where most people either nail it or fall apart, and the difference usually comes down to structure.
There are two frameworks that dominate interview coaching: STAR and SOAR, although many people are only familiar with the former. This guide covers what they are, how they differ, and why, especially for cabin crew interviews, we believe SOAR is the better framework to use.
What Is STAR?
First, let’s start with the interview framework you’ve probably heard about before. STAR is the most widely taught interview framework. You’ll find it in virtually every generic interview guide, HR handbook, and university careers service. It stands for:
- Situation:set the scene
- Task: what you were required to do
- Actions: what you actually did
- Result: what happened as a consequence
It works. There is nothing wrong with STAR, and a well-constructed STAR answer will impress most recruiters at most interviews. If you have been trained on STAR, that training is not wasted.
But there is a subtle issue with the T.
What Is SOAR and Why Does It Work Better For Cabin Crew?
SOAR replaces Task with Objective:
- Situation: set the scene
- Objective: what you identified as the goal you needed to achieve
- Actions: what you did
- Result: what happened
The difference sounds small, but it isn’t.
“Task” implies something assigned to you. A task is something you were told to do, delegated to you, or expected to complete as part of your role. It is essentially passive, and it frames you as someone responding to an instruction.
“Objective” implies something you identified yourself. It positions you as someone who assessed a situation, understood what needed to happen, and then moved purposefully toward that outcome. That is a very different kind of person — and it is precisely the kind of person airlines are looking for in cabin crew.
Think about what cabin crew actually do when something goes wrong at 35,000 feet. They are not waiting to be told what their task is. They are assessing the situation, identifying what needs to happen, and acting on that judgment. The ability to identify an objective independently is not a nice-to-have — it is the core of the job.
Insight: Most competency-based interview frameworks were designed for office and management roles, where a manager assigns tasks, and an employee completes them. Cabin crew work is fundamentally different. You are often the most senior person in the cabin when something goes wrong. SOAR reflects that reality; STAR doesn’t quite.
How to Use SOAR in Practice
Here is the same example structured both ways, so you can see the difference in action.
The question: “Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult customer.”
STAR version:
“I was working in a hotel, and a guest came to the front desk to complain that their room hadn’t been cleaned. My task was to resolve the complaint and ensure the guest was satisfied. I apologised, arranged for the room to be cleaned immediately, and offered a complimentary drink while they waited. The guest left happy and gave positive feedback on the survey.”
SOAR version:
“I was working in a hotel, and a guest came to the front desk, visibly upset that their room hadn’t been cleaned. I could see this wasn’t just about the room — they were stressed and felt like they hadn’t been looked after. My objective was to make them feel genuinely heard and to fix the situation in a way that restored their confidence in us, not just to solve the immediate problem. I apologised, acknowledged how frustrating it must have been, arranged for the room to be prioritised, and offered a complimentary drink while they waited. I also followed up with them later that evening to check everything was as it should be. They mentioned it specifically in their post-stay feedback and asked to be thanked by name.”
The SOAR version is longer, but it’s longer in the right places. The objective reframes the whole answer — this person wasn’t just handling a complaint, they were reading a situation, identifying what was actually needed, and responding to that. That is a cabin crew mindset, and a good recruiter will notice.
Breaking Down Each Component
Situation
One or two sentences. Set the scene clearly and concisely. The who, where, and what was happening. Don’t over-explain this section; the recruiter needs enough context to follow the story, not a full background briefing.
Avoid vague openers like “In my previous role…” and get straight to the specific moment: “A passenger approached me during boarding, visibly distressed…”
Objective
This is the section that separates SOAR from STAR, and the section that could set your example apart. Before describing what you did, take a sentence to name what you were trying to achieve and why.
This is also the mechanism that stops you from shoehorning the same story into every question. If you are answering a question about teamwork, your objective should be framed around a team outcome. If the question is about resilience, your objective should reflect what you were trying to sustain or protect. The objective keeps your answer honest and on-topic.
Actions
This is the longest section of your answer and the place to give real detail. Think of it as a short sequence of deliberate steps. This isn’t a rambling monologue but a clear account of what you did and in what order.
A useful technique: imagine your answer written out as bullet points. Every sentence you say out loud should be as tight as a bullet point on a page – no filler, no repetition, no words that don’t form part of an actual action. Candidates who ramble through the Actions section often bury their best material under sentences that do not add anything. If a sentence is not moving the story forward or demonstrating a competency, cut it. The recruiter is listening for the substance, and the tighter your answer, the easier it is for them to find it.
For cabin crew interviews, the actions section is where you demonstrate the competencies airlines are actually assessing:
- Customer focus: did you treat this person as an individual?
- Teamwork: did you involve colleagues where appropriate?
- Problem-solving: did you think creatively rather than defaulting to the rulebook?
- Safety awareness: was your judgment sound throughout?
- Composure: did you remain calm and professional under pressure?
- Cultural sensitivity: did you adapt to who you were dealing with?
You don’t need to hit all of these in every answer, but be aware that the recruiter is listening for them. A strong actions section covers at least two or three naturally, without sounding like a checklist.
Result
Tell the recruiter what happened. Ideally, this is a positive outcome, but it doesn’t have to be. Some of the most impressive interview answers describe situations that did not go perfectly, because they demonstrate self-awareness and the ability to learn.
If the result was positive, be specific: “the passenger was really appreciative of what I had done to make the situation better and thanked me before leaving the aircraft” is stronger than “it all worked out.” If things went wrong, explain what you took from it and what you would do differently.
Preparing Your SOAR Answers Before the Interview
Prior preparation is essential. Competency questions reward candidates who have thought carefully about their own experience and practised beforehand. Turning up and hoping you will think of something on the spot normally ends in disaster.
Start by identifying five or six strong examples from your own work or life experience that demonstrate the core competencies. You do not need a different story for every possible question. A well-chosen example can often be adapted by changing the objective to match what is being asked. But having breadth means you are not recycling the same example for every answer.
Write out the four headings and bullet-point your answer for each. Then practise saying it out loud. Not reading from notes but actually talking through it, ideally with someone who can give you honest feedback. The gap between a structured answer on paper and a fluent answer in a room can be significant, and the only way to close it is repetition.
Worth knowing: Recruiters running final interviews for major airlines are trained to listen for SOAR and STAR answers. That structured format is exactly how they want you to respond — because it maps directly onto the scoring criteria they are working from.
Some candidates avoid frameworks because they think structure will make them sound rehearsed or generic. The opposite is true. Trying to stand out by ignoring structure does not impress a recruiter; it makes their job harder. What you are doing in a competency question is ticking boxes — demonstrating, clearly and in the right order, that you have the skills the airline needs.
SOAR and STAR are the most reliable ways to do that.
A Final Word on Either Framework
STAR will not lose you the job. If you are more comfortable with it, use it. A well-executed STAR answer is significantly better than going into an interview with zero preparation.
What matters more than the letters is whether your answer demonstrates genuine judgment, genuine care for the customer, and a genuine ability to stay composed when things get complicated. Airlines have seen every polished answer going. What they are still looking for is the real version of you, clearly told.
Structure helps you tell it clearly. The rest is down to you.
For more interview preparation, take a look at the CCF Ultimate Recruitment Guide and our full interview questions section. If your resume still needs work before you get to the interview stage, our free resume templates are a good place to start.
