SOAR

Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result: show what blocked you and how you responded.

Last updated Oct 8, 2026

What & why

What it is

SOAR tells an experience in four parts, putting the difficulty front and center. It suits interviews, project reviews, and stories about a setback. Situation gives the context. Obstacle names the specific barrier you ran into: a failure, a constraint, a rule, or people, such as a colleague who disagreed or a stakeholder who pushed back. Action describes how you responded to that barrier. Result says what happened, whether a clean success, a partial one or a setback. By calling out the obstacle as its own step, SOAR is built to showcase problem-solving, so it fits questions about setbacks, obstacles, conflict, or working with people who see things differently. If the question also asks what you learned or would change, SHARE, which makes that judgment its own step, fits better.

Why it works

SOAR gives the obstacle its own step, so the listener can judge your response to a stated barrier rather than hunt for it in the background. Interview research suggests that explaining a setback through what you could control, rather than blaming others or luck, tends to make a better impression. That puts your response at the center of the story, whether the result was a clean success, a partial one or a setback, and it shows you can talk about difficulties, not only successes.

Before & after

These are fictional teaching examples, not accounts of real events.

Before

“I led a successful project launch despite some difficulties along the way.”

After

“Our team was launching a new product (Situation) when our lead developer quit unexpectedly (Obstacle). I redistributed tasks and brought in a contractor within 48 hours (Action), delivering on time with all features (Result).”

See it in action

An original teaching example. The situations and results are fictional.

Tell me about adapting an activity.

Situation

I organized an outdoor sketching session for beginners. We had planned to draw the view from the park, with enough time for everyone to try a second sketch.

Obstacle

Heavy rain made our planned spot unusable. The forecast showed no break before the session was due to end, and the park had no shelter big enough for the group.

Action

I moved the group under the station canopy and changed the subject to passing travelers. I gave them a quick exercise in capturing movement instead of the landscape exercise.

Result

Everyone completed a sketch, although we missed the landscape exercise.

How the answer works

Situation: Give the setting and intended activity.
Obstacle: Identify the specific barrier that interfered with progress.
Action: Explain the response that navigated or reduced that barrier.
Result: Report what happened, including any barrier that remained.

Why it works: The barrier explains both the venue change and the revised activity; the result acknowledges the lost objective.

Start lesson See all examples

When you’ll use it

Questions about a setback or something that got in your way

Leadership and conflict resolution scenarios

Questions about stakeholders who disagreed or pushed back

Demonstrating persistence and resilience

Reviewing a project setback and how you worked around the obstacle

Pro tip

Set the scene, name what stood in your way, show how you dealt with it, then say what happened.

Questions & answers

When is SOAR better than STAR?

Use SOAR when the question asks about a challenge, a conflict or something that got in your way. Naming the obstacle as its own step lets you show your problem-solving and resilience more directly than STAR, where the difficulty is usually left implicit in the situation and task. If the question also asks what you learned, SHARE gives that evaluation its own step; you can also add a brief reflection to SOAR.

How do I present obstacles without sounding negative?

Describe the obstacle as facts: what happened and why it blocked progress. If a person was involved, say what they needed or disagreed with, not what you think of their character. Then spend most of the answer on how you responded.

Learn more

Thea Kelley Career Coaching - SOAR Stories Examples

The Interview Guys - The SOAR Method

Verve AI - SOAR Interview Method Answers

Put it into practice

Practice SOAR

Work through examples, then test your understanding in a short quiz. Your progress is saved as you practice.