Good tips Jeff. I agree that having STAR stories related to your background are important. One thing I found helpful was to focus on the Actions piece of the story for most of the time. They are interviewing you, so what actions did you take in the situation are important. MIT’s career services office suggests breaking the time for a STAR answer down as:
Situation: Give an example of a situation you were involved in with positive outcome. 10-15%
Tasks: Describe tasks involved in that situation. 10%
Actions: Talk about specific actions you took (use strong action verbs!) 60-70%
Results: Discuss the results that followed. 10%