Top 3 Questions Asked During an Interview for a Project Management Position
Top 3 Questions Asked During an Interview for a Project Management Position
By Claudia Vandermilt
When you’re preparing to interview for a project manager job, it’s important to know what types of questions you’re likely to get and how to respond to them. Whether you’re applying for a full-time position or pitching your services as an independent consultant, your answers to these questions will not only determine whether you get the job but also your potential for success as a project manager.
1. In Your Experience, What One Skill Does a Project Manager Need to Succeed?
This is a favorite question among interviewers because it forces the applicant to choose one of the many skills required of a project manager. While there is technically no single right answer to this question, you need to be aware of what your answer reveals about you, your experience and your focus as a project manager.
Your answer to this question should be what you feel is your greatest strength as a project manager, and you should be prepared to explain how you plan to apply that skill to the project(s) in question. While you may want to tailor your answer based on the project or company, most interviewers will have a favorable view of project managers who cite solid team-building skills, flexibility or a proven ability to keep projects on schedule.
2. What Methods Will You Use to Deliver the Results We’re Looking For?
When answering this question, it’s good to highlight techniques that you’ve used successfully in the past and identify the tools and support you expect your employer to provide. However, it’s also important to show that you understand the challenges inherent to that particular company and project. The interviewer may be looking to see if you’ll take a one-size-fits-all approach to your project manager duties, or if you’ve given some thought to the demands of a particular job.
Because of this, a generic answer is likely to fall short. Most interviewers don’t want to hear that a prospective project manager will apply the same framework to every problem; they want to know that the person they hire will take the unique nature of each project into account. To give a well-considered answer, it’s a good idea to respond with some questions of your own. For example, find out who your project sponsor will be, what support you’ll receive from the various departments involved in the project and what recourse you’ll have if shifting priorities impact resource allocation.
This means that you’ll have to do some quick thinking on your feet to process the interviewer’s answers and address how they will impact your approach to the project. The key is to demonstrate that you’ll ask the right questions at the outset rather than make broad statements that suggest you would take the same approach to any project manager job.
3. How Will You Put Together Your Project Team?
In asking a question like this, interviewers are really trying to find out what kind of a leader you are. They want to know if you understand the diverse skills and competencies that are required to bring a project to completion. Will you seek out people just like yourself, or are you prepared to work with many different personalities? Can you inspire and motivate everyone from senior executives to hourly support staff? Your answer should show that you recognize it takes many individual contributors with different strengths and capabilities to complete a project. A successful project manager doesn’t have to be good at everything; he or she just needs to know how to assemble and manage a team with expertise in a wide variety of areas.
Claudia Vandermilt is a skilled project manager with experience in internet marketing, travel, consumer goods and home necessities. She’s earned certificates in Applied Project Management and Advanced Certificate in Applied PM from Villanova and continues furthering her education and experience in project management across industries.
1. Ignore task due dates. Focus on getting the tasks done.
2. When asking for task status, I ask for Remaining Duration. The person doing the work knows the amount of work completed. This person is also in the best position to know how much work is left, and will have the best estimate of how much longer it may take. If you are told there are 7 days remaining to finish the task, you know the real status of the task now. You have much better information than a percent would give you.
Percent Complete? If a 10 day task has been worked for 5 days, is it 50% complete? Would that be obvious? It could be all done, or 20% of the work done, or 90% of the work done.
3. Interesting. I’ve never had the luxury of assembling a team. I either worked with the one I was a part of or I was assigned a team.
I like your site. Lots of good info. Behind some of the questions above seem to be assumptions that PM’s have the ability to select the proper team and deliver in a realistic amount of time. I’ve been on the two extremes but never in the middle – either a big well run team of real professionals or a hack project with insufficient resources with different agendas and a fixed arbitrary timeline. As Skip mentions, usually a PM is assigned to a situation they didn’t design and the PM role seems to usually focus on administrative management of cost and timing. The #1 skill from my perspective is taking a customer first mindset – not necessarily what they demand, but what the key benefits need to be, and the ongoing management of marrying the customer needs with technical feasibility within timing&budget. This is the “art” side of PM and more valuable than the accounting part of it. I suppose this bleeds into architecture, but a PM who is just a schedule accountant is of practically no use on most projects. In my experience, Time (and thus cost) seem to drive most decisions rather than value (cut scope until it “fits”)…. My role when doing PM is typically to eek out as much customer value within those constraints as I can and manage expectations. I’m finding the smaller the team and the smaller and well defined the sprints the better. This style is often in conflict with management who wants the entire process “known” at the outset to contain cost/perceived risk.
Right on with those questions. I’d be happy to get interviewers who were that thoughtful & knowledgeable.
Also, great comments. Helps to know what others have experienced.
In my mind, a project manager does not need to excel in only one area or skill, he juggles many things at the same time hence he needs to be good with multiple things such as;
1) Task prioritization
2) Superior communication
3) Good planner
4) Collaborative
5) Pro-active risk manager
Another thing that jumps out is that that not many PMs have the luxury to assemble their team as most projects get commissioned late! But if one does get a chance ( perhaps multi-year projects), the article rightly points out that you need a team with diverse skill-sets and point of view.
Perhaps the question what method will you use is redundant because a good project manager would surely discuss the approach with assigned team to get their viewpoint before taking a critical project decision. Remember what worked on your last project may not work in your next as each project is different and unique in its own way.
Cheers!
SP Verma
http://www.prozenconsulting.com