Project Manager Interview Prep: Questions and Answers
Congrats! You landed an interview for a project manager position at your dream organization. Are you nervous or intimidated? No reason to fear as long as you prepare. In this blog post, you will learn some common project manager interview questions and how to answer them. Although every interview is different and specific to the organization, you will probably encounter questions about your people skills, technical knowledge, and how you might react to particular situations. Note that this post does not provide an exhaustive list of possible interview questions, but feel free to use it as a starting point to prepare stories about your past work experiences. During your interview, these questions will probably vary in sequence. Expect the hiring managers to use their own jargon when asking you these questions.
Tell me about yourself.
This question is standard for every type of job interview. Consider this your opportunity to describe yourself and tell your life story. You mustn't stumble too much on this one since it is you relating yourself to the hiring managers. It is helpful to develop an elevator pitch of sorts to use here that highlights your key accomplishments, education, experience, and work philosophy explicitly. I usually start from my undergraduate experience until my most recent work experience. It would help if you talked about the different roles you have worked and how they are relevant to the position you are interviewing for. You should also mention why you are interested in the position and what kind of experience you hope to gain once you are hired.
Tell us about the last project you worked on.
Here you will want to detail the most critical information about the project. You may want to mention the overall project goal, the size of the team, and how you approached it. Also, say what aspects of the project went well and what lessons you learned from the project.
Tell us about a time something went wrong on a project you were managing.
Here hiring managers want to see how you react to setbacks. Projects don't always go according to plan, and they are testing how resilient a professional you are. You can mention how you execute change processes in your project.
How do you prioritize tasks on a project?
You will want to showcase your knowledge and experience of what to prioritize in a project. Expect to be asked how you would prioritize working on multiple projects simultaneously. Lean on your past work experiences to come up with an answer that includes stakeholder needs, deadlines, and how you selected tasks that make up the critical path.
Do you have any experience with managing a budget?
You may want to mention activities like estimating costs and how you decided to allocate funds. You may also want to say how you recorded and tracked the money you spent and planned for unexpected expenses. If you lack budgeting experience, you can mention examples from your personal life if they are appropriate. If you have no experience with budgeting, consider saying that you hope to acquire more budgeting skills in your next job. It's never negative to show hiring managers that you are willing to learn new things.
How do you define success?
Use this question to showcase your professional strengths as a leader. Tell about a time when you kept the project on track and how you worked with your team, and how it led to project success. Tell the hiring managers about the lessons you learned from the project. Success doesn't always feel like a success because you made mistakes, but remember that you are successful if you learn from those mistakes and implement those lessons learned in your future work experiences.
How do you establish collaboration on your team?
Establishing rapport with your team members is essential to figuring out how to motivate them later in the project. You will want to have good working relationships with your teammates, so they feel comfortable coming to you with questions and concerns. Your relationships with your team are vital to the success of your project. There are many ways you can foster good working relationships with your team. I advise finding which specific relationship-building methods work best for you.
You will want to use examples of times you have communicated effectively with your team and how you led them to a joint project goal. Your relationship with your teammates will give you an idea of what activities you want to incorporate in kick-off meetings and how you want to structure communication strategies within the project.
What tools have you used to manage a project?
If you have used project management tools in the past, you will want to list those out here. You can include standard project management tools you've learned about or mention specific software like Jira and Trello. You can also say if you enjoyed working with these tools and what tools you would like to gain experience with in the future.
Be prepared to answer some situational questions like these:
How would you handle a team member that required more time to complete a task?
Again, the hiring managers want to see how well you think on your feet. Your answer should include how you figured out how this issue presented itself and how you fixed the problem. It would be best if you mentioned how you listen thoroughly to your team members so you can respond appropriately to any issues they have. Common fixes to a team member needing more time to complete a task are adding more team members, enforcing time buffers in the plan for detailed tasks, and undergoing stakeholder negotiations to gain more project time and resources.
How have you successfully dealt with a difficult stakeholder?
You will want to showcase your people skills when you answer this question. Mention how you identified the problem and dealt with it; a good answer would include how you used your stellar communication skills and implemented skillful negotiations to reach a win-win situation with the stakeholder. It would be helpful to identify the needs of all of your stakeholders and determine the project's available resources.
Good luck with your upcoming interview! Remember to stay positive during the process, practice healthy eye contact, and smile. Be confident but humble about your experience and try to communicate that you can handle the duties of the project manager job and that you are excited to take the position on as a new challenge.
Thank you for visiting Hatchett Project.
Be sure to check out our other project management posts and videos.
