You have completed all the training and you may even have some project management experience but going into an interview can still be intimidating! In this article we look at 10 of the common questions you are likely to be asked in a project management job interview.
There may be other questions you encounter in an interview but they will usually be framed around three key areas.
Firstly the interviewer will want to explore your people skills. Project management is held together by the relationships you have with stakeholders. Different stakeholders will have different agendas and incentives. This is a recipe for conflict and questions around how you will deal with this conflict will no doubt be a part of the interview process.
Your technical knowledge will also be explored. There will be questions relating to your experience and how you have approached projects previously.
Finally you will be asked questions around specific situations. The aim here is to examine your approach. Use examples and reflect on previous projects you have been involved with.
Below are 11 questions that serve as a starting point for your upcoming interview.
1. Tell me about yourself
For some this can be the hardest question of all. It can be daunting talking about yourself in glowing terms. However, this is the time for you to shine so don’t be shy and think of yourself as a product that you are trying to sell to someone.
One effective way to approach this question is to frame it in the present, the past and the future.
Firstly, talk about what you are doing now. What your role is and exactly what that entails. Then discuss past experiences and how that aligns with the role you are applying for. Finally discuss what roles you would like to be involved in the future and how the direction of your career may look.
2. What do you believe is the most important thing a project manager does?
This is a question that examines your experience as a project manager. You can touch on what you spend the most time doing and what some of your key responsibilities are.
This is a great opportunity to talk about the importance of communication in project management.
You can frame it that communication is the grout that holds all the moving parts of the project together.
There are two levels of communication that are crucial in complex projects. First is the internal communication that happens within the project team. Its important that the team is working together as one cohesive unit.
Secondly the communication with stakeholders is crucial from project initiation to project close. If stakeholders aren’t being communicated with then a vacuum occurs. Stakeholders will fill that vacuum with assumptions which are usually incorrect! This can be a project killer.
3. Tell us about something that went wrong in a project that you were managing.
No matter how well the planning was for a project it is inevitable that something may go wrong. The interviewer will want to know how you dealt with this. This is to understand how you deal with things that do not go to plan and how you arrive at the solutions.
You will want to bring some examples on situations where things did not go as planned. Dealing with these unforeseen challenges and bringing in change processes into the project should also be discussed.
A sensible way to approach this is to use the STAR method:
1. Situation – describe the situation and why it happened. Why did it go wrong?
2. Task – what were the identified tasks that rectified the situation?
3. Action – then explain what you did and how you did it
4. Result – describe the outcome and the success of the task and action. Describe what you learned from the experience and what controls might be brought in to prevent the situation happening again
4. How would you create an environment of performance?
How well you lead a project team is crucial to how successful the project will be. Managing a team so that they are a tight cohesive unit in the performance phase is the aim of every manager.
The communication within the team may be an important strategy for you discuss with your interviewers. Describe how you run your meetings, are they held weekly, do you conduct daily stand-up meetings? Also how do the internal communication processes look. What systems do you use? This can range from Microsoft teams to Jira or other means.
You may also want to touch on reward and recognition. This can be a bit if a minefield but touching on some low cost ways to recognise good work may be worth discussing. Even mentioning the value of praise to team members can be valuable.
5. What has been your most successful project?
This is an opportunity to demonstrate what strategies you used to bring together a successful project. Use the STAR method again to give a brief outline on what made this project special.
This is not a time to be modest. Discuss why this project was a success. What is under budget, on time or within scope? Or was it all three?
Demonstrating the success of the project and why it was so important is powerful. You may want to align the success of the project outcomes with the strategic objectives of the organisation. For example, a Health department objective may be providing affordable health care to rural communities. By managing the successful delivery of a rural hospital provides outcomes that are in line with the objectives of that organisation.
6. How would you describe a project plan
With this question the interviewer is aiming to gauge your knowledge of project management concepts. In particular the three constraints of time, budget and scope.
You may also want to touch on stakeholders, risk, tasks and milestones as well as team members and the skills matrix required.
7. What project management methods do you use?
This is an opportunity to talk about different project methodologies like Agile and Waterfall. You want to demonstrate that you are comfortable with many project methodologies and combining them with the built-up learning of the organisation.
8. How do you deal with scope creep?
Scope creep occurs when uncontrolled changes to the initial intended scope of a project are made. By allowing scope creep to enter the project there is pressure on the budget and deadline.
A discussion on how to mitigate scope will be helpful here. You could highlight the importance of clarity in the business case or project charter.
Having a clear Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) may also go some way to preventing scope creep.
9. How do you navigate team conflict
Projects have significant constraints place upon them. This could be a tight budget or a demanding schedule. These constraints can bring its own set of pressures which can morph into team conflict. There are a myriad of reasons that conflict appears in the team. It is part of the project manager’s role to use the soft skills at their disposal to quell negative conflict. When answering this question, it is usually best to use an example.
10. What project management tools do you use?
This is your opportunity to let the interviewer know what tools you use and your familiarity with them. You can also research what the organisation uses and see if you have been using similar tools. Common project management tools include RACI charts, Microsoft Project, Jira, Trello or Moday.com. You may want to talk about these tools and discuss their advantages and how the organisation can benefit by using them.
11. Describe your last project
This is an opportunity to talk about your last project. You can describe the challenges and how you overcame them. You can highlight the lessons learned and what you are going to start, stop and continue in future projects. You will also want to talk about your successes within the project, whether that was bringing the project under budget, within schedule or scope.
I hope this helps you in your quest to continue your journey in the field of project management. Good luck with your next job interview!
