by scragz via Flickr
This morning I received a question from a member of the pmStudent community who has an interview on Monday for a project management role. Here I will share the advice I gave and ask for your own input.
Tip #1 – Don’t dress like Magneto from the X-Men comics. (See picture)
There are so few project management roles where this is appropriate attire anymore. Sad, really. The last time I wore my spider man costume to an interview I had to escape through a window. It seems companies just don’t appreciate super hero project managers anymore. What a shame…
Be Serious Josh!
OK…OK…
Let me start by advising to everyone that you shouldn’t wait for an interview to start preparing for one. Interview questions have similar themes and you should have a written set of common questions and responses even if you’re not looking for a job right now. You could be out of a job tomorrow and scrambling to find a new one. It’s better to do most of the preparation when you don’t have the added stress of being out of work. This goes for updating your resume/CV, networking, etc.
Click the link below and read the article. It will open in a new window, and after you’ve finished reading it come back here. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. 
Holy Crap, They Called Me For an Interview!
If You Didn’t Read That
Shame on you.
Or even if you did, let me emphasize 2 points in particular. Treat the interview like a discussion and give specifics, really tell a story from your past in response to the questions. Leave out names and even companies if it’s sensitive…focus on the trait or experience your story is trying to convey.
Sample Questions That I Like To Ask
Here is a list of some questions….of course they might not ask any of these in your situation, there’s no way for me to know.
- Tell me about yourself - Try http://www.15secondpitch.com/new to help you formulate a good 15 second “about me” statement
- Tell us about your experience in managing different projects and how this can contribute to our position.
- How do you handle non-productive team members?
- How do you motivate team members who are burned out, or bored?
- What have you learned from your failures?
- Give me an example of a win-win situation you have negotiated.
- Tell me about a tough decision you had to make?
- Describe how you recently managed a diverse project team towards a common goal.
- Describe the most complex project you have managed from start to finish.
- How do you handle team members who come to you with their personal problems?
- Give me an example of a stressful situation you have been in. How did you handle it?
- What are your career goals? How do you see this job affecting your goals?
- Why are you interested in this position?
- What do you believe qualifies you for this position?
My free newsletter is always available for you as well. Sign up today and start getting tips like this and so much more delivered right to your inbox!
No related posts.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Josh,
Great advice. Especially like the 15 second pitch site. It’s take several tries over the years to get on booth pitch down for trade shows. Since the client is usually a senior military officer, the message has to be clear, concise, and brief.
Josh,
Great advice. Especially like the 15 second pitch site. It’s take several tries over the years to get on booth pitch down for trade shows. Since the client is usually a senior military officer, the message has to be clear, concise, and brief.
you should always have ready stories about tough situations you faced in the past. You should always weave stories into your answers to give them credibility.
Make sure to draw the stories from 3 or 4 different projects. They should follow this pattern: start with setting up the situation, show impact the situation was having, talk about what you did to resolve it, and finish by talking about results or outcome your actions delivered. Be careful not to use “we” or the “team and I”. Remember to talk in terms of what “you” did not what others did.
Even if you are not asked to give examples, always try to incorporate a story in your answers. Just don’t make the stories too long. As you tell stories, look people in the eyes and determine if they are still interested. Wrap up you story if they are not engaged. They will ask if they want more. If they are engaged, note what they seem to react to and give them more in the next story.
Don’t be afraid to use emotions and feelings. The majority of the stories should feature you as the “victorious” hero at the end. But you need to also throw in a couple of examples where you can show you struggled. Just make sure to finish by showing what you learned and what you will do and not do in similar situation in the future. This will show your humility and humanity.
Hope this helps.
Thank you Samad, good tips!
I differ you on this point though:
I make it clear that my role is behind the scenes. It’s the team that accomplishes things, and then I relay what my role was in facilitating the accomplishment.
When I interview people for management roles who use “I” too much it’s not a good thing. It makes me think they feel like they could do it all by themselves. Since I’ve had negative experiences with managers who felt the most important part of their job was that they get the credit for accomplishments I’m very wary.
Management of any kind is about getting results through the people you work with, and so I look for people who understand how important their teams are.
Thanks Josh for the opportunity to be part of this conversation.
I think you have a good point there. As a candidate, you don’t want to sound like you did it all by yourself. That makes you sound arrogant and appear to take credit for other’s achievements.
On the other hand, I interviewed a lot of candidates that hide too much behind the “we” or “the team did this” type of statements to the point where you don’t really get a good sense about their individual contributions to the project. We can assume a lot about the candidate, just because they are presenting themselves as the PM who orchestrated behind the scenes their projects success. But at the same time, you want to tease out their individual contributions from those of the rest of the project team.
I think the trick is to not overdo this. We need to show our contributions and, at the same time, remain humble.
Excellent clarification Samad. It is certainly important in an interview situation to be clear about your specific role in the situation. Don’t leave them guessing as to whether you really had any impact at all on the situation.
Great discussion! (If anyone else wants to weigh in, please do!)
you should always have ready stories about tough situations you faced in the past. You should always weave stories into your answers to give them credibility.
Make sure to draw the stories from 3 or 4 different projects. They should follow this pattern: start with setting up the situation, show impact the situation was having, talk about what you did to resolve it, and finish by talking about results or outcome your actions delivered. Be careful not to use “we” or the “team and I”. Remember to talk in terms of what “you” did not what others did.
Even if you are not asked to give examples, always try to incorporate a story in your answers. Just don’t make the stories too long. As you tell stories, look people in the eyes and determine if they are still interested. Wrap up you story if they are not engaged. They will ask if they want more. If they are engaged, note what they seem to react to and give them more in the next story.
Don’t be afraid to use emotions and feelings. The majority of the stories should feature you as the “victorious” hero at the end. But you need to also throw in a couple of examples where you can show you struggled. Just make sure to finish by showing what you learned and what you will do and not do in similar situation in the future. This will show your humility and humanity.
Hope this helps.
Thank you Samad, good tips!
I differ you on this point though:
I make it clear that my role is behind the scenes. It’s the team that accomplishes things, and then I relay what my role was in facilitating the accomplishment.
When I interview people for management roles who use “I” too much it’s not a good thing. It makes me think they feel like they could do it all by themselves. Since I’ve had negative experiences with managers who felt the most important part of their job was that they get the credit for accomplishments I’m very wary.
Management of any kind is about getting results through the people you work with, and so I look for people who understand how important their teams are.
Thanks Josh for the opportunity to be part of this conversation.
I think you have a good point there. As a candidate, you don’t want to sound like you did it all by yourself. That makes you sound arrogant and appear to take credit for other’s achievements.
On the other hand, I interviewed a lot of candidates that hide too much behind the “we” or “the team did this” type of statements to the point where you don’t really get a good sense about their individual contributions to the project. We can assume a lot about the candidate, just because they are presenting themselves as the PM who orchestrated behind the scenes their projects success. But at the same time, you want to tease out their individual contributions from those of the rest of the project team.
I think the trick is to not overdo this. We need to show our contributions and, at the same time, remain humble.
Excellent clarification Samad. It is certainly important in an interview situation to be clear about your specific role in the situation. Don’t leave them guessing as to whether you really had any impact at all on the situation.
Great discussion! (If anyone else wants to weigh in, please do!)