by Josh
interview skillz - by engineroomblog via Flickr
I’ve been laid off 5 times.
Yep.
I’ve been through resume and interview classes and courses, have interviewed over 200 people for positions, and interviewed for over 50 positions myself in my career.
I’m not a theorist with this. I’ve got a lot of experience with interviewing. More than most I think.
For management and project management, here are some of my favorites. I prefer open-ended questions, and I EXPECT to hear specific examples that illustrate the candidate’s experience.
- 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?
11 Comments
Donna Fitzgerald July 30 2009 18:17 pm
They don't use it because most personal projects can be carried in your head, What that number is might vary by individual but I generally assume it's something under 75 tasks (my personal questimate of how many pages of an MSP plan I can carry in my head). I'm also guessing that for many the answer is the same as mine was for my wedding, I was up to my eyeballs with my own project so my fiance and I hired a wedding planner to manage it for us (best money I've ever spent). I do know one woman who has her entire life mapped out in MS project but I have to admit that I wondered if she'd possibly taken a good idea too far.
Sonja April 01 2010 10:55 am
Actually, I did--project plan, schedule, procurement plan, risks (we were married in a hot air balloon, so weather was a major source of risk), opportunities (found coupons for free winetasting at a NICE winery after our landing) cost baseline (stuck to it--$5k, INCLUDING the honeymoon). And wouldn't you know it, the weather gods were so afraid of my detail planning, they decided to cooperate!
Of course, everyone else thought that this was *way too geeky* for a bride. Everyone else who hadn't known me for a long long time, that is.
sweety368 (Rainer Suess)July 31, 2009 12:10 am
RT @pmstudent Project Manager Interview Questions | pmStudent [link to post]
Kendra SiemonsmaAugust 5, 2009 1:41 pm
Recently I ask for an example of the project management work products that the interviewee either created and/or used; ie schedule, management plans, This helps get a better understanding of the true project management experience and knowledge that the candidate has.
Josh Nankivel August 05 2009 13:46 pm
Absolutely. This is a great point Kendra.
Make sure you have them talk you through the artifacts, and even give it to you ahead of time so you can ask some questions that will validate their experience and give you some helpful information about how they work.
Ali NormanDecember 1, 2009 3:38 pm
I think that people use project management in their proffesional life and not their private life because their proffesional life MUST be in order and have deadlines or they wont have a proffesional life long; but their private life can be winged (meaning that they can do things at the spare of the moment) and everything will be alright.
MarcLussy (Marc Lussy)January 10, 2010 9:51 am
interesting via @ipmstudent #PMOT Comment on Project Manager Interview Questions by RBar (rbar) [link to post]
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Andrew MeyerJuly 30, 2009 4:23 am
Actually, my favorite question involves two parts. I like to find something major that happened in their personal life, like getting married. My second question is whether they put a project schedule and project plan etc. together for their wedding?
I’ve never yet had someone say that they put together a project plan for their wedding, trip, house sale etc. My follow on question is “Why?” There are multiple parties involved who need to know what is happening and multiple deadlines that have to be met, isn’t that just like a project? If project management is so helpful and they rave about how useful it is at work, why don’t they use it personally?
A question I’d love to know the answer too.