Project Manager Interview Questions
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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?
Jul 30th, 2009 at 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.
Reply
Donna Fitzgerald Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 6:17 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.
Reply
Andrew Meyer Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Donna,
that is an excellent answer to the direct question, but it doesn’t answer the spirit of the question – if the tools are so good, why don’t people use them in areas where they have personal choice. Doctors don’t forget their medical training when they get the flu, lawyers don’t forget their legal training giving advice to friend, plumbers don’t skip using the basics when their own sink clogs up.
In any of these situations, one doesn’t have to use full open heart surgery to treat the flu, but the concepts are still used.
Shouldn’t PM methodologies be flexible enough that lightweight elements can be used planning a camping trip, more detailed elements be used for a wedding and something more complete for buying a house?
If something is only used when someone is paying money, is it really the right tool?
Reply
Donna Fitzgerald Reply:
August 16th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
You are really asking the right question and I’m afraid the answer to your question is no I’m not sure any of the “tools” are really lightweight enough to use for most personal projects. Where I think you might be just a tiny bit off the mark is that most PMs actually do use PM practices as a part of their daily life. The ability to sequence tasks and minimize risk and watch for expansions of scope are all things I know I do on any personal project (without the need for tools).
This is a truly great discussion — thanks for raising the topic
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Jul 31st, 2009 at 12:10 am
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RT @pmstudent Project Manager Interview Questions | pmStudent [link to post]
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Aug 5th, 2009 at 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.
Reply
Josh Nankivel Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 1:46 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.
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Dec 1st, 2009 at 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.
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Jan 10th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Twitter Comment
A good set of PM interview questions [link to post]
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Jan 10th, 2010 at 9:51 am
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interesting via @ipmstudent #PMOT Comment on Project Manager Interview Questions by RBar (rbar) [link to post]
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