You’re a professional who recently applied for a project management role and they invite you to the project manager interview with some questions.
From record, you haven’t had a job interview in a while or are concerned about the upcoming project manager interview. You’re looking for answers to frequent project manager interview questions.
Senior executives and HR managers recognize project management as critical to
business success. They recognize that qualified project managers are among their most significant assets.
According to a survey conducted by the Project Management Institute, about $122 million is wasted in the United States for every $1 billion invested owing to poor project
performance.
Things get a little complex for selecting talented project managers, and candidates are evaluated in a variety of ways.
Will the candidate be a good fit for the company’s culture? Or will the candidate get along with the rest of the team and be able to effectively lead them? Will the candidate meet the project’s deadlines?
Successfully completing an interview is both an art and a science. There are many unknowns, but focusing on key areas or competencies and giving the correct answers to questions in the interview based on them will help you get picked.
The following project manager interview questions put the following ten areas or competencies into the test interviewers.
To help you prove you are the ideal match for the post of project manager, we’ve included some pointers on how to answer them.
Table of Contents
- 20 Project Manager Interview Questions & Answer
- 1: Please describe yourself and your background briefly.
- 2. What does an ideal project look like for you?
- 3. In the post-COVID-19 world, working from home has become the new normal. How well prepared are you to lead a remote team?
- 4. What is your task prioritization strategy?
- 5. In your opinion, what is the most important talent to have in order to be a good project manager? Please provide us with a few examples of your previous projects.
- 6. What was one of the biggest blunders you’ve made in previous projects? What effect has it had on your approach to work?
- 7. Can you give us an example of a project that didn’t work out? Have you experienced any similar encounters?
- 8. Assume the customer is dissatisfied with the project’s outcome quality. What are your plans for dealing with the situation? How do you deal with a disgruntled stakeholder?
- 9. What is your technique for resolving team member internal conflicts?
- 10. In a project management framework, define processes and process groups
- 11. Can you clarify the distinction between risk and issue? What are the most common sorts of hazards that a project might face?
- 12. What methods do you have for defining a project?
- 13. Describe the project management team formation procedure you use.
- 14. How would you describe your leadership style?
- 15. Do you have a favorite project management program?
- 16: In five years, where do you see yourself?
- 17: What is your current remuneration and benefits package?
- 18: How much do you intend to earn?
- 19. Tell us about the most arduous tasks you’ve worked on thus far. What steps did you take to address the difficulties?
- 20. Assume the project has gotten out of hand. How would you go about getting things back on track?
- FAQs
- Conclusion
- References:
- Recommendations
20 Project Manager Interview Questions & Answer
1: Please describe yourself and your background briefly.
This is, in fact, a common project manager interview question. Consider this PM interview question as an opportunity to promote yourself.
Because you’ll be speaking about your history, schooling, work experience, and finished projects. You can discuss your university projects if you are a recent graduate.
If you are an experienced professional, the job interviewer will search your background for terms that fit the job requirements.
When answering these project manager interview questions, for example, if you have
5+ years of experience and are looking for a project management position. You should not begin with your primary school.
Briefly describe where you were born, where you grew up, and what you studied at university. There should be only two or three sentences in this section.
Then you should draw attention to the key aspects of your background that apply to the position you apply for.
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2. What does an ideal project look like for you?
One of the most significant project manager interview questions aims to learn about the projects you’d like to work on.
By honestly answering this question, you open the door to managing initiatives that interest you or in which you thrive.
Your response should include a variety of topics, like if you prefer to work in a group or alone, what type of deadlines you prefer, whether you are interested in innovative and creative projects, and so on.
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3. In the post-COVID-19 world, working from home has become the new normal. How well prepared are you to lead a remote team?
In today’s world, project managers are required to manage teams remotely and often choose their teams from a worldwide workforce.
You should have the knowledge and skills necessary to collaborate with team members digitally as a project manager.
It causes an alternative approach to management. It should clearly describe the project management method you may pick to manage people and resources in a remote setting in your response to this project management interview question.
4. What is your task prioritization strategy?
Prioritization is a vital idea that defines the project’s success and timely completion,
Regardless of its size and complexity.
If your interviewer asks about priority, explain how you distinguish between urgency and importance in your response.
You can explain how you decide what is important, and what isn’t. This project manager interview question is also intended to assess your ability to be flexible and adaptable when leading a project.
Your response should show that you can say no when necessary during the project.
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5. In your opinion, what is the most important talent to have in order to be a good project manager? Please provide us with a few examples of your previous projects.
If you’ve worked in project management before, you know probably that no single talent is sufficient for a successful career in the area.
To be a skilled project manager, you’ll need a diverse range of talents, including leadership, communication, negotiation, and time management, to name a few.
To respond quickly to this question, you should be able to explain why you choose a particular talent. You can verify your answer in a couple of instances.
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6. What was one of the biggest blunders you’ve made in previous projects? What effect has it had on your approach to work?
They believe it’s human to make mistakes. Your abilities are defined by how you handle errors.
The interviewer is attempting to determine your honesty and whether you accept responsibility for mistakes made in previous projects by asking this project management interview question.
Rather than responding with a resounding “no,” you could point out a few flaws. To demonstrate your maturity level, make sure you show you accept responsibility for the mistake. You can also explain how you solved the problem.
7. Can you give us an example of a project that didn’t work out? Have you experienced any similar encounters?
As a project manager, you will experience both success and failure. It’s also not a good idea to say “no” to this inquiry.
Instead, consider a time or phase in your prior initiatives where you failed.
This project management interview question is also meant to test your risk management experience. You must describe how you dealt with the problem.
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8. Assume the customer is dissatisfied with the project’s outcome quality. What are your plans for dealing with the situation? How do you deal with a disgruntled stakeholder?
When consumers are dissatisfied with project outcomes, they will hold you accountable as a project manager.
You should be able to show how much you value customers and how you would accept their authority without being critical while answering this project management interview question.
More so, you can say that you will try to make the changes that the consumer requires. You can describe the procedures you took to guarantee that the customer was contacted frequently during the project.
You can also state that you will communicate efficiently with the customer to ensure that the outputs are within the project’s scope.
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9. What is your technique for resolving team member internal conflicts?
The interviewer is attempting to figure out how good of a mediator you are and how
impartial you are for resolving problems.
You can explain why it’s important to listen to both sides and grasp both points of view. Your response should explain how you persuaded both parties to agree that is best for the project at hand and results in a win-win situation.
It would also be beneficial if you describe how you ensure that neither of them benefits at the expense of the other.
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10. In a project management framework, define processes and process groups
The purpose of this project management interview question is to assess your domain
knowledge.
Processes related to the established technique of carrying out tasks in order to properly complete a project in a project management framework.
Process groups are a collection of processes that are carried out at different stages of the project. The five process groups are Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring & Control, and Closing.
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11. Can you clarify the distinction between risk and issue? What are the most common sorts of hazards that a project might face?
Risks are hypothetical future events or scenarios that could have a detrimental or positive impact on the project’s objectives. Issues refer to any current incident or scenario that impacts the project’s goals.
The danger is concerned with future events, whereas issues are concerned with current events. When a team member abruptly resigns from the organization, they frequently viewed issues as unfavorable. There are two types of risks: positive and negative.
The most typical types of project hazards are as follows:
Risks such as market risk, schedule risk, cost risk, resource risk, performance risk, technology risk, governance risk, legal risk, external risk, strategic risk, and operational risk must all be considered.
12. What methods do you have for defining a project?
The interview panel is attempting to find out your understanding of the relevant domain with this question.
Product Breakdown, Requirement Analysis, Systems Engineering, Systems Analysis, Value Engineering, Value Analysis, and Alternatives Analysis are some of the ideas involved in establishing the project scope.
13. Describe the project management team formation procedure you use.
A project manager should be familiar with the many stages that a team goes through during the project; as a result, this is one of the most frequently asked topics in project management interviews and tests.
The five development stages in team creation are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.
When answering this project management interview question, discuss each of these phases.
14. How would you describe your leadership style?
There are various ways to lead, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. It’s impossible to avoid discussing leadership styles in project management.
Depending on the project, a project manager may have to select between top-down and servant leadership. Examine their knowledge of leadership styles and how they might project management.
15. Do you have a favorite project management program?
When it comes to project planning and scheduling, most project managers rely heavily on Gantt charts. Project managers can plan every aspect of their projects with Project Manager’s award-winning online Gantt charts.
Managers may create dependencies, define milestones, assign tasks, manage workload, and more, all from one screen. The capabilities of our planning tools would blow any general contractor you hire away.
To plan, monitor, and report on a project, a project manager needs project management tools. There are a variety of alternatives available, ranging from basic to complicated.
This question reveals how current the candidate is with software and project management tools, foremost. It also summarizes the project management tools and strategies they use.
16: In five years, where do you see yourself?
A common interview question in human resources! This interview question determines if you have a career plan and whether it is appropriate for the position.
You must create a career plan that fits a project management route in order to be considered for a project manager interview.
The project manager candidate emphasizes he intends to continue working as a project manager for the next three years. Because every company expects a candidate to stay in the position for at least two years, this is crucial for an employer.
The project manager candidate then says that he intends to get professional qualifications in order to strengthen his project management abilities.
17: What is your current remuneration and benefits package?
When answering this question, be truthful. Company human resources departments are well-versed in industry compensation benchmarks.
As a result, they will calculate your salary and benefits package. If you offer a salary that is significantly higher than the market rate, you risk losing the position.
Because the company’s ability to pay for this post will be limited. When this topic comes up in your project manager interview, explain your salary and benefits package.
18: How much do you intend to earn?
In your project management interview, this is one of the last questions you’ll be asked. This is a question for which there is no definitive solution.
However, it is normal practice to aim for a wage raise of at least 20% in your next position.
You should describe your expectations based on your existing salary and compensation package.
You should avoid stating a salary and compensation expectation that is significantly higher than your existing package.
19. Tell us about the most arduous tasks you’ve worked on thus far. What steps did you take to address the difficulties?
The interview panel is looking for examples of how you cope with significant problems and conflicting scenarios in a project.
It would be great if you avoided mentioning situations where you had to deal with difficult team members or a lack of management support.
As a project manager, you should be prepared to deal with such situations. Instead, concentrate on external issues such as a project that was abruptly canceled or financing that was cut in the middle of a large undertaking.
You should also describe how you dealt with the issues and guided the team through difficult times.
20. Assume the project has gotten out of hand. How would you go about getting things back on track?
When you find a project isn’t progressing according to schedule, budget, scope, or goals, the next step is to bring it back on track.
The project manager should be capable of taking action to correct the discrepancy between actual and planned progress.
Readjusting resource management, determining the true cause of off-tracking, putting in more effort, and other options may be included in your response to this project management interview question.
FAQs
Being able to communicate clearly and effectively when managing any project or team is a skill that is essential.
Project managers play the lead role in planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing out projects.
A project manager usually reports to a manager, director, or vice president of project management, although they can report to any manager in the hierarchy.
The best project managers are skilled in the areas of strategic thinking, risk management, and communication.
Project Administrator: Entry-level position, working as support for a single project. Project Support Officer: Assists project manager, from administrative to more managerial tasks.
Conclusion
We’ve tried to compile a list of all the questions that will most likely be asked during your project management interview.
We’ve also included examples of responses to each interview question. Note that these are simply suggestions; responses to these project manager interview questions may differ depending on the industry and the position you applied for.
These 20 areas, as well as the project management interview questions that follow them, are not exhaustive.
Nonetheless, the interview questions highlight the most critical project management abilities and competencies that the candidate will need to succeed as a project manager, not just during the interview.
References:
- simplilearn.com – Top 51 Project Manager Interview Questions with Answers
- thaide.org
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