How to Approach Project Manager Job Interview Questions
The way interviews for project manager role are conducted has changed tremendously over recent years with the onset of the web and the ‘globalization’ of resources.
The first step was to send in a project manager CV/résumé and a cover letter in response to an advertisement. The next step, assuming you made it through the initial selection review, would be to fill in an application form followed by a professional PMP interview (or series of interviews/selection procedures).
The interview included core project management features questions in: Advanced InterDependencies , automatic notifications ,budgeting , critical path method , project baseline ,Gantt charts, project hierarchy , project portfolio management and more.
These days there are many variations with an emphasis on personal recommendations and demonstration of capabilities particularly for project manager or PMO (project management office) roles. There is often a barrage of interviews – over the phone, over the web, and finally, facetoface. Even internal jobs can now have selection centers for certain levels of project manager roles.
This is a minefield as often, different people with different drivers are involved.
The approach to the project manager Job interview questions must be tailored and responses to questions thought through carefully, or rather, questions must be answered strategically and understanding the interviewer’s motives is absolutely vital to success. In most cases, the nonfacetoface interviews are generally conducted by people who are not the person you end up working for. They could be a third party (i.e. an agency) or an HR person; each with differing objectives and a different set of goals – the former motivated by their financial prospects and the latter simply fulfilling a task to find a project manager candidate.
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The prospective interviewee, having familiarized himself with the role, having examined his alignment to it, and tailored his CV/résumé accordingly, should take a clear approach to the project manager roles interview questions and put himself in the mind of the interviewer and try to understand they are coming from and understand their motivations at the various different stages in the selection process. The aim is to be consistent but ‘score’ high enough to get through to the next stage and eventually to the person who will actually offer you and speak with you about the potential project manager role.
Listing out sets of questions that each interviewer might ask based on the role description (or advertisement), project manager duties and devising ‘model’ answers based, ideally, on your CV, is a useful starting point. This will build confidence, even if those exact questions are not asked, and will help you shape the course of the interview.
If you need help, you always have access to a wealth of resources on the internet. There are any numbers of web sites that can ‘coach’ you through the interview process. These include professional institutions such as The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) which is the world’s largest association devoted to human resource management (SHRM Project Managers Questions) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) which is Europe's largest HR and development professional body, for example, are two valuable resources (CIPD interview tips). There are also many commercially sponsored sites giving free advice such as CV tips or project manager interview questions.
We hope that those of you looking for a new challenge have found the information given above useful and wish you every success in finding your next role.
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