Project Management is a skill required in many roles and on this page I provide a sample of job interview questions which relate to the planning, management and delivery of projects in a variety of sectors. This article is relevant to positions such as: Project Manager, Programme Manager Analysts and Project Office Manager (PMO) roles.
You will find that many employers are now using Competency Based Interviewing techniques when recruiting for Project Management and Support jobs. You should expect both Competency Based and Behavioural Questions exploring key skills such as:
- Leadership
- Ability to recruit, build and inspire a team
- Negotiation
- Interpersonal and Persuasion Skills
- Planning and Organising
- Delivering results
In addition expect questions exploring your training and accreditation and your experience with successfully delivering projects. For Project Support roles, questions exploring your ability to set up and manage a PMO, to deal with risks and issues logs and to manage change requests are all common.
Sample Interview Questions For Project Management
Working in a projects environment your tasks is to contribute to the successful delivery a piece of work, a project. Whether you are in a support role such as PMO or at the top level as a Programme Manager you will have a common goal, a clearly identified target delivery, which will be both time and cost bound. Here are some common questions exploring your ability to deliver successfully.
Take a moment, reflect and see how would you answer these questions.
Tell me about a major project you were involved with which delivered successfully and how did you contribute to its success?
I see you are an experienced PMO Analyst which is exactly what we need. What do you regard as the benefits of a well managed Programme Management Office?
As Project Manager, how would you build quality into your team and into the project itself?.
Imagine you are a couple of months into a 6 month project and it is about to overrun on costs. How would you deal with this most effectively, what steps would you take?
Describe a time when you used your skills to persuade a manager or colleague to accept your recommendations.
Describe a time when you had to build a collaborative relationship in order to deliver a project successfully.
* Questions taken from the InterviewGOLD™ Interview System.
Project Manager Interview Questions
Below you will see more questions specific to Project Manager level positions. As an experienced Project Manager you should expect questions exploring your historical career and especially delving into projects you have delivered previously and recently. The interviewer will be keen to hear about the types of projects, budget size, teams you managed and ultimately what the end result of your effort was. Of course, you will talk mostly about successful projects however no project runs smoothly and be especially ready to talk about the obstacles you encountered and the challenges you faced and overcome.
Some typical questions can include:
Tell us about the most difficult project you managed.
Talk us through a project which failed to deliver.
What process do you follow when managing change requests which you have found particularly useful?
What are the key elements you would include in a Project Initiation document?
How do you ensure quality is embedded in every stage of a project?
Tell us about challenges you faced when managing stakeholders in your most recent project.
What is the core function of the Project Board and based in your experience how have you made sure the relationship between the Project Manager and Board works at its most effective?
Interview Questions for PMO and Support roles
Managing the Project Office is a key function and for larger organisation there will be a dedicated team involved in ensuring that this function runs smoothly. for a small company or project this function may be part of the Project Managers role and here is a small selection of potential interview questions.
What is the key function of a PMO as you see it?
What core skills would you say are essential for an excellent PMO Manager?
What do you see is the purpose of the Risks and Issues log?
As part of the monthly reporting cycle, you realise the project is at risk of overspend. What do you do?
Talk me through a business case you have produced or contributed to.
Online Training For Project Management Interviews
Success in any interview will come from being able to answer the questions effectively and accurately and convincing the interviewer that you are the best person for the job. Selling yourself is required and this is a skill that can be learned and to help I recommend InterviewGold for Project Management interviews.
InterviewGold is the leading online interview skills training system designed to quickly and easily teach you the skills you need to succeed in any interview. You also get EXPERT INTERVIEW ANSWERS to any interview question they can ask.
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