How to ACE Your Interview | 12 Project Manager Questions and Answers

Watch as we talk you through 12 potential project manager interview questions and answers including our tips for each one.
The interview will likely start with the interviewers giving you an overview of the company and the job. They’ll likely ask you a few warm-up questions to get things started - something like questions 1 and 2.
Question 1. Tell me a bit about yourself.
Hint: I’m not looking for your life story here, just a quick nugget of who you are and where you’ve come from. It’s your personal elevator pitch and it shouldn’t be longer than a minute.
Question 2. What do you know about the company?
Hint: Be specific and show that you’ve done your research. Things to consider dropping in are: anything newsworthy that you’ve found on social media, some juicy snippet from an annual report or their website, if you are aware that they’ve won any significant awards or major contract. After this it’s likely the interviewer will start asking more detailed questions about your skills and experience.
Question 3. How did you get into project management?
Hint: This should be a quick anecdote, there’s no need to get into a huge amount of detail.
Question 4: What was the first project you ever managed?
Hint: This answer needs to have some meat to it. You should talk about what the project was supposed to deliver, the timescale, budget and the outcome. For example - It was a project to expand capacity in a food manufacturing company. It was scheduled to take 10 months and had a budget of $850,000. It went live in just short of 10 months with an overspend of $85,000.
Question 5: tell me about the most recent project you managed.
Hint: This should be similar to the answer above but have more detail around what the project is about and what it’s going to achieve or has achieved. Ideally you should use a project that you’re currently managing
Question 6: What was the biggest issue in that project? How did you handle it?
Hint: With this question, it’s all about how you handled the issue not what the issue actually was. I’d be looking for evidence that you’re calm in a crisis and know how to follow established escalation paths.
Question 7: How do you handle difficult stakeholders?
Hint: With this question I’m looking for evidence that you have a solid approach to stakeholder management and can manage difficult people, as there’s always at least one difficult stakeholder.
For example, you can talk about how you have a stakeholder matrix and an engagement plan. You mention why the stakeholders are difficult and how you approach them. You can also talk about how you would handle having to escalate stakeholder problems.
Question 8: How do you keep your projects on track?
Hint: Talk about how you schedule your project, do you use stage gates? What PM methodology you use. Mention how you use work packages and how often you contact the team leads for updates.
The main thing I’m looking for with this question is to identify if you proactively or reactively manage your projects - tip - I’m looking for proactive management.
Question 9: What is your least favourite bit of managing a project?
Hint: No-one likes everything to do with running a project, so with this question I’m digging to see if you’ll be honest as well as how you cope with doing something you dislike. For example, do you grit your teeth and get on with it, ignore it, or get someone else to do it while you supervise.
Question 10: How do you work with a PMO?
Hint: Most organisations are going to have a PMO of some sort. I answer this question by saying it depends on the PMO and how they want the relationship to work. I’m equally happy if they want regular oversight or if they prefer a hands off approach.
Question 11: What’s the project you’re most proud of and why
Hint: This doesn’t have to be the biggest or best project you’ve ever worked on. It could be one where you got a lot of personal growth out of the experience or one of your team did something amazing. Equally it could be an award winning, all singing all dancing project.
Question 12: Do you have any questions for us?
Hint: This is always a gnarly question. I always suggest that you have at least a couple of questions for the interviewers.
Some examples are:
What does success in this role look like to you?
What would the 1st month look like?
What is your organisation’s project management philosophy
If I spoke to some of your project managers what would they say about the organisation?
Always remember that interviews are two way streets and it’s your opportunity to find out if you’d like to work for them so don’t be shy about asking questions.
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[@krishanmohansharma8306]

Thank you. To the point. 👍

[@LueJohn]

This accent makes me wanna listen lol

[@Psoda]

Thanks, we'll pass your comment on to the narrator. :-)