Latest Program Manager Interview Preparation Guide

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It will show you what’s important to them at work: green credentials, career progression, work/life balance, working for a big brand etc. It will also tell you if they are actively job hunting or whether they saw your ad and couldn’t resist (either is fine).

A Project Manager has to deal with uncertainty. It is important that they can identify and prioritize risks and take appropriate action in ambiguous situations. It is equally important to manage others’ concerns in changing environments. To assess competency in this area, it is best to ask scenario-based questions.

Be honest when you are responding to this question. Note that, human resources departments of companies are very well aware of industry salary benchmarks. Therefore, they will be able to estimate your salary and compensation package.

If you say a salary that is too much above the benchmark, you can even lose the job opportunity. Because, there will be a limit of what the company can pay for this position.

Budget management is a crucial aspect of project management. Therefore, this question is very important in a project manager interview, if the candidate will be managing a budget if he is selected for the position. Depending on the roles and responsibilities of the project manager in a company, budget management might not be required from project manager. Especially, in vendors, budget management is required while it might not be required from project managers working in service providers.

There are always bits of jobs we don’t like, but project managers typically work on the projects that they are assigned. It’s fine to have preferences, but you’re looking for someone who can respond to business needs even if that isn’t their top choice of project.

If you are an experienced professional, you might have worked with a demotivated or underperforming colleague. The critical point for the project manager is, he or she has to motivate all project resources to produce the most out of their capacity. Project manager must motivate underperforming resources in a project.

Project Managers are responsible for understanding the need of the customer and responding in a timely, efficient manner in ways that meet customer expectations. They are also responsible for establishing and maintaining effective relationships and gaining the trust and respect of customers. Here are a couple of questions I usually ask to gauge the candidate's customer orientation.

Managing up means working well with people more senior than you. Project managers do this all the time, so it’s good to find out how they make those relationships work.

Not all project managers are created equal. If you need someone with supply-chain management experience, ask candidates directly. Those that don’t have this experience may be interested in acquiring it, but you can’t afford to hire someone who doesn’t have it and doesn’t want it if you need it.

Sometimes, it pays to be direct.

Managing outsource personnel or supplier is a different project management skill. If you are applying to a company that works with outsource personnel or suppliers, this project manager interview question will be an elective one.

If you have a project management experience in a vendor, most probably, you will have outsource and supplier management experience as well.

Talk about your risk analysis process and how you implement solutions before, and during the implementation of your program.

Being focused on goals is absolutely essential for Project Managers. They need a clear focus to succeed. It is important to assess if the candidate has demonstrated the ability to align resources to achieve key objectives, to plan and identify ways to improve and achieve greater efficiency and to monitor and fine-tune execution with agility, hard work, perseverance, and good judgement.

This project manager interview question will assess your monitoring and controlling skills and your familiarity with project management tools. The primary responsibility of the project manager is completing a project scope on time and on budget in the agree quality levels. To do this, a project manager must use his or her skills and project management tools.

Different project managers have different styles.

Do they like to present everything personally? Do they involve the project team? How is credit for a job well done shared and how is blame for a mishandled project assigned? Does their management approach match your workplace? Do they use the presentation of results as a way to motivate or punish project team members? How they handle project delivery can be a window into a lot of candidate attributes.

This is actually a cliché interview question generally asked by human resources personnel. This shows hints about your personality and how your colleagues think about you in work environment.

When answering this project manager interview question, try to remember your positive attitudes and what your colleagues say about your work behavior.

This will help you work out if they are happy to be honest and tell you about a time that something went wrong. This shows their capacity to learn from mistakes and how they deal with information overload. Delegating work packages is key to project work and you’ll want to hire someone who understands that.

No job is without its disappointments. The disappointments can be anything, from an employee who left for personal reasons or the project that you did not bag because of the financials involved.
Make sure that you provide a quick and factual answer for this question.

These and other questions are randomly asked for the interview of the position of a project manager.

One of the key success factors for a Project Manager is effective delegation. How effectively do they get work done through others? Delegation must happen through empowerment without interference or loss of control. The following questions will determine if the candidate is good at delegating.

It’s worth probing the technical skills of candidates. Can they talk knowledgably about fishbone diagrams, De Bono’s thinking hats, role play? Branch out to talk about the last project issue they resolved with creative thinking.

Conflicts are inevitable in a project. A good project manager must be able to resolve conflicts without hampering the motivation and relationship in the project team. By its nature, conflicts seem to be resolved in favor of one side over another. However, with good communication and conflict resolution skills, you can resolve the conflicts in a win-win situation.

Conflict resolution is one of the most challenging and commonplace management tasks. This question gives the applicant an opportunity to provide you examples of their managerial skills in action. Does their style produce good results? Does it blend with your company’s goals? Do they have the ability to learn from the experience?

This is one of the last questions that you will be asked in your project manager interview session. There is not a concrete answer for this question. However, the common practice is, aim to increase your salary at least 20% in your next job.

Considering your current salary and compensation package, you should tell your expectations. You should not say a salary and compensation expectation that is too much above your current package.

Project team motivation is crucial for the success of a project. If a project team is not motivated, it will be impossible to reach project objectives. Or, even if you reach your project objectives, project quality will suffer.

This project manager interview question is critical to get insights about the people management skills of the candidate.

A Project Manager needs to identify and prevent issues from impacting the project adversely. It is important that the candidate demonstrates they are able to take proactive steps, avoid procrastination, and not shy away from making tough decisions. I usually ask candidates to share examples and real-life scenarios from their projects and life where they made proactive decisions.

As an experienced professional, you are bound to have a portfolio, and this is the right time to share such a portfolio with the interviewer. Make sure that the portfolio you share is authentic as your previous portfolio will decide whether the interviewer will be interested in you or not.