A few weeks ago, I kicked off a series of Project Management Recruitment Idea – Job Interview posts, in this post I want to cover questions at project management interview. This post includes project management level interview questions and rather than list all the questions that exist (there are some excellent websites that do that 
already, see below) I wanted to talk more about what kind of questions you can expect based on the organisation, the position you’re being interviewed for and of course, the questions YOU ask at interviews.
Project Management Interview Questions
So you’ve been called in for the interview and you’ve taken the time to read through our suggestions on getting ready for that interview. You’ve taken the job specification and started to jot down your thoughts about each of the core requirements, tasks, objectives and roles and responsibilities that make up the job specification.
Take a moment to see what you can find out about the organisation and who will be interviewing you. If you are being represented by an agent, talk to the agent about what they have found how about the interviewer (their background and any other relevant information that will give you an insight to what makes this person tick) and also about the organisation (especially their project management culture). If you’re not being represented, it’s fine to ask your contact at the organisation for more of these kind of details when arranging the interview
If the answers coming back at you are; the organisation are quite project management immature (i.e., they don’t have a lot of PMs, it’s quite new to the organisation) or the interviewer is a line manager but not a programme or project management professional, you can now start to formulate a plan. Generally when an organisation is quite project management immature, interview questions tend to focus more on the structure, process and the technical aspects of project management. The interview questions will be things like, “how do you put together a project plan?”, or “how do you monitor progress against plan?”.This is generally because an immature organisation, in their journey to becoming a more mature project management culture will at least be spending time defining their project management processes, hence their interviewers will have been reading a book or two. BTW, it’s the same organisations that demand PRINCE2 on a job specification when their organisation is PINO (PRINCE in Name Only), so you can expect some very PRINCE2y questions as well.
If an organisation is considered to be much more mature with their project management culture you can bet the questions will be much more advanced and sophisticated, sure there will be technical project management know-how questions but there will also be a lot more questions focused on the softer skills side too – questions about leadership, negotiation, communication, influencing etc. These questions come from interviewers who are experienced programme and project professionals who are comfortable in their experience and knowledge and can spot a textbook PM a mile away. Expect the questions to include scenarios and your answers need to satisfy the interviewers quest that you have actually been there and done it. Sometimes these interviews can feel like a grilling, but then again, roles like these within mature project management organisations are the top jobs, the ones every good project manager would like a crack at, so they’re going to make you work for it.
In the next Project Management Recruitment Ideas I’m going to be covering the scenario interview question because I think this is an important element of project management interviews and almost all interviews you will attend will include at least one question like this.
If you have a question for me about project management interview situations, like the ones above, feel free to contact me or leave a comment, I’ll be more than happy to answer your specific situations or any questions about a forthcoming interview.
Your Project Management Interview Questions
Before you start the interview it’s quite acceptable to ask the interviewer should you keep your questions to the end of the interview or ask them if the right time comes up during the interview. Be careful to let the interviewer set the ground rules first and if “questions” are not mentioned, just bring it up at that time. This is a great way to understand exactly who you are facing over the table and a little insight into how they like to operate. It also means that the interviewer says yes, bring up questions as we go along, you know that the interview could be a 2 way conversation, rather than a grilling.
Anyhow, you know that you’ve got to ask questions, after all, you’ve had a job specification, you’re coming along to an interview, there are bound to be answers you need to help you in the decision making process after the interview.
- Think about questions that specifically help you understand how the organisation works and if this is the organisation for you
- Think about questions that relate to your specific career within that organisation – you don’t need to talk specifically about career progression (think about it from the interviewer’s point of view, you’re already thinking about running before you can walk) but rather about the culture of project management and how project manager’s work within in
- Think about the logistical questions – location, client sites, when are they looking to get people aboard etc
- Make a mental note during the interview of any questions that pop into your mind that are not answered during the interview – often a point can be left unanswered as the interviewer moves on to other questions
- Ask if there is an opportunity to come back with any further questions once the interview is over, this is an interesting question and I often wonder if this gives the interviewee any insight into how they fared in the interview i.e., no = not likely to hire, yes = they liked you.
Remember, asking questions in the interview have to balanced – too difficult or too probing will upset the interviewer and score a negative in your direction. Not well thought out and considered questions shows you’ve not thought about this position enough, another negative in your corner.
Project Management Interview Question Resources;
We have a section on project management interview questions on the Arras People website, take a look
How to Recruit an IT Manager has some great questions on project management interviews
This discussion thread takes the above article for responses from others in the pm community
And 100 project management interview questions from the Civil Engineer blog which are great for any industry
*If you have a project management interview coming up and would like 1-2-1 advice in getting prepared, see the project management career clinics from Arras People**
