1. What do you believe more in, a Leader or a Manager and why? 2. How do you deal with underperforming project team members? This project manager interview question assesses your people management skills. This question will show how you motivate your underperforming resources. Following is a sample answer for this
question. When I see an underperforming resource, first, I observe him whether it is a one-time issue or occurring frequently. Because, depending on daily life, each person can have fluctuating motivation level. If the project team member is underperforming for a couple of weeks, I invite him to a coffee break. First, I ask him how does he feel about the project, whether he is happy to work in the project. Then, I ask him whether there is anything demotivating him about the
project, work or company. If there is a problem with the project, work or company, I will try to find the root cause of the problem and then I try to resolve the issue that is causing demotivation. In some cases, demotivation can be because of the problems in the daily life of the project team members. In that case, if the team member tells about the problem, I will do my best to help him. A software developer in my banking project was performing very well. All of a sudden, I noticed a
decent drop in his performance. After one week passed, I talked to him. I was thinking that he was demotivated because of the recent promotion and bonus announcements in the company. However, I learned that he just broke up with his long-lasting girlfriend. It was a personal issue, however, I tried my best to motivate him. I organized a couple of team lunches that all project team attends to change his mood. After two or three weeks, he was performing well again. 4. What are the
techniques for doing “activity time” estimates? These are some of the popular questions that are asked in project management interviews. Always be prepared to answer all types of questions — technical skills, interpersonal, leadership or methodology. If you are someone who has recently started your career in project management, you can always get certified to
understand the industry-related terminology, skills, and methodologies. 5. Can you describe some of the projects that you handled in your previous job? How recently have you worked on it.rs ago) Has it been successful 6. Describe all the steps involved from the time of project initiation to project
completion? 7. Did your colleagues or your manager ever challenge your
decisions? 8. What is a decision support system (DSS)? 9. How
do you keep your team members motivated? 10. Do you think integrity is an essential quality of a project manager? 11. What is a Fishbone diagram and when to use it? 12. Can you tell me an example of how you
communicated a failure to your team, manager, and customer? Project Manager Interview We were working on an online learning portal project of an oil company. Deadline of the project was Feb 15, 2016. Although we completed our development tasks and internal tasks on time, the customer could not complete their acceptance test on time. Executive management of the customer was pushing to deliver the project on time. However, since the customer could not complete their acceptance tests, it was
risky. First, I called my manager. I wish we could have spoken face-to-face but she was on a business trip at that time. I told her about the situation. She agreed with me to speak about the risk of the situation with the customer. Then, I organized a meeting with the project team. I told the team that they did all they have to do. I added in the meeting that, we, as a project team, met our deadlines and objectives. However, the customer could not complete their acceptance tests on time. Therefore, we will be postponing the project launch for one month. This made some of the project team members upset because we were working hard to complete the project on time but the project was postponed because of a customer-sourced delay. Finally, I organized a meeting with the executive management of the customer. During the meeting, I told to the project sponsor and executive managers of the customer that, customer acceptance tests are not complete yet. In addition, if we launch the project, we might face critical problems in the live environment and this can cause dissatisfaction and loss of reputation. At the end of the meeting, executive managers were agreed to wait until customer acceptance tests completion. This answer shows that the project manager approaches failure communication in a systematic way. First, he reports to his manager. If his manager would not accept the situation or propose alternative ways with the project team and customer, he could have changed the approach to the team and customer respectively. After getting the approval of the manager, he speaks with the team first and then communicates to the customer respectively. 13. What is the project goal? What is its significance? 14. All leaders have to deal with conflict situations. Describe a recent disagreement you personally had to handle? 15. What do you mean by Work Breakdown structure? 16. Is it necessary for tasks to be completed in a logical sequence? 17. What was the biggest or most challenging project you managed? Before sitting in your project manager interview session, go through your experience. Choose the most challenging project that you were involved in. Project Manager Interview The most challenging project I was involved was the Golden Gate Bridge Construction Program. I was managing the project of construction of the towers that will carry the bridge. There were three architects, six civil engineers and 47 construction workers in my team. In total, I managed 56 project team members during this project. The most challenging part of the project was meeting the deadlines. Because several other projects were dependent on my project. Any delay in my project was causing delays on the rest of the project. For instance, a one-day delay in my project was causing 200 hundred construction workers to wait for our work to be completed. And the cost of a one-day delay was around $80,000. This was causing a big pressure in executive management of the company and therefore it was a big challenge for me as well. First highlighted part in this answer shows the size of the project team that this project manager-managed. Second highlighted part stresses the challenge of the project financially. Provide numbers, budgets, and statistics if you have any. These will make your answers stronger. 18. What values do you think a project manager should have? 19. What was the biggest challenge that you faced while working on a project? 20. What is the most challenging aspect of being a project manager? 21. What would you say is the most important skill of a Project Manager and why? When preparing for upcoming project management interview questions, consider what you think is the most important skill and how you have demonstrated it in your career. You could also think about what the business you’re applying for is looking towards. Did they give any clues in the job description perhaps? Circle back to the original job ad if you have to. 22. How do you monitor and review the delegated responsibilities? 23.
What is your work style? 24. How do you improve your knowledge regarding project management? 25. What is Effort Management in a project? 26. Did you face any problems with your co-workers in your previous company? 27. How good are your communication skills? 28. What could be the key challenges that can declare their presence while managing a project? 29. What is Lean
Management? 30. Do you have any questions? A project management interview need not be dreaded. The above sample project management interview questions and answers should help you face the interviewer confidently. However, there can’t be a single right answer for any of the questions. Use the answers as guiding tools but make sure you take into consideration your own experiences, background, strengths, and weaknesses while answering the PM interview questions. Good luck with your job hunt. 31. What is CMMI? 32. What is Six Sigma and how is it important in project
management? 33. Can you name the different modules of a
project? 34. How you will define project management? 35. How do you deal with changes to your project? 36. What is a project scope statement? 37. What are the factors that you will pay attention to about the resources while selecting your team? 38. Why do you want to work with this company? 39. What defines the role of a good project manager? 40. Can you name a few modules of Planning in a Project Management? provide a lot of useful information for the next project to b developed. 41. What are the objectives of monitoring and controlling? 1. Keeping a close eye on all the activities related to a project 42. What are “Severity Levels” in a project? 1. High 43. Do you believe in team development? Can you share instances where you did that for your teams? 44. What do you understand by the Pareto (also known as 80/20 rule) principle/analysis? 45. What is RAID in project management and why is it
necessary to create a RAID log? 46. Name the ten key knowledge areas as mentioned in the PMBOK Guide? 47. Do you have an international project team management experience? This question might be followed by additional questions asking about how the experience was and whether you have any strange story about your international project team management experience. The following can be a good answer for this project manager interview question. I have managed a team of 15 project team members from five different nations. We were working in a natural gas implementation project in Brazil. There were natural gas engineers, environmental engineers and civil engineers in the project team. Five members were from Brazil, three members were from the UK, three members were from Spain, two members were from India and two members were from Qatar. It was a great experience to learn from different cultures when working with them. It was the first time for me to work with project resources coming from a Muslim country, Qatar. While most of the project team members were having Monday syndrome, engineers from Qatar were performing better than other project team members on Mondays! After some time, I asked these engineers why they are more willing to work on Mondays. I learned that their official weekends are on Friday and Saturday. Therefore, Sunday is their first weekday. Therefore, they were performing better on Mondays in our project since it is the 2nd day of their workweek. It was a strange experience for me to see people better motivated on Mondays. Project manager candidate answers the question with numbers through a real project he managed. Besides, he gives a strange experience he faced with his international project team management experience. 48. Describe one of the most challenging projects you’ve managed and explain what you learned from the experience? These are just some project management interview questions that you could be asked at your next job interview. While this isn’t an exhaustive list of questions, it’s certainly a good starting point for your interview preparation. 49. How would you describe your communication
style? Take some time to think about how you communicate. Ask your friends or colleagues if you’re unsure. For example, do you get straight to the point to avoid wasting time, do you have an “open door” policy, or are you assertive in your communications? Share some real-world examples of where you used this communication style and how it worked well for you, in that particular situation. 50. What is project delivery? 51. Why did you choose PMP Certification? 52. What do you mean by project documentation? 53. What are some of the projects that you handled in the previous job? 54. What can be the objective of a project according to you? 55. What factors project management objectives can affect and how? 56. What kinds of projects interest you the most? Why? 57. What is your current 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. Briefly, tell what you earn and compensation package when this question is asked in your project manager interview. 58. What is your salary expectation? 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. 59. When did you run into serious conflict and how you
dealt it? 60. How do you resolve conflicts in your projects? This project manager interview question assesses your conflict resolution and communication management skills. The following can be a good sample answer to this question. I experienced several conflicts arising in my projects during my career. The first thing to look when a conflict arises is the source of conflict. Conflicts can be between two project team members, between the team member and his lead, between two stakeholders, etc. After knowing the source of conflict, I look at the alternative solutions to resolve the conflict. The best option to resolve a conflict is collaborating where all parties are happy. Of course, I try to find a win-win situation first. If this is not possible, then, I try to analyze the pros and cons of different alternatives for resolving the conflict. I try to demonstrate the pros and cons of each resolution alternative analytically because numbers, figures, statistics, and mathematical approach is the best way to convince people for a solution. After showing the alternative solutions, I guide people to rethink about the conflict. I expect them to reach a consensus. If this is not possible again, I try to solve the conflict with democracy. For instance, if the cause of the conflict is a how-to solve a technical issue in a software project, I show the options to the project team and expect the software developers to vote for the best option to resolve the conflict. Project manager candidate approaches to solve the conflict in a win-win situation. Then, he approaches to demonstrate different alternatives in a mathematical approach. This is great. Because, if you can describe a solution mathematically with statistics, numbers, figures, etc. you will eliminate most of the arguments about the topic. Then, he opens the conflict to voting. By this way, he ensures that the majority will decide what will be the solution. He is not forcing or directing on what needs to be done in the project. 61. What are the three words that describe you best? When answering this project manager interview question, try to remember your positive attitudes and what your colleagues say about your work behavior. Project Manager Interview The best three words that would describe me can be discipline, result-driven and analytical thinker. My colleagues call me German. I am not a German you know it J. They tell that I am working in a very well disciplined, record every detail and approach in a systematic way to the problems in the project. 62. When I am working on a project or task, I always keep in mind that “what is the expected result? I try to rationalize status, progress and alternative solutions to a problem. I do this by approaching analytically to a problem. For instance, I create dashboards for waiting issues, waiting time, assignee, etc in a project to monitor how well the project team is resolving issues. Similarly, I record the number of codes each developer produces a day to forecast remaining activities in the project. Project manager candidate answers the three words that describe him best first. Then, he gives examples and justifications for each word. 63. Which one skill does a project manager need to succeed? Note: Browse latest Pmp Interview Questions and Pmp Tutorial Videos. Here you can check Pmp Training details and Pmp Training Videos for self learning. Contact +91 988 502 2027 for more information. What are the 10 most common interview questions and answers for managers?Management interview questions. What's your management style?. How do you see a manager's role on a team?. How do you motivate a team?. Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult employee.. How would your colleagues describe you?. Describe how you delegate tasks to team members.. Other frequently asked interview questions.. How do you interview a construction manager?General Interview Questions to Ask Construction Project Managers. How did you end up in your current role? ... . What are a few of your strengths and weaknesses? ... . How would you describe your ideal work environment? ... . What type and size projects have you built? ... . How do you prioritize tasks?. What are good project management interview questions?Project management interview questions. Tell me about yourself. ... . Can you tell us about the last project you worked on? ... . Tell us about a time something went wrong in a project you were managing. ... . How do you prioritize tasks in a project? ... . What was your most successful project? ... . What's your experience with budget management?. What is the most important point as construction manager?A construction project manager should have everything organized and detailed in a manner that prevents hiccups in the project. An organized boss will be better able to make changes in budget, resources, or deadlines should they arise.
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