Q1 What is a Good PM?

A) https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/10-characteristics-of-a-good-project-
manager

Q2 What is your management style?

The best management style is when employees are lead by example and not by
command. Managing people is a skill you learn from listening, explaining expectations and
working with your employees, teaching them what TEAM WORK is all about.
Treat your employees with respect and they will respect you.

Q3 Challenges and Solution as a PM?

4 Common IT Project
Management Challenges and 4
Solutions
IT projects are notoriously difficult to manage, and failure is an all-too-common outcome. The right
IT project management software can help manage the risk, but the odds of failure remain
daunting. A 2012 study by McKinsey & Co. and the University of Oxford tells a cautionary tale of
large IT projects that are severely troubled:

“On average, large IT projects run 45% over budget and 7% over time, while delivering 56% less
value than predicted,” McKinsey reported gloomily, focusing on projects of $15 million or more.
However, IT project managers can improve project management outcome by focusing on
communication and managing change before and during the project.
Here’s a list of 4 common IT challenges, and their solutions:

1. No project mandate

Without a mandate (mission and objectives) it’s difficult for an at-risk project to recover. The
mandate is a blueprint for your program. As McKinsey states, “This mandate should include
business case, project justification, high-level requirements and success criteria.” The mandate
affects every key decision on the project, so put it in writing with an approved budget—and
communicate it out to everyone who needs to know about it.

2. Unclear expectations

A mandate gets an IT project off on the right foot, but it’s no substitute for gathering detailed
requirements and expectations from all stakeholders. This sounds almost intuitive but project
managers eager to start can overlook this critical step. Put these project details in writing; you’ll
refer to them throughout the project.

3. Poor communications between IT and the business

Communicating well with your internal client is a must. Business and IT often speak different
language, so the project manager must translate. A big dataproject is challenging enough, so
don’t let miscommunication derail your efforts.
4. No user input

It’s one thing to engage line-of-business managers in the project requirements, but don’t forget the
end users who will actually work with your project deliverables. Identify potential gaps between
what business executives want and what their employees will use. Many IT projects involve
transforming current business processes, so adoption by hands-on users is critical. You can make
this adoption process smoother by listening to users at the start and then keeping them informed
of project progress.

Here are 4 common changes to consider as solutions:

1. Budget

When allocated resources start to shrink, you’re faced with re-juggling your project to stretch fewer
resources further. To accommodate such changes, address the project objectives, features and
timelines with your executive management. You might end up doing more with fewer resources,
but before updating your project plan get your management’s buy-in on how you accomplish that.

2. Scope

Managing scope creep is a key talent for IT project managers. Best practice is to include a
process for handling scope changes in the initial project plan. This way, you have a better chance
to address necessary changes in timeline and budget. If you didn’t put a scope change clause in
your original plan, you still need to negotiate time and resources.

3. Timeline

If new business conditions make your project more strategic, you might be asked to accelerate
your delivery times. Before making promises, discuss and negotiate resource allocation (dollar
and human), so you can realistically make the shorter timeline. The opposite problem may arise
too—an unforeseen situation downgrades your project and you get more time. Then you face the
challenge of keeping your people engaged on your project that is no longer as strategic as when
you started.

4. Team composition

For long-running projects, your project team can change, with people leaving for other projects or
new jobs. It’s frustrating, but you must recalibrate. Review the unfinished tasks that departing
individuals were assigned (easy enough if you’re using an online project management software)
and look for new people to fill the gaps. If you’re a manager and have the right skills, don’t be
tempted to step in yourself. Your job is to manage the project, not execute it. Consider looking
outside of your organization to address the unexpected need.

Change takes many interrelated forms, and it’s not necessarily unreasonable. At the beginning of
a project, no crystal ball can tell you and your decision-makers how new circumstances can affect
the project. You just have to be ready for anything.
One of the best skills you can have as a project manager leading IT projects is being able to
manage resources. This helps keep your budget on track, lets you manage scope creep because
you can see it coming before it causes too much havoc, and a meet delivery deadlines. To learn
more about basic resource management principles, download our eBook, “5 Best Practices to
Manage Project Resources Effectively.”

https://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/4-common-it-project-management-challenges-and-4-solutions/

https://blog.capterra.com/how-to-answer-project-management-interview-questions/

The 10 Most Common Project

Management Interview Questions
. Why are you interested in this role?

Other versions of this question:

 Tell me about why you’re interviewing here today.

 Why did you apply to this position?
 Tell me about yourself.

According to Inc., “Tell me about yourself” and “Tell me about your interest in
this position” questions are common for any interview, so they’re both worth
preparing for. The interviewer wants to get a quick overview of who you are,
and why you might be a good fit for their company.

Consider this question to be a request to walk through your resume. Briefly

outline what attracted you to the role that you’re interviewing for, and then
follow up with a few details about previous work and what makes you, you.

You don’t need to explain your divorce or why you left your hometown, but
your interviewer should come away from this question understanding why you
think this job is a good fit for you, what fuels your decision-making, and an
overview of you as a candidate.
2. Tell me about your organizational skills.

Other versions of this question:

 How do you prioritize your workload?

 When have your organizational skills helped to keep a project on track?
 How do you organize an average work week?

Evan Harris, the CEO of SD Equity Partners, stresses that emphasizing your
organization skills is absolutely key in a PM interview. He says,

One question you can expect to get is regarding the tactics you
use to stay organized. Since you already have specific practices
in place, this shouldn’t be a difficult question, but it certainly helps
to have your answer prepared so that you can give a clear picture
of how you stay organized.
He elaborates on how project manager candidates can execute on questions
about organization, as well:

Think of examples of when your organizational skills helped to

keep a project on track or helped you to easily change course
when an issue arose. By sharing real examples of your
organizational skills, you will demonstrate to the interviewer that
your organizational tactics are effective.
In other words, use specific stories to demonstrate how you keep your
projects on track, be it with PM tools or paper. The interviewers just want to
know that you can stay apprised of all of your project’s moving parts.

3. Tell me about a time when your stakeholders didn’t agree on a project. How
did you proceed?

Other versions of this question:

 Tell me about your ability to “manage up.”

 How do you encourage cooperation between your stakeholders?
 What soft skills are most important to a project manager?
Monster.com notes that companies are interested in project managers who
can inspire cooperation between all parties.

Interviewers asking this question are looking for stories that will prove you
have these necessary soft skills for the job. BMake sure to brainstorm stories
about your former project management roles in anticipation of this question
and use them as a confirmation that you have the mediation skills that these
hiring managers are looking for.

4. Have you ever experienced project failure? What happened?

Other versions of this question:

 Tell me about a time you failed.

 Share a challenging situation that you experienced while working on a
project. How did you deal with it? What did you learn?
 Can you think of a time where you learned from your mistakes? What
happened?
It’s happened to the best of us: A project went too far out of scope, or became
too expensive, or was behind on delivery, and it ultimately failed. The situation
is always unsettling, but even more so when inquired about in an interview.

The fortunate truth is that your interviewer is less interested in the actual
failure than they are about learning how you deal with stressful situations. Set
up the story with what happened. Be as brief as possible and try to pick a
story from something that happened a long time ago. Then, detail what you
did in the situation.

As Lily Zhang writes for The Muse: “Do not try to cover up the fact that things
didn’t all go as planned. It’s impossible to do well in an interview if the
interviewer doesn’t believe what you’re saying, so don’t try to sugar coat
things.”

Be as straight as possible when explaining the situation and what you did.
Then, give the interviewer what they’re really looking for—what you learned
from the failure. Demonstrate how you’ve grown as a person and learned
to handle similar challenges better.

5. What projects do you not want to work on?

Other versions of this question:

 What kinds of projects interest you the most? Why?

 Do you work better with introverted or extroverted people?
 Tell us about a project that was not enjoyable to you.

Everyone wants to believe they can handle every project, but the reality is that
most project managers are best suited for a narrow project management role.

If you tell your future employer that you love working on everything, that
communicates that:

1. You might not know what you’re talking about OR

2. You’re unwilling to communicate weaknesses.

Neither of these traits reflects well on you.

Instead, be honest. Are you more of a software development person? Do you

do well with creative media campaigns? Would you rather lie down and die
than work on a construction project? Let your interviewer know; both they and
your future self will thank you for it.

6. Are you familiar with project management software?

Other versions of this question:

 Which project management tools have you worked with? Do you have a
preference for a particular software?
 How do you like to document your project progression?
 Do you have an IT background? Can you code?

Project management software is currently a massive part of the project

management industry. Interviewers don’t just want to know that you’ve used
formal project management frameworks such as Lean, Kanban, and Agile, but
that you can apply these skills to project management software.

Try to figure out what project management software the company uses before
interviewing. (Here’s an infographic of the most popular project management
software; many products are similar in application.) Detail what project
management software you’ve used in the past, and explain how that skill set
can translate over to their system.
7. Describe your project management process.

Other versions of this question:

 Describe a project you’ve completed and the steps you took to see it
through.
 What is your experience with Agile, Lean, Kanban, and/or Waterfall
project management methods?
 How would you rank these in terms of importance: people, process, and
product?

Here, interviewers are gauging two things:

1. Are you familiar with the process they use at their company?
2. Are you a good communicator?

Detail what project management processes you’ve used in the past and why
that system works well for you and for your team members.

Make sure to emphasize collaboration in your description of your process—

oftentimes, interviewers are looking for servant leaders instead of one-man
shows to bring into their company. Stressing your team and how you interact
with them shows that you’re interested in group success instead of solely
personal success.

8. How do you deal with difficult team members?

Other versions of this question:

 Have you ever encountered team members who struggled to complete

their tasks? Explain how you handled that situation.
 How do you handle insubordination, team infighting, and/or poor team
communication?
 How do you deal with rude clients?

Project management flows a lot smoother when everyone is meeting

deadlines with quality results. Unfortunately, you’re likely to work with some
individuals who have trouble delivering. Your interviewer wants to know how
you deal with these interpersonal and personnel issues.

First, look up proper approaches to dealing with difficult team members so

that you’re ready to respond with the best possible answers. Provide
examples of how you helped improve work processes of team members at
your previous jobs. You can always ask your interviewer to give a “for
instance”; they might also have someone specific in mind.

9. If you were to pick one skill for a project manager to have, what would it be
and why?

Other versions of this question:

 What are your strengths and weaknesses?

 What questions haven’t I asked you?
 What are the characteristics of your perfect role?

This question is really asking if you understand the job description and have
the skills to match it. It also allows the interviewer to peek into what your
project management career has been thus far, and what is important to you as
a manager.

Answer genuinely. Regardless of whether your answer is communication, risk

management, PM process, or another project management skill, this is your
chance to demonstrate that you’re a good culture fit for the company and
share the same values your future team will have. Take time to answer this
question and give detail about why that skill is important to you.

10. How many gas stations are in New York City?

Other versions of this question (all taken from Glassdoor interview accounts):

 How many grand pianos do you think there are in Austin, and tell me
how you arrived at that number?
 How have you defied complacency?
 What experience in your past has prepared you for this opportunity?

Like any other interview, project managers may find themselves answering
behavioral and case study interview questions.

If you encounter a behavioral question in a project manager interview, your

interviewer is likely asking you to describe past events. They are trying to
deduce insights about your personality, priorities, and skills. The idea behind
these questions is that past work experience tends to foreshadow future work
behaviors.
Interviewers can also analyze your business acumen with case study
interview questions—which are commonly asked at companies with more than
1,000 employees on Glassdoor. The interviewer will ask you a question that
you likely don’t know the answer to—like the gas station question—and be
available to answer your questions as you try to figure out a ballpark guess.

With both types of questions, preparation is key. While you can’t know what
behavioral questions you might encounter, consider employing this
formula with your responses:

 Set the situation so that your interviewer has context for your story
 Explain the actions that you took in that situation
 Detail the outcomes and results from your actions
 Tie that story back to the original interview question

As for case study interview questions, there are a huge number of books and
resources available to teach you how to respond to them well. As a
disclaimer, I wouldn’t spend too much time worrying about them unless there’s
evidence that a company uses them in their interview process or the company
has over 1,000 employees.

To summarize an incredibly complicated system, you should take on case

study questions with the following system:

 Listen to the case setup and jot down notes

 Ask the interviewer clarifying questions
 Talk through your approach to solving the presented problem
 Pay attention to your interviewer’s nonverbal feedback—they can give
away hints as to whether or not you’re headed in the right direction
 Don’t shy away from running numbers
 Produce an answer and summarize it for your interviewer

How did your project manager interview go?

If you’ve already gone through the project management hiring process, do you
have tips for your fellow PMs? What did you wish you knew before your last
interview?

If you’re prepping for an interview, what other tips have you encountered?

Help us out in the comments below, and check out these related articles to
finding and keeping a project management job: