Project Manager Interview Questions & Answers
Best Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers
Dear Readers, Welcome to Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers have been designed specially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your Job interview for the subject of Project Manager. These Project Manager Questions are very important for campus placement test and job interviews. As per my experience good interviewers hardly plan to ask any particular questions during your Job interview and these model questions are asked in the online technical test and interview of many IT companies.
1. Where have you worked before?
Rarely is an inexperienced person taken in as a project manager. Any project manager would have at least two or three years of experience either as an employee or as a project manager. Therefore, this is one of the basic questions asked. Make sure that you give a brief and concise answer to this question, without going too much into the details. Also, make sure that everything you say as an answer to this question is factual and true.
2. What are some of the projects that you handled in the previous job? | Project Manager Questions
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 and has all the work that you have done. Your previous portfolio will decide whether the interviewer will be interested you or not.
3. Have you ever faced any disagreements in your previous job? How did you solve it out? | Project Manager Questions
A project manager has to take into consideration several disagreements. They can be between employees, between the superior and the employees, or even the client and the employees. If you reply that you have never had any disagreements, the interviewer will wonder whether you were really a project manager for your skills or simply because you are a people pleaser.
Make sure that you come up with at least one incident where employees and superiors had differences in thought and you were instrumental in changing the scenario.
4. What are your greatest achievements in your professional life? | Project Manager Questions
Apart from the portfolio, everyone has some project or aspect of their jobs that they hold close to their heart. This is the time to inform the interviewer about what your favorite project was and why. Of course, you have to make sure that you do not go on a ramble and genuinely discuss some of your favorite projects.
5. Have you ever had disappointments? | Project Manager Questions
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 post of a project manager.
Make sure that you read about the job description well before you opt for a project manager interview.
6. Why are you considering leaving your present job? | Project Manager Questions
Regardless of the reason, do not bad mouth your current employer. Negativism will always hurt you. Good answers include: �There is no room for growth at my current employer. I am looking for a company with long term growth opportunities�. �Due to a company restructuring, my entire department is relocating to Florida. I was give the option of moving, but do not wish to relocate�. �My current company is not doing well, and has been laying off employees. There is no job security there, and more layoffs are expected.
7. What are your goals for the future? | Project Manager Questions
My long term goals are to find a company where I can grow, continue to learn, take on increasing responsibilities, and be a positive contributor�.
8. How do you handle stress and pressure? | Project Manager Questions
I find that I work better under pressure, and I enjoy working in an environment that is challenging.I am the type of person that diffuses stress. I am used to working in a demanding environment with deadlines, and enjoy the challenges.
9. We have met several candidates. Why are you the project manager we should hire? | Project Manager Questions
ive definite examples of your skills and accomplishments. Be positive, and emphasize how your background matches the job description.
10. Describe how you recently managed a diverse project team towards a common goal? | Project Manager Questions
Focus on your ability to delegate in a fair and practical way, how you clearly defined project roles and responsibilities, kept personality clashes and conflict to a minimum and monitored and fed back to the project team. Outline your management style and why it worked.
Describe the most complex project you have managed from start to finish?
Provide a comprehensive answer remembering to explain the project as you would to a client and not to somebody who has been involved in the project.
The more complex a project the more formal processes and techniques are needed to effectively manage the work. Explain the purpose, value and implementation of the most critical aspects of the project including managing the project work plan, the project schedule, the project risks, the project issues and closing the project.
Be enthusiastic about your accomplishments and specify how your experience will benefit the company. Point out where you made a difference on the project in terms of expenditure, quality, efficiency, customer satisfaction and business and organizational success.
11. What are the functions of Project Management Tool? | Project Manager Questions
Following are some functions of Project Management tool
? Task management
? File storage
? Reporting functions
? Commenting and message boards
? Client access
? Subcontractor task assignment
? Time tracking
12. How do you assign tasks to the team? | Project Manager Questions
By telling your team what to do, you at some level are telling them that what they�ve done has not been successful. That�s probably not what you mean. However, tell them why you want something, and ask for their help, and the underlying message is �you�ve done well in the past, so here�s something new.� Even when you put rules in place (governance rules, if you will), you can still educate as to the �why� and get more acceptance than you would otherwise. And, if you have the opportunity to get input, and adjust your rules with feedback, even better. Much better.
13. How to judge technical skills of developer? | Project Manager Questions
To judge a technical ability of programmer ask about his past technical work, ask some general tech questions and If you can, try to give him/her a little challenge where he/she can prove some of the skills he/she have enumerated on his/her CV and that he/she will need for the job. In a further interview you may ask him/her how he/she solved some problems. If it is the case, ask him/her how he/she did certain aspects of items listed in his/her portfolio.
14. What project management software you use to manage your project? | Project Manager Questions
Yes This is a common Project management interview Question asked to every project manager.
Generally project manager use Basecamp. Another software is activecollab. This is can be installed on your own server.
These tools provide ability to set up unlimited numbers of projects, assign members to the projects, set tasks, set milestones, add pages, add tickets, upload documents to the project, have discussions within the project and set numerous access levels for management, staff and clients.
15. AS a Project Manager How to add value to your project? | Project Manager Questions
I am telling you few ideas in my mind that as a project manager how you can add value to project & real customer.
Feel the real need of customers. Don't act as a sales person. Work as consultant. Which can add much more value to them and hence people will trust you and that trust will help you to grow your business.
Prepare a presentation of their relevance in simple way and with few words. Provide the satisfied references.
Another concern: As a project manager How to justify the time & human resource cost to other persons with different skills like Sales Manager? So Idea is divide all tasks in micro tasks and try to explain all these in detail. Try that he becomes a part of the team and able to realize the facts.
Dropping price doesn't make any sense. Because if you do it, you have to do it again & again to sell your product. Instead of that increase your product quality.
16. What is Project Planning? | Project Manager Questions
Project Planning defines in detail the project activities and the product that will be produced, and describes how the project activities will be accomplished. Project Planning defines all major tasks, estimates the time and resources necessary to complete them, and provides a framework for management review and control.
Project Planning activities include defining and documenting the following:
? Work to be performed,
? Project goals,
? Estimates for planning, tracking, executing, and controlling the project,
? Commitments of the affected groups, and
? Project alternatives, assumptions, and constraints
Planning is a process that includes activities to estimate the size of the project, the scope of the effort, and the resources required to complete the project, as well as steps to produce a project schedule, identify, assess and manage risks, and negotiate commitments. Several iterations of the planning process may be performed before the Project Plan is completed.
17. Why Quality assurance of software is important at its early stage? | Project Manager Questions
Projects that don't set up processes to eliminate defects in early stages fall into extended test-debug-re-implement test cycles that seem interminable. So many defects are reported by testing that by the end of the project, the "change control board" or "feature team" may be meeting as often as every day to prioritize defect corrections. Because of the vast number of defects, the software has to be released with many known (albeit low priority) defects. In the worst case, the software might never reach a level of quality high enough for it to be released. That's why software testing is important from day one.
18. In Project Management What is a successful project? | Project Manager Questions
First of all it should satisfy all the repurpose of itself and requirements of client. A successful project should be one that meets its cost, schedule and quality goals within engineering tolerances and without padding its schedule or budget. Project Manager should balance between all objectives so that a high-quality product can be delivered according to an efficient schedule at moderate cost.
19. What projects have you handled before? | Project Manager Questions
Describe previous projects on which you have been engaged and be prepared to provide evidence of your participation. Emphasise your successes and how they benefited tour employer.
20. How would you deal with a team member who is not performing? | Project Manager Questions
Here you are being asked about your management and motivational methods. You will need to describe how you would establish why the team member is not performing well and what remedial action you would take. Draw on previous experience, if you have encountered the problem before.
21. What project management systems do you use?
Companies like to know if you’re up-to-date on existing management models and systems. Cite a number of programs and software that you’re using. Also, mention books or materials pertaining to project management and any concepts and principles you constantly refer back to when dealing with projects.
22. How do you close a project?
Typical interview questions also deal with how well you can finish a project. Many groups have experienced having project managers who do not finish the job strongly or fail to finish at all. Describe one or two of the best projects you’ve managed from start to finish. Share how you evaluate the results and related feedback given by team members and clients.