Crack PM Interview

Project managers keep stuff running and are prominent in execution. The interviewer will be keen to observe if we have relevant experience and have been in any challenging scenarios in the past. Also, they expect us to have some traits of an ideal Project Manager.

Prepare for PM interview

While tough, proper preparation can make the PM interview much easier.

Prepare talking points

Most of the project management questions arise in the behavioral round. It means we have to refer to our experience in it. It will be hard to think and answer on the fly in an interview. But, it will be easy to answer if we have a cheat sheet of a few scenarios from our past and how they relate to different traits.

Project management tools

We can have notes on how we used different tools. It will help us explain how each tool adds value to the project management ecosystem. By doing this, we demonstrate to the interviewer that we understand project management in practice, not just in theory.

Some example questions are:

• “Which is your favorite project management tool?”
• “Which tools do you use in your project management work?”
• “How do you think tools create value for Project Managers?”
• “Does the Project Manager need tools? If yes, what and why?”

Traits of a successful Project Manager

The interviewer would like to see if we have the traits of an ideal Program Manager. The interviewer will not ask about these traits directly and will instead look for these traits in our answers to other questions Let’s check some of those required traits:

• Effective Communication
• Time management skills
• Consistency and Integrity
• Stakeholder Management

The interviewer can assess these traits in a different set of questions. Some of them are:

• “How do you communicate to your stakeholders?”
• “How do you make sure that your project is not slipping from the schedule?”
• “How do you run effective meetings?”
• “How do you manage your stakeholders?”