Does having the proper background and experience as a project manager qualify you for a job? Yes, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it. The final hurdle in the screening process is the interview.

Job interviews require more than being well-spoken and confident; they demand preparation. For prestigious roles like project manager positions, interviewers typically ask questions from various categories and grade you based on your responses using an evaluation sheet. Preparing for a project manager interview is then crucial to showcasing the specialised skills needed to manage projects and teams effectively.

This article provides critical insights into the top project manager interview questions you must be ready for, along with suggested responses. We also cover the essential qualifications interviewers seek and provide additional example questions to help you practise and improve your chances of getting hired. Knowing the questions in advance gives you time to prepare, providing a significant advantage over other applicants.

So, let’s crack on!

Who Is a Project Manager?

Simply put, a project manager is responsible for overseeing projects within a company. This means managing everything within the project, including planning, communications, execution and delivery.

Companies in every field can hire project managers. It can vary from a construction project to software and IT to expansion marketing. Every project management job requires certain tasks, but some things are more or less always in common. Naturally, it’s important to have some degree of knowledge of the field you’re working in.

Responsibilities of a Project Manager

Project managers are essentially a point of contact between clients and creative or technical staff. This means that they have a range of daily responsibilities, including:

• Planning the project from start to finish
• Recruiting the right people for the right jobs
• Budgeting the project and planning where and when these funds will be spent
• Communication between everyone working on the project and those in higher positions
• Motivating the project team and ensuring everyone knows their role and is satisfied
• Conflict resolution if there is an issue between team members
• Crisis management: should any problem in the project arise, it should be dealt with internally

This huge responsibility is why project managers are well-paid by companies.

Key Skills and Qualifications

Successful project managers possess hard technical abilities and soft people skills.

A successful project manager should be able to seamlessly navigate the complexities of project management while achieving project goals within scope, time, and budget constraints. Here are key attributes and skills that define a successful project manager:

• Leadership: Leadership encompasses the ability to set a vision, motivate teams, and manage performance effectively. It involves guiding a team towards achieving common goals, inspiring them to reach their full potential, and ensuring that their efforts are aligned with the organisational objectives.

• Communication: Clear written and verbal communication with various stakeholders is essential. This includes articulating ideas, sharing information, and ensuring that everyone involved understands the project’s goals and progress. Effective communication helps to build trust and fosters a collaborative environment.

• Organisation: Being organised is crucial for planning projects, managing schedules, and allocating resources efficiently. Organisational skills enable the smooth execution of tasks, ensure deadlines are met, and help in the overall management of project timelines and deliverables.

• Technical Knowledge: Having a strong grasp of methodologies like Agile and Waterfall, as well as familiarity with tools such as MS Project, is important. This technical knowledge helps in selecting the right approach for a project, using appropriate tools for planning and tracking progress, and ensuring that the project adheres to best practices.

• Problem-solving: The ability to analyse issues, think critically, and make informed decisions is key to effective problem-solving. It involves identifying the root cause of problems, evaluating possible solutions, and implementing the best course of action to resolve issues efficiently and prevent future occurrences.

• Collaboration: Working cross-functionally, managing stakeholders, and resolving conflicts are vital aspects of collaboration. It requires coordinating with different teams, addressing stakeholder concerns, and fostering a cooperative environment where conflicts are resolved constructively, and everyone works towards a common goal.

Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers

The interview process can be stressful, throwing off the applicant and giving unreliable results. The interviewer isn’t asking questions at random and they will have set metrics in mind to evaluate you on. Every question is a tool to evaluate you personally and professionally.

The interviewer will also have a tranche of preset questions to measure a specific skill. To provide a satisfying answer, you should be able to associate the question with the skill it measures and answer accordingly. For this reason, your background must be rich in the profession, and you must have a minimum experience set by the employers.

Now, let’s go over some of the most important project manager interview questions and answers.

What is Your Previous Project Management Experience?

This is a must-ask question because it tells them if you have the proper experience and if project management is your main focus. Typically, your goal here should be to give a broad career overview. This typically includes:

• The number of years of experience you have
• Your previous roles and responsibilities
• Career highlights and key achievements

Why Did You Choose this Line of Work?

It’s important to know what forces drive you professionally. Is it money? Ambition? Is it a lack of other options? This is your opportunity to show off your understanding of the role and why you’re the right person regarding your values and career goals. Key inclusions include:

• Why you find project management rewarding
• Which problems you like to solve for your employer and clients
• Which of your core skills are a good match with the job description

What Supply Chain Training Do You Have?

Questions about your project management training can be general, but they can also be specific. Always prepare your relevant training credentials.

When answering undocumented personal questions, it’s okay to exaggerate a little. However, you should never lie regarding experience and previous jobs because this is checkable and may put you in a bad position.

What if they ask about a skill you don’t have a formal qualification in? When this happens, the key is to turn the question in your favour by discussing your relevant transferable skills and backing them up with hard examples. You can then say you’d love to solidify this experience with a formal qualification. This shows off your ambition and long-term planning.

What Qualifies You for This Job?

This question is asked in any career path. The interviewer seeks certain skills and lets you list them in your own words. Again, this is an important opportunity to show your understanding of the role.

As such, always talk about your qualifications in the context of how they will allow you to succeed.

What Software Have You Used in Previous Project Management Jobs?

This technical question shows them how updated you are with project management software. The interviewer is looking for two key things here:

• How quickly you can get up and running in a new role
• What specialist skills you can bring to improve project management processes

How Do You Approach a New Project?

The most important thing this type of question establishes is whether or not you have a system or a checklist. Beyond this, they want to know your specific approach to managing clients, colleagues and deliverables.

Take this opportunity to show off some of the concrete benefits of your particular project management style.

How Do You Prioritise Resource Spending?

Every project has an initial plan or an outline, even before hiring a project manager. The interviewer needs to know if your vision goes along with theirs. They also want to know the kinds of budgets you’ve managed and how you can deliver a return on investment.

Using examples from previous work shows them how organised and experienced you are. Having a pre-existing system indicates professionalism, but you must clarify that you’re also flexible.

How Do You Manage Conflict Between Two Team Members?

Conflict resolution skills are always part of the project manager interview questions. There are several key concerns here. You should show off your awareness of maintaining internal relationships and preventing issues for external stakeholders.

Use concrete examples to show off some of the resolutions you’ve spearheaded in the past.

What Kind of Leader Are You?

Or Are you a strict leader?

Project management is leadership. So, it’s important to see if you are the leader they need. You should tailor your approach here to the company culture. For example, if you’re going for a job managing projects with software developers who are experts in their field, an authoritarian leadership style won’t fly.

What Communication Problems Have You Dealt with in the Past?

Nearly all interviews have specific questions about your jobs. You should prepare possible problems and how you solved them, even if you must make some up.

Again, focus your examples around the key skills and experience you can bring to the job.

Preparing for a Project Management Interview

There is no way to hack an interview, but preparation is as close as it gets. Your background and experience are only as good as what you learnt from them. It’s always important to prepare scenarios of hardships from previous jobs and how you overcame them.

There are certain key features the interviewer will be looking for. Project managers have to be leaders; they have to work well with others and be able to motivate their team. Most of all,

Project managers need to be competent. That means answering technical questions with ease and familiarity. Brushing up on the latest software and new methodology is always advisable. Many project management tools make the job easier.

Preparing project manager interview questions isn’t everything because the position requires interpersonal skills. This means you must be well-spoken and witty in the interview.

Here are some additional project manager interview questions to prepare for:

• What do you think makes a successful project manager?
• How would your team describe your management style?
• How do you gather requirements from clients?
• What KPIs do you track in your projects?
• What qualities do you look for when hiring team members?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses as a project manager?

Conclusion

Being ready to demonstrate the right mix of technical project management and leadership qualities can help you shine in your next project manager interview. Use these common interview questions and sample responses to practise articulating your skills with specific examples that prove you can fulfil this demanding, multifaceted role.

Highlight your passion for delivering projects on time and within budget and your ability to motivate, organise and communicate effectively. With the right preparation, you can land the desired project manager job.