Describe two areas in your current project, where there is a high level of uncertainty. How do you tackle these uncertainties?

No project goes without a hitch, and people expect that. What your interviewer wants to see is how you handle anything that can result in a potential setback. An effective project manager should always have a few tricks up his or her sleeve.

How do you motivate team members?

It’s crucial as a leader to not only ensure your team stays on the right track but also gets motivated about the projects they’re working on. Maybe you give praise for a job well done as a form of motivation. As long as you can demonstrate past examples of how you’ve motivated team members, there’s not a right or wrong answer here.

Can you explain the differences between risk and issues? Also, name a few types of risks you may encounter in a project.

Risks refer to an uncertain event or situation in the future that would bring a negative or positive impact on the project goals. Issues apply to any event or situation that currently impacts the project objectives. In other words, risk focuses on future events while issues are more of present occurrences. Issues are often considered negative, say a team member suddenly resigns from the organization. Risks would be either positive or negative. You can include a couple of examples to show the difference between issues and risks.

Provide some examples.

A project for a product will result in a complete product or part of a product. An example would be the creation of the Microsoft Surprise tablet that used a liquid magnesium deposition process to create the enclosure. The process developed in the project will be used for subsequent production of the tablet. Examples could include development of a new product or process (as in the example), constructing a road or a bridge (infrastructure in general), developing a computer/information system, etc.

What is your ideal project?

Before you decide on your ideal project, you must consider the following questions. These questions will help you in narrowing down your choices while making sure that your productivity maximizes.

What type of work do you enjoy the most?
How much you want to and are allowed to show your creativity?
Under what type of deadlines do you work best?
How comfortable are you with trying new things on a project?
Do you prefer to always receive full credit for your work?
Are you okay with working as part of a team, or do you prefer to work alone?

Why does a Project Manager need to be proactive?

Proactive Managers have higher chances of finding out the risks and implementing solutions in order to minimize them. Being proactive, lets them have more control over their project tasks and resources. They can keep a better track of all tasks and issues to work towards implementing small changes and improvements for higher productivity and efficiency. Organizes frequent meetings for developers to talk about their problems, brainstorm solutions, share best practices etc. Compares the actual costs and time spent on tasks on a weekly basis with the planned numbers.

If the customer is not happy with the result and does not accept the product. What would you as a project manager do?

Keeping customers happy is important for the companies. Hence, your answer should showcase that you value customers as well. You can start by explaining that during the course of the project you regularly interact with the customers so that they are on the same page as the project team. Despite this, if the customers are unhappy with the result, say that you will try to clearly understand what modifications they want and try to incorporate them. In case the changes cannot be made, you will try to convince and explain to the customer that the project fits in with the agreed scope.

What are some of the tools and resources you’ve used to develop your team?

This is your chance to show your knowledge on some of the many different technologies that project managers use these days. Be sure to name any software programs, online tools, and other things that you’ve used to complete your daily tasks. Be sure also to explain that you are always open and eager to learn new tools or programs.

Effective Delegation
One of the key success factors for a project manager is effective delegation. How effectively can you get work done through others? The delegation must happen through empowerment without interference or loss of control. The following questions will determine if you are good at delegating:

What are the knowledge areas and how relevant are they in a project?

Knowledge Areas are the core technical subject matter that are vital for effective project management. All the 49 processes are primarily part of these knowledge areas where they are grouped based on their commonalities. Below I have listed down the 10 knowledge areas of project management framework:

Project Integration Management
Project Scope Management
Project Schedule Management
Project Cost Management
Project Quality Management
Project Resource Management
Project Communications Management
Project Risk Management
Project Procurement Management
Project Stakeholder Management

How will you manage the team members who are not working to their full potential?

To bring the best out of your team members, you must:

Try to avoid any type of emotional confrontation with the team and stakeholders
Encourage them to think and act in their own ways
Help your team members in developing their decision-making abilities
Develop their performance tolerance threshold
Strengthen the potential of weak employees by surrounding them with those even stronger
Understand what motivates your employees
Show your employees where they fit in the company mission and vision
Arrange a proper follow-up process
Reward and appreciate their improvement to encourage them more
Be ready to let them go if there is no scope of improvement