Are there any positive aspects of the risk identification process?
The risk identification process may be able to come up with some opportunities too.
What kinds of projects interest you the most? Why?
The one word that you need to focus on for this pm interview question is ‘relevance’. Do your research about the company and the role you are applying for. Your answer for this should be about the kind of projects that the company can offer.
Name the ten key knowledge areas as mentioned in the PMBOK Guide?
Integration Management, Scope Management, Time Management, Cost Management, Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Communications Management, Risk Management, Procurement Management, and Stakeholder Management.
Did you face any problems with your co-workers in your previous company?
You might or you might not have faced issues with your former colleagues. But, if you mention that you did, don’t be too negative. You can discuss the problem. However, put your emphasis on what you did to resolve the problem. Give it a happy ending. You can also talk about what has been the learning and how you would handle similar kind of people in the future. It shows your leadership skills.
Describe the team forming process you follow in project management.
A project manager should possess knowledge about the various stages that a team goes through during the project; hence, this is one of the common questions asked in interviews and exams on project management. Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning comprises the five development stages in team formation. While you answer this project management interview question, you should describe each of these steps with clarity of thought.
Domain Knowledge and Skills
A good project manager should have 2 features—experience, as well as an in-depth understanding of project management theories. While one without the other hinders performance, to be the ideal project manager, you must have a solid foundation in project management principles. The following question is often asked by interviewers to test the candidate’s domain knowledge and skills:
How do you gain agreement with teams?
Where there are people, there are conflicts, and even the best projects have people problems. Good teams collaborate and trust one another. If there’s a problem between two or more team members, it must be resolved quickly. But this can also apply to stakeholders, vendors, etc. A project manager is a bit of a psychologist who must know how to resolve conflicts quickly.
Tell us about yourself
Most project management job interviews start with this question. ‘Be relevant’ is the mantra to do well in this question. Give a brief introduction of your background and educational qualifications. If you are an experienced manager, emphasise on the projects that you have done that are relevant to the job you applied for. If you are a fresh graduate, you can tell them about any college projects that you have done. Treat this question as an opportunity for self-promotion to show the employer why you are fit for the job.
What is effort variance?
Effort Variance = (Actual effort – Estimated Effort) / Estimated Effort.
It is the difference between the estimated effort and the effort required.
What are the ways a project time schedule can be compressed?
Crashing and fast tracking are two methods of accelerating a project time schedule. Crashing method tries to optimize the schedule making use of the time floats available while keeping costs under control. Fast tracking is to make selected activities faster by applying additional resources if necessary. It may mean paying team members overtime, paying for the time of a consultant, etc.
Do you have budget management experience?
It helps to drill down into specific experience. Naturally, if the candidate has specific skills they’ll be briefly sketched in the resume, but here’s your opportunity to get a deeper sense of where they stand in terms of budget management. Project managers are known as planners. They schedule and lead teams to success. But there’s often money involved, so they better know how to handle a budget.