Gateway for Preparing Interviews
Do you know anything about Pareto principle/analysis? This is again a knowledge-based question. The Pareto principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions. This is a statistical analysis that is used by project managers to prioritize work. If you have enough experience as a project manager, most likely you have … Read more
Can you explain project life cycle? A project has distinct phases when the range of activities required to carry out the project work differ. There is a distinct “start” phase, followed by an organizing and preparing phase. “Carrying out” is the actual execution part of the project. “Closing” phase makes sure the temporary activities related … Read more
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made on a project? Everyone makes mistakes; character is defined by how you deal with them. This question will allow you to first gauge the candidate’s honesty. If they say that they’ve never made a mistake, you can rest assured that they’re not being truthful and their resume can go … Read more
Why does a PM need to be very proactive? A PM needs to be able to see any signs of a deviation in time and/or cost to project progress as early as possible. This gives the team as much reaction time as possible to correct the situation or to minimize the impact. How do you … Read more
What is the tool used for arriving at improvements in processes? GM, or the goals, questions and metrics is the method used. Goals are set, questions are asked about what improvements can be made and metrics (measurements that tell us something about the process) are carried out Describe all the steps involved from the time … Read more
What values do you think a project manager should have? Everybody has their own idea of values. However, it should focus on the job profile and associated with project management. How have you handled disgruntled employees? The interviewer wants to see that you’re a critical thinker and an effective problem solver. Even if you don’t … Read more
How will you handle the failure of a project? Being a project manager, one should have the quality to handle both successes and failures. While informing about the failure of a project, one should always ensure that it doesn’t impact the morale of the team and work pace. Suppose the project has gone off the … Read more
Which communication style do you prefer using in your projects? Type of communication you use in your project will completely depend on the type of project you are working on and the type of team you have. Types of communication styles that a project manager uses: Written Electronic Face-to-Face Responsive What does Scope management involve? … Read more
Are there any projects that you do not want to work on? If you say you are fine with any project, it might imply that you do not know yourself enough to answer this question. Instead, it is better to be honest and communicate your preferences. But, if you are applying for a software project … Read more
What is EVM, earned value management? At every monitoring point the planned value (PV), earned value (EV) and actual cost (AC) are monitored. PMB, performance measurement baseline is the aggregation of all planned values. Variances from baselines are determined and Schedule variance (SV) and cost variance (CV) are calculated. If earned value is equal to … Read more