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Project Manager Interviews

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Project Manager Interview Questions

As a project manager, it is your job to oversee the creation and execution of company projects and ensure that all team members stay on track to meet deadlines. Expect interview questions that will assess your ability to lead a group and communicate effectively to members with different roles and varying concerns. As the scope, schedule, and cost of a project can change frequently, the interviewer may ask you to role-play a few scenarios in which a project deadline changes or several group members leave the company.

Top Project Manager Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: Can you tell me about a time when your stakeholders disagreed with you on a project?

How to answer
How to answer: Dealing with conflict in a project management role is expected. Strong candidates need to demonstrate how they help to foster cooperation and collaboration among all parties involved in a project. Describe situations in which you acted as a mediator, focusing on the actions you took in response and the results of your actions. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) when describing the disagreement and how you achieved a resolution.
Question 2

Question #2: What is your approach to strategic project management?

How to answer
How to answer: A project manager needs to have a strategy for managing tasks and keeping others on schedule with their work. When answering this question, it's helpful to describe a situation in which you applied your strategic management method, took action, and maintained that strategy on various projects. Explain how you reached your project goals.
Question 3

Question #3: Has a project you managed ever failed?

How to answer
How to answer: Discussing your failures may be challenging in an interview, but hiring managers ask this question to understand your potential weaknesses and areas for improvement. Try to keep the conversation positive by talking about how you turned around a project, made changes during the course of a project, or improved the outcome.

69,076 project manager interview questions shared by candidates

Most of the questions are in the Tell us about a time multi-part format. Part 1: Describe the situation/project and your role in it. Part 2: Describe a challenge that existed (the interviewers will specify the challenge, it will usually be something like there was ambiguous direction, there were not enough resources, you had to work with difficult people. Part 3: Explain how you overcame the challenge. Part 4: What you learned/what you would do differently.
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Various Positions Ranging From Senior Analyst to Senior Project Manager

Interviewed at Southern California Edison

4★
Jun 23, 2016

Most of the questions are in the Tell us about a time multi-part format. Part 1: Describe the situation/project and your role in it. Part 2: Describe a challenge that existed (the interviewers will specify the challenge, it will usually be something like there was ambiguous direction, there were not enough resources, you had to work with difficult people. Part 3: Explain how you overcame the challenge. Part 4: What you learned/what you would do differently.

The hardest question was difficult because it limited my response to a specific type of experience, along with being multi-part; it had to do with being a member of a team to accomplish a project in which team members disagreed on the product.
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Project Manager

Interviewed at Southern California Edison

4★
Oct 18, 2012

The hardest question was difficult because it limited my response to a specific type of experience, along with being multi-part; it had to do with being a member of a team to accomplish a project in which team members disagreed on the product.

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