2021 Latest Project Management Interview Questions
1. What is the force in a project?
Answer: The workforce is the team engaged in any of the modules of a specific project to accomplish the same. The workforce can be different depending on the size and the objectives of a project. A stable force always makes sure of the most desired outcomes in the shortest possible time.
2. How do you set project goals? How do you monitor the progress of those goals?
Answer: What they’re asking: A project won’t get done without clear goals. And, typically, it’s up to the project manager to establish those objectives and keep a finger on the pulse of progress as well. This question is pretty straightforward. The interviewer wants to know how you handle those two important tasks — setting SMART goals and monitoring progress toward those goals.
How to answer: As mentioned above, questions like this — that relate directly to what skills and qualifications you bring to the table — deserve a thoughtful, detailed and tactical response. Don’t just skate over your approach. Dive into any frameworks or tools you use to make this process more streamlined for you and your project team. Try something like this:
“I’m a big believer in setting SMART goals. Ensuring that the project team’s goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound helps to confirm that we’re setting ourselves up for success. I also make sure to sit down with the project team when setting goals to incorporate their thoughts and opinions on where we should be beheaded. I find that’s important for increasing excitement around the goal while also maintaining realistic objectives. As far as monitoring progress, I use a combination of smaller milestones to keep an eye on progress, regular check-ins, and the always helpful Gantt Chart to ensure we’re moving in the right direction.”
3. How do you deal with team conflict?
Answer: What they’re asking: Like it or not, conflict is pretty much inevitable on a project team. And, it’s the project manager’s job to make sure things get resolved efficiently and effectively. Understandably, the interviewer wants to know how you’ll fix the issue—and that you won’t just sweep things under the rug.
How to answer: Chances are, you have some experience dealing with conflict already. Think about how you’ve approached those situations in the past, and then use that to inform your answer:
“I’ve heard that there are three main approaches to conflict resolution: avoidance, defusion, and confrontation. Typically, I utilize a combination of defusion and confrontation. First and foremost, I limit the interaction between the conflicting parties to get some separation and identify the root cause. Then, I facilitate one-on-one conversations to identify if there’s a certain task or stressor that’s causing the issue. At this point, the confrontation comes into play. I’ll facilitate a problem-solving meeting where the conflicting members can talk about the issues, reach a compromise, and move forward. I also make sure to continuously check in on that matter moving forward, to ensure that the root issue has been addressed, resentment has been eradicated and a new conflict isn’t brewing.”
4. How do you handle any changes to the project?
Answer: A project manager’s strength lies in his/her ability to display a high level of adaptability. Nobody wants changes in a project and are not entirely unavoidable. You must approach this question with great wit and convince the interviewer that you are capable, having handled such situations before.
5. Tell me about your career path and what brought you to project management?
Answer: description of your previous work experiences and tell how you ended up being a project manager. However, you should understand that project management is the main focus here and most of it should converge towards proving that it was through the right skills and experience that you are here now.
6. How do you handle pressure situations? Do you use some creative problem-solving techniques?
Answer: This is a check on how much knowledge you have about the subject as well as management along with whether you have faced tough project situations.
This is an opportunity to express the already handled situation with one or two examples. Problem-solving techniques may be a keyword for you to understand that the interviewer is trying to judge if you know about some techniques commonly used by Project Managers like root cause analysis with the help of 5 whys etc.
Top 38 PMP Interview Questions And Answers Pdf
7. What’s the most important thing for a project manager to do?
Answer: Generally, this question can have multiple thoughts in the mind of interviewer and answer should be based on your homework about the organization i.e. whether the organization is inclined towards traditional Project Management or Agile. More the inclination towards one, the answer should be amended accordingly.
The point here is Project Manager can be expected as an integrator which is the most important thing for an ideal Project Manager to do but if the organization is agile focused, the answer should be more towards flexibility in management and inclined towards leadership. Agile doesn’t believe in traditional Project Management of allocating work and monitoring rather it believes in self-organized and self-motivated teams.
8. Do you have budget management experience?
Answer: Budget management is a crucial aspect of project management. Therefore, this question is very important in a project manager interview, if the candidate will be managing a budget if he is selected for the position. Depending on the roles and responsibilities of the project manager in a company, budget management might not be required by the project manager. Especially, in vendors, budget management is required while it might not be required from project managers working in service providers.
If you are applying for a project manager position that requires budget management, this project manager interview question will be an elective one.
Assuming that you have budget management experience, you can answer this interview question as below:
I have managed the project budgets in my projects as well. I managed up to a 35 million dollar project budget. I was in charge of approving expenses and procurements in my projects. I was contacted directly with the vendors during procurement and managing the communication with the finance department of the company. In case of any additional funding needed, I was organizing a meeting with the project sponsor to express the reasons for additional funding. I was responsible for finding additional funding for the project when needed.
The first highlighted part of this answer shows that the candidate has a good level of budget management experience. The second highlighted part makes the answer even stronger. He adds that he was also responsible for convincing executive management for additional funding when needed
9. How do you motivate the project team?
Answer: Project team motivation is crucial for the success of a project. If a project team is not motivated, it will be impossible to reach project objectives. Or, even if you reach your project objectives, project quality will suffer.
This project manager interview question is critical to get insights about the people management skills of the candidate.
The following is a sample answer to this question.
After I create the project baseline, I mark the milestones of the project. Then, I send this project plan to all project team members. Whenever we pass a milestone successfully, I organize an event to celebrate this. This can be a picnic, a weekend trip or a dinner depending on the project budget or amount of the allowance provided by the company for these celebrations.
Additionally, I try to celebrate the birthday of each project team member. I organize a 30 minutes break for celebration and invite all project team members to this break.
Moreover, if a project team member overperformed during the project, I send a special email to his manager to appreciate his efforts. I know that these kinds of emails will be important for the line managers of project team members when they are doing annual performance evaluation of the employees. My appreciations will bring additional points and opportunities for promotion or bonuses for the project team member respectively.
This answer shows that the project manager candidate does not do only regular celebration activities like milestones and birthday celebrations. He can also speak or contact to the functional managers of the project team members to appreciate project resources for promotion or better annual performance evaluation.
10. How do you deal with gold plating in your project?
Answer: This project manager interview question assesses your technical knowledge and scope management skills. Gold plating is a technical term in project management. Gold plating is delivering more than what is required in the scope. If the project team performs an extra activity and delivers extra work, which is not in the scope of the project, this is called gold plating.
A good project manager must prevent gold plating in a project. Because gold plating can cause delays and extra cost in the project.
11. What is one main driver towards project success? For you, Project success is defined in terms of what?
Answer: In this question, the check is if you know about project success drivers based on triple constraints and the metrics e.g. schedule variance, cost variance, and other indexes.
One should be ready with the metrics used in your earlier projects and knowledge about Project Management EVM metrics. The drivers of project success in a traditional project management way will be expected majorly related to triple constraints, however, the person also has to touch upon agile projects success drivers which should be nothing but working software and regular demonstrations to the client. As per the job profile and organization, you have to take this call.
12. What performance metrics do you use to determine if a project is going as expected?
Answer: The ability to understand if a project is going in the right direction is a core skill of a project manager and performance metrics will help in that matter. Some of the useful performance metrics are Cost Variance, Resource Utilisation, Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Gross Margin.
13. What strategy do you follow to mitigate the risks involved in a project?
Answer: There will always be risks involved in a project; sometimes even before you start it. You must be able to give the interviewer enough points on different areas where you can work so that there are effects of risks.
14. Did you ever face any challenges while managing projects? How did you handle those challenges?
Answer: With the responsibilities of a project manager, comes a lot of challenges. So pick out one which you have been successful in handling. Give the various ways how you have handled and the strategy you came up with.
15. Do you prefer working on a single project or multiple projects at the same time?
Answer: You must always show your enthusiasm to the interviewer, but also be honest. If you feel that you can handle more projects than one, then say that you prefer multiple projects.
16. Define the Triple Constraint Triangle in project management?
Answer: Triple constraint triangle or project management triangle is a constraint model where scope, schedule, and cost are constraints forming the sides of a triangle, with quality as the central theme.
17. How flexible schedule helps in a project? Do we need to compress the schedule if required?
Answer: This question is to judge a major quality required for Project Management i.e. schedule. Project schedule and monitoring of the deadlines & milestones is a day to day activity for a manager and one has to be ready with this question.
Flexible word in question emphasizes indirectly on the agile way of working so definitely flexibility should be related to welcoming change. But in the next section of question the intent is if it’s a regular project are you aware of schedule compression methods as well as experienced in such situations of schedule challenges.
18. What, according to you, is an important skill for a project manager to succeed?
Answer: Well, if you are a project manager you might already be thinking that there can’t be one skill that is enough to be successful. And, you are right. Your answer could be leadership skills, communication skills, or time management skills. What the interviewer is looking for is the justification for the answer. So, before you blurt out anything, have your reasons ready.
19. Is it relevant to the job you are applying for?
Answer: The whole point of this question is to test your approach and your work ethic. So, make sure that the answer reflects those. Most people get carried away by this question and rattle off a lot of details. Please be concise and give only relevant details.
20. What methods have you used to gain commitment from your team?
Answer: Leaders gain commitment by influencing and persuading the team to set objectives and buy into the process. They establish a spirit of cooperation and cohesion for goal attainment. They take the team into the performing phase as quickly as possible. Leaders encourage debate and ideas from all stakeholders. They inspire a commitment to success and excellence by demonstrating passionate personal commitment and promote a productive culture by valuing individuals and their contributions.
21. What are the knowledge areas relevant to doing a project?
Answer: This is a kind of question for which you need to have the answer ready. PMBOK guide describes 10 knowledge areas. Read about them in detail and try to paraphrase in your own words.
22. What qualities are required to be an effective project manager?
Answer: This question is different from the one in which you are asked to name only one skill. Apart from technical skills, mention leadership skills, time management skills, decision-making skills, prioritization skills, risk management skills, etc. The follow-up question can be about how a certain skill helps. So, do prepare a justification for each of the skills you talked about.
23. How do you ensure your team stays on track to meet project deadlines?
Answer: A sample answer can be ‘I communicate what the expectations are before the team starts to work on the task. I regularly take updates on the progress and if there is a lag anywhere I make myself approachable for the team members to discuss their problems. Also, I appreciate and give feedback once the project is completed to keep them motivated’
24. How do you begin a newly assigned project?
Answer: Through this question, the interviewer is essentially trying to check your clarity of thought. He/she wants you to describe the important first steps you need to take to ensure the success of a project. A good manager would try to understand ‘what’ of the project before ‘how’. What it means is your first try to understand what is the objective or purpose of the project before diving into how to achieve the goals of the project. Hence, anything on the above lines would get you some brownie points.
25. Where do you see yourself in five years?
Answer: This is a top project manager interview question. The answer shows whether you have realistic expectations from the job you are applying for. It helps the interviewer check if your personal goals align with that of the company.
If you are applying for an entry-level position, it might be too ambitious to say ‘I want to be the CEO of this company’. It helps to research the employment growth in the company and estimate where you could reach with your best performance in the next 5 years. On the other hand, if you are applying for a senior position, you can talk about how you wish to take the company forward and what your contribution towards that would be.
26. How important is it for a project manager to be ‘proactive’?
Answer: By very nature, projects are unpredictable. Hence, a manager must anticipate problems that can occur and plans. Your answer then has to reflect the importance you attach to proactive project management. Show the interviewer that you can handle risks and rise to the challenges that can occur during the project.
27. Do you know anything about Pareto’s principle/analysis?
Answer: 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 used this principle or at least a variation of it. Apart from explaining what it is, talk about how you used it in your previous job (if you did)
28. What are the different kinds of project management tools you worked with?
Answer: When the interviewer asks this question, it is to know whether you can use Lean, Kanban, Agile, etc. If the company uses particular project management software, read up on it. Further, do mention how your knowledge of a specific project management tool can help their company.
29. What kind of people do you find difficult to work with?
Answer: This is a potential trap. ‘I get along with everyone’. Say this and you will open a floodgate of questions. Focus on why you are being asked this question. They want to check your people management skills. You can talk about how you are strictly professional and do not let your emotions get the better of you while working with people. Bring out your maturity, emotional quotient while answering this question.
30. What motivates you to give your best to your projects?
Answer: The answer varies from person to person. But responses can be ‘I like to be out of my comfort zone and hence love challenging projects’. ‘Projects which help me learn and evolve, pushing my potential’. ‘I am attracted to success and achievement. The thought of reaching the project goals within the stipulated time motivates me’. Think about the answer that you want beforehand to justify your statements with real-life examples.
31. What is the triple constraint triangle in project management?
Answer: All projects are carried out under certain constraints – traditionally, these are cost, time and scope. These three important factors are commonly called “the triple constraint”. Each constraint forms the vertices, with quality as the central theme:
Projects must be delivered within cost
Projects must be delivered on time
Projects must meet the agreed scope – no more, no less
Projects must also meet customer quality requirements
32. What is a fishbone diagram?
Answer: Fishbone diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams (or cause-and-effect diagrams) show the reasons behind a certain event. In project management, this tool is used in quality management and risk management processes.
33. Are there any projects that you do not want to work on?
Answer: 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 manager position and say you hate software development, a slight chance you will get the job. So, be a little smart.
34. When was the last time you didn’t delegate properly and what were the consequences?
Answer: This question will assess your capability to learn from mistakes and deal with information overload. Even if you have not faced a similar situation in your professional life, try to draw parallel inferences from your personal life as a testimony of your ability to learn from mistakes.
35. How do you provide status at different Management levels? Any tool you have used?
Answer: At this question, time is to evaluate your management skills to demonstrate the project’s progress. It will also judge if you know what level of details should be communicated at different levels as well as to different stakeholders.
Reporting is one form of communication. Communication management and stakeholder management are two areas where a project manager spends maximum time. The answer should focus on your understanding of communication needs and stakeholders’ understanding. Examples from your experience about some tough project manager will help.
36. How do you manage office politics?
Answer: Conflict management is an area where project success is dependent as if not resolved at the right time, it can create a lot of issues. This question is trying to judge your conflict management skills.
The answer to this question should be theoretical knowledge about different conflict management techniques like Avoid, confront, etc.. as well as 2-3 examples from earlier experience. These kinds of management skills generally come from skills. One should be prepared for it by having certain examples thought through in advance.
37. Why should our organization hire you for this role?
Answer:
Give a few reasons
This one is to hear from you if you fit the job. Confidence and readiness to adaptation are also judged.
The focus while answering this question should be to express how perfectly you fit the job requirements. In case of interviewer ask a question saying you don’t meet something, try to show your keenness and readiness to learn the cosmetic gaps. This is also an opportunity to express if any important point is missed in earlier questions.
38. Tell me about your favorite project that you’ve managed and what you enjoyed about it?
Answer: viral interview questions—these are questions that ask you to recall and explain specific examples and experiences—during your project manager interview. This question, in particular, is a way for the interviewer to gauge what sort of project management experience you have under your belt, what sorts of projects you excel at managing and how much passion you have for the role.
How to answer: With any sort of behavioral interview question, you want to be as specific as possible. You don’t need to go into painstaking detail, but you should be prepared to elaborate on real situations and explanations. Try something like this:
“I enjoyed managing the implementation of [new software program] at my last company. It allowed me to evaluate and refine any processes that weren’t working for us. Additionally, I enjoyed being able to collaborate with every department in our office to ensure their needs were being met. It was challenging but rewarding!”.
39. What is your biggest weakness?
Answer: While this question sounds like a general interview question, but its approach in the project management background makes this question, extremely important for your interview. As a project manager, you are supposed to thoroughly understand your team. You are supposed to hone their positives and motivate them to fight their negatives. Thus, it is important for a project manager to first understand himself as a person. Try to give an honest answer and remember to also share how you plan to deal with your weakness and not let it come in your way as a project manager.
40. What is the reason for you to quit your current organization?
Answer: While this question sounds like a general interview question, but its approach in the project management background makes this question, This is a general question but very important for a senior position like Project Manager. The organization is trying to judge how ethically your answer and put forward your earlier organization.
Some people start saying negative things about an organization that will act very badly. The focus should be to give reasons like career growth, keenness towards the organization you are getting interviewed. No blame game as organizations will change tomorrow and whatever you are saying for ‘X’ organization similarly you would say in the future of the interviewed organization in the future. Just be cautious about this and answer.
41. How have you improved the project management process at your current firm?
Answer: You might not have achieved something phenomenal in your current firm and that is alright. What the interviewer wants to assess by asking you this question, is your ability to make a difference and contribute as an individual. This question is your chance to prove that you can blend in, yet stand out.
42. What is a Milestone in project development?
Answer: Milestone is a situation or a time when any specific part of the project development is accomplished. Some experts also define as a situation in which a complex problem has been solved.
43. What communication style do you use with a team that you’re managing?
Answer: What they’re asking: Being a strong communicator is one of the most important skills a project manager can possess, and that’s exactly what this question is getting at. At the center of everything a project manager does, there’s communication. From formal presentations and casual brainstorming sessions to in-person discussions and online collaboration, successful project managers need to know how to tailor their communication to effectively get a point across.
How to answer: This can be a tricky question to answer, especially when different circumstances require different communication styles. Start by recognizing that you understand the importance of successful communication, as well as how different styles are beneficial in different situations. For example:
“I think strong communication skills is one of the most critical qualities of a project manager. My communication style can vary greatly depending on the situation. During a conflict, for example, I tend to be more direct and assertive. But, during a team meeting, I prefer to sit back and be more of a facilitator of collaboration. I believe a strong project manager can adjust his or her communication style when necessary, and that’s something I excel at.”
44. Tell me about a recent challenge you encountered and how you overcame it?
Answer: What they’re asking: Even the best, most thoughtful project managers will admit that sometimes things get sticky. Problems and surprises are inevitable, and the employer wants to be sure that they find someone who can roll with the punches and continue leading the team forward.
How to answer: This pesky behavioral interview question requires you to detail a real-world example. No project is flawless, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to think of a time when you ran into an issue. Ideally, you’ll want to talk about a challenge that resulted in a big win because of your clever self. Your answer could look something like this:
“I was tasked with overseeing the entire redesign and redevelopment of our company website. The engineering team and the design team were at a standstill about how to layout a specific page on the website, and it was slowing down the entire project. To shut down the various personal conversations and back-and-forth emails, I facilitated an entire team sit-down where everybody could voice their suggestions. We reached a compromise, and moved forward with the project, delivering it before the deadline.”
45. What exactly do you know about the Phased Approach in a project, Can you name the process areas of the same?
Answer: It is also known as a staged approach. It is breaking down a task into a simple series of steps to understand their nature. It is not always necessary to be the same with all the projects. However it has process areas that are similar to most of the projects and they are Planning, Closing, Monitoring, controlling, as well as development.
46. What is SWOT Analysis?
Answer: SWOT Stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threads. All these are related to a project or with a business. Analyzing them assure favorable outcome in many aspects and the project manager can make sure of totally error-free results with this approach. Generally, this analysis is performed after the completion of a project.
47. How do you monitor projects whether it is going on track?
Answer: This project manager interview question will assess your monitoring and controlling skills and your familiarity with project management tools. The primary responsibility of the project manager is completing a project scope on time and a budget in the agreed quality levels. To do this, a project manager must use his or her skills and project management tools.
The following can be a good sample answer for this project manager interview question.
After I completed the initial project planning, I take a baseline. I use this baseline to compare the progress of the project and actual values against the baseline. Each week or every two weeks, I forecast the duration and cost of remaining project activities with my team to determine whether the negotiated deadline and budget will be met. I use Microsoft Excel to keep track of the issue log. I assign an open issue to a project resource or any external resource in the project issue log. I set a deadline for the issue and I follow the issue until it is resolved. I use Microsoft Project for creating a project plan. However, I have used Jira software tracking tool as well. When I am using Microsoft Project, I compare the actual values of the tasks with the baseline values. This helps me to see whether a task is on track, behind schedule or ahead of schedule. When I am using Jira, I create my dashboards for late tasks or open tasks. I report these tasks to the assignees each week or more frequently if they are urgent.
This answer shows the technical knowledge of the project manager candidate. Because he uses “baseline” and “issue log” terms. The answer also provides solid samples on how to monitor and control a project like taking baseline and comparing actual values against the baseline.
48. Do you have to outsource personnel or supplier management experience?
Answer: Managing outsources personnel or supplier is a different project management skill. If you are applying to a company that works with outsourcing personnel or suppliers, this project manager interview question will be an elective one.
If you have a project management experience in a vendor, most probably, you will have to outsource and supplier management experience as well.
Let us first define what outsource and supplier is. Outsource personnel is hired or acquired by a company only for a limited time or for a specific project. For instance, assume that you are installing a database for a utility service provider in the scope of your project. You need a database administrator for this work. However, your company does not have a full-time database administrator. You have to hire or outsource the database administrator for a limited time to work for your project.
Suppliers are material, equipment, tools, etc. providers of your project. In your project, if you need database servers, and if these servers will be provided by a 3rd party company, this company is the supplier of your project.
Project Manager Interview
After defining outsource and supplier management, let’s go through a sample answer for this project manager interview question.
I was working for a billing system project for a telecom operator. One of the products we had to install was Ericsson’s SDP product. Our company was not having an SDP product expert. Therefore, we had to outsource two SDP product experts for three months to work on our project. I managed the communication with Ericsson to outsource these two consultants and planned their start and end dates in the project. Moreover, we had to install 24 servers of the SDP product in three different locations across the UK. To do this, we have negotiated with a server installation company, Servus. I was in the process of negotiation with this supplier. I managed the SDP consultants and Servus, server installation company, throughout the project.
The answer clearly shows the outsource and supplier management of the project manager interview participant.
49. There are many available project management tools. Which do you use and why?
Answer: There are a large number of project management tools available, such as Asana, Trello, and Aha!. Consider some of the tools that you have used in your previous positions. If there are other tools that you like, but you haven’t had the chance to use, make sure you share these too, giving your reasons why you want to use them. Understanding both their strengths and weaknesses is important. However, you could also explain why project management tools as a whole are increasingly beneficial to businesses. For example, they help Project Managers assign tasks to employees and track progress, they can help to improve communication and encourage effective collaboration. This is increasingly important today, where staff members may work remotely, or teams could be spread all around the world.
50. You managed the project work as per requirements. However, the customer is not happy with the result and does not accept the product. How would you convince the customer?
Answer: This is a very common and tough to deal situation in project management. Although you delivered the project scope as you agreed with the customer at the beginning of the project, the customer may not accept the product at the end of the project.
This project manager interview question assesses your convincing and justification skills.
In case you receive this kind of question, you have to demonstrate the agreed scope and how your end product fits with the agreed scope. Note that, the final stop of a disagreement like these courts. However, never mention this during your project manager interview. Because you have to fix conflicts with communication and companies do not wish to go courts in these cases since it will take years to conclude.
The following is a sample answer to this question.
At the end of my website development project, the customer was not happy with the delivered results. Therefore, they did not accept the project. Our initial scope was delivering an eCommerce shopping website with five different pages:
1-Homepage
2-Login/Signup Page
3-Category Page
4-Product Page
5-Profile Page
We have delivered this agreed project scope at the end of the project. After customer acceptance tests, they agreed that the features of these pages meet their initial requirements. However, the customer was told that their competitor has a referral program that boosts sales. They need to have the same program feature as well.
I organized a meeting with the project sponsor and customer testing team as well. I asked my manager to join the meeting as well. During that meeting, I have gone through the agreed project scope and showed how our deliverables meet the initial scope. Then, I explained that the customer referral program was not mentioned anywhere in the requirements list, agreed on the project scope and in the contract as well.
Project sponsor told that this is a critical requirement and they have to get it before launching the website. At this point, I told you that we can deliver this as a change request in one month. The customer did not want to pay any additional cost for the project. After some discussions, my manager proposed a revised cost for this additional feature. The customer accepted the proposal and we fixed this conflict. After delivering the customer referral program feature one month later, the customer was happy with the final product.
Project manager candidate approaches to the conflict with documents and rationally. After convincing the customer that the new requirement was not in the project scope, he proposes that they can deliver this feature in one month as a change request. Therefore, he creates alternatives and approaches in a result-driven way.
51. Where have you worked before?
Answer: Rarely is an inexperienced person taken in as a project manager. Any project manager would have at least two or three years of experience either as an employee or as a project manager. Therefore, this is one of the basic questions asked. Make sure that you give a brief and concise answer to this question, without going too much into the details. Also, make sure that everything you say as an answer to this question is factual.
52. Why should we hire you?
Answer: This question is not special for a project manager interview. Most of the human resources personnel ask this question to evaluate a candidate during job interviews.
There can be hundreds of other applicants that you have to surpass to get a project manager job. Your background, skills, and resume should be impressive and matching the requirements of the job description. This is obvious. However, you have to be unique when providing an answer to this question. The interviewer must say, “Wow, he knows what we exactly look for”.
For the best answer to this project manager interview question, you can search for the recent news of the company before the interview. A recent financial report, investment, research, and development project news that the company is launching can be good information to place in your answer to this question.
The following can be a good answer to this interview question.
When I saw that Apple is looking for a project manager, I was very excited. Because Apple is my dream company that I would love to work for. I went through the position details and saw that you are looking for 5+ years of IT project management experience with a special focus on-screen touch sensors. I have over seven years of project management experience in software development projects. I worked for Elo for three years and managed their last inductive led screen development project. I’ve heard from the recent news that, Apple is planning to remove the “home” button from iPhone and move the features of the “home” button to the screen. My software project management experience in a screening company will be very much beneficial for the projects in Apple. I will learn a lot from Apple culture as well.
The project manager candidate highlights how he saw the position vacancy and why he applied. Then, he clarifies why he matches the position requirements. He also adds that while he will be providing benefits to the company, he will learn a lot from Apple as well.