Vendor Managed Inventory Coordinator

During the most recent project I managed, I found that one of the designers on the team was secretly sabotaging the project by communicating design flaws we were trying to fix directly to the client. The client respected this designer and his opinion, so I had to come up with a way of resolving the issue without jeopordizing our relationship with the client. I knew I'd be walking a very fine line but I decided the best approach was a direct approach. I called a meeting with both the designer and the client to discuss the design issues we were working on. I explained to the client, while the designer was present, that I had successfully completed many similar projects and the design flaws we were fixing were not out of the ordinary. I also offered to provide the client more regular communications. Recognizing that the design flaws were not what he had thought they were, he said that more frequent communications wouldn't be necessarily and just verified that we'd be completed on time. I assured him we would. Not surprisingly, the designer never felt it necessary to communicate directly with the client after that meeting.

I really enjoy projects that present unique challenges. For example, the last project I was involved with required the team I managed to work as a member of a larger team tasked with designing, developing and implementing a system for transporting natural gas through the Sierra Nevadas. My team was in charge of designing the system. A second company was responsible for developing the hardware to support the transporation system. And it was a third company's role to put the physical system together. What I enjoyed most about that project was that it pushed the limits of my organizational and people manage skills and required me to think outside the box in order to avoid conflict and meet all project deadlines.

☛ Tell me a little bit about your career path, how did you move into Project Management?

☛ Who were your mentors as you entered Project Management? What did you learn from them?

☛ What do you feel is the value of a good Project Manager (PM)?

☛ What would you say is the most important skill of a PM and why?

☛ How do you keep up your skills in Project Management?

☛ What are your favorite aspects of being a PM?

☛ Describe one of your most challenging projects? Why was it challenging and how did you pull the project through it?

☛ What is your exposure to [Agile, SDLC, or whatever other methodology used on your projects]

☛ What is your exposure to [the industry for which I'm interviewing]?

☛ Tell me about the kinds of performance metrics you use to see if the project is on track?

☛ Tell me about a time when you moved a project into yellow or red status? How did you report on it? How did you get it back to green?

☛ Tell me about a time when you encountered a serious conflict and how you dealt with it.

☛ What projects have you managed and what different styles have you used? [Waterfall, Agile, strong leadership, self-organizing teams -- looking for how flexible and adaptable candidate might be]

☛ Tell me about how you approach Risk management on a new project

☛ How do you handle a situation where the client does not want to surface and address Risk?

☛ How do you hold a team accountable for quality, not quantity?

☛ How do you deal with client employees with low motivation or low skills?

☛ Tell me about a failure and what you learned from it.

☛ Tell me about a do-over in your career?

☛ What would your peers and past supervisor tell me about you?

☛ Tell me about a personal legacy that you created on one of your projects.

☛ What do you do to ensure objectivity when you evaluate the work of others?

☛ What sort of performance standards have you held Employees to? Were they written?

☛ How often do you evaluate your employees?

☛ How do you get your employees involved in their own evaluation?

☛ How do you evaluate your department's overall performance?

☛ When you evaluate someone's performance verbally, what approach do you take?

☛ How do you plan for performance improvements?

☛ How do you measure performance in your area?

☛ What have you found to be the best way to monitor the performance of your work and/or the work of others? Share a time when you had to take corrective action.

☛ How do you go about developing the people you manage?

☛ How do you help your employees become committed to a job or to the organization?

☛ How do you deal with an "attitude" problem?

☛ How often do you think it is necessary to meet with your employees?

☛ How have you handled "complainers?"

☛ How do you deal with an employee who needs to be disciplined? Explain your strategy.

☛ What sort of employee training do you think is necessary to offer?

☛ How do you handle a, personnel situation, which might have a, potential legal impact?

☛ How do you develop trust and loyalty in your employee?

☛ How do you get your employees (or others) to follow you?

☛ How do you use power or authority to get what you want done?

☛ How do you delegate responsibility for an assignment? Who do you choose? What and how do you delegate, and what do you monitor and follow up?

☛ How do you describe your management style?

☛ Please share with me an example of how you helped coach or mentor someone. What improvements did you see in the person's knowledge or skills?

☛ Provide an example of a time when you successfully organized a diverse group of people to accomplish a task.

☛ Provide an example of a time when you were able to demonstrate excellent listening skills. What was the situation and outcome?

☛ In your experience, what is the key to developing a good team? (Look for how they build mutual trust, respect, and cooperation.)

☛ What areas are within your sphere of responsibility in your current position? How do, you make sure that you know what is happening (problems, changes, etc.)?

☛ How do make sure that your employees are accountable?

☛ What operating systems do you use to monitor and maintain control of your area of accountability?

☛ What do you typically do when you hear of a problem in your area? Explain?

☛ How useful have you found written procedures and guidelines in helping you manage your area?

☛ Do you feel that the chain of command is important? Why? When do you feel it might inhibit organizational effectiveness?

☛ Share an effective method you have used to enforce rules and regulations.

☛ When you have to write letters, how do you usually get started?

☛ How do you keep track of incoming and outgoing correspondence?

☛ What do you see as the difference in writing strategy for a report vs. memo vs. a letter?

☛ What responsibility do you have for budgeting? What budgeting method do you use?

☛ Tell me about a time when you had to prioritize limited resources? How? What worked and what did not?

While not the most common interview question, it does pop it's head up from time to time--so be prepared to answer it. Many interviewers like to ask this question because it forces the candidate to choose just one of the many skills required to be a good project manager. Technically, there is no single correct answer to this question, but you need to be cognizant of what your answer reveals to the interviewer about you, your experience and your ability.

Don't dance around the question, or be vague. Answer the question directly and provide just one answer, as requested. Your answer to this question should be what you feel is your greatest strength as a project manager (e.g. team-building skills, keeping projects on schedule, flexibility). Be prepared to explain why this skill is critical to effective project management and how it will benefit the company.

The Best way to handle a non-productive team member is to envision how they canbe productive. Usually there is a reasonfor their non-productivity and often they will reveal it to you personally orsometimes you may have to probe for the reason simply by asking them a question"What do you like most or least about working here?" Once you have isolated the negative problemsuggest solutions that are the easiest to obtain in the shortest period oftime. Research suggests positivereinforcement is the best way to motivate a person. Share a story about "seeing the light at theend of the tunnel" that you experienced personally. This will help develop more rapport andenable trust from the "non-productive team member." Positive reinforcement includes primaryreinforcers such as smiles, touch (hand shakes), verbal thanks and exchangeablereinforcement such as talk about payday, bonuses or potential promotions forachieving or exceeding goals. Share thepositive vision.

This question is designed to help the interviewer see what type of project management experience and expertise you have. As you're describing your project, the interviewer will be assessing how well they think you'll be able to manage projects for their organization. Make sure before the interview you have a good sense for the type of projects the position entails. This is a great opportunity for you to demonstrate how your project management experience will benefit the company.

When answering this question, explain the project you managed as if you were talking to a client, not someone involved in the project. Make sure you provide a comprehensive answer that employs a logical format the interviewer can understand.

For complex projects, project managers are usually required to use formal processes and techniques to ensure deadlines and specifications are met. Outline the project management processes and techniques you used, even if they're just industry standard. Explain the purpose, value and implementation of the most important aspects of the project including the work plan, risks, issues and project completion.

Throughout your explanation let your enthusiasm for the project show. Share with the interviewer your major accomplishments and how the experience you gained from the project will benefit the company. Identify areas where your skills and experience made a difference in terms of quality of work, efficiency, productivity, expenditure, customer satisfaction and organizational success.