Senior Project Officer

Good because: Managing up means working well with people more senior than you. Project managers do this all the time, so it's good to find out how they make those relationships work.

Bad response: "I prefer not to get my sponsor involved. They're typically a figurehead, so I don't bother them."

Good because: It can demonstrate their awareness of PMI Code of Ethics and even if they aren't aware of that, their general approach to work. You can also use it to open up an interesting discussion and allow you to judge how they will fit into your business culture.

Bad response: "I awarded a contract to my cousin once, even though he was the most expensive. I did get a good holiday out of the kickback though."

A project manager has to liaise with other departments in the company, like the procurement, the R&D, as well as the Logistics department. Other than that, the project manager may also have to interact with customers and company's parters. Sometimes, the project manager may also be responsible for the invoicing and financial issues of his projects. Do you have that project management experience?

With the advent of the corporate culture, transparency is the moot point in any company.

Therefore, you might also be asked about the information that you passed on to the executives and other key management members of your company about the project.

Good because: Not everyone has the chance to work on business critical, exciting projects that make for a great CV, but everyone has the chance to offer some suggestions for improvements (even if they aren't taken up). Look for someone who has ideas and who isn't afraid to put them forward.

Bad response: "It's all pretty rubbish there but I haven't bothered to do anything about it as there's no point."

While the interviewer is at it, they may also be interested in finding out about your projects and your contribution to those projects.

Therefore, they may be asked questions about documentations such as: the SOW (scope of work) that your project had, Site Surveys Provisional Acceptance as well as the action items and tasks that were conducted.

As an experienced professional, you are bound to have a portfolio, and this is the right time to share such a portfolio with the interviewer. Make sure that the portfolio you share is authentic as your previous portfolio will decide whether the interviewer will be interested in you or not.

A project manager has to take into consideration several disagreements. They can be between employees, between the superior and the employees, or even the client and the employees.

If you reply that you have never had any disagreements, the interviewer will wonder whether you were really a project manager for your skills or simply because you are a people pleaser.

Make sure that you come up with at least one incident where employees and superiors had differences in thought and you were instrumental in changing the scenario.

Since a project manager can be responsible for the supply chain management and procurement, you would also be asked questions about the same - in a bid to know whether you have handled these tasks.

One another simple question asked is whether you have managed a team directly or indirectly. The interviewer will also be interested to know how you have managed any project that is multidisciplinary, like matrix management or even cross country management.

One common question is about the various project management tools that you have worked with. One frequently used project management tool is MS Project.

As a project manager, you would have prioritization methods that would be instrumental in solving any problem that your company or institute faced.

With these many questions, the interviewer will also like to know whether you created the project business plan and were kept in the loop about the financial aspects of the project. The interviewer would also like to know whether you were the one who monitors the budget/incomes of the project, like - costs, income, gross profit and net profit etc.