18 Project Manager Interview Questions &

Answers32 min. read
You are a professional and applied to a project management position recently.
Employer invited you to the project manager interview. However, you did not
attend in a job interview recently or you are nervous about the project manager
interview you will attend.
Do not worry. You are at the right place.

18 Project Manager Interview Questions

1. Please describe yourself, your background briefly.
2. What was the biggest or most challenging project you managed?
3. Do you have budget management experience?
4. Have you ever failed in a project? Do you have any experience of handling
failures?
5. How do you monitor projects whether it is going on track?
6. Can you tell me an example of how you communicated a failure to your
team, manager and customer?
7. How do you motivate project team?
8. Do you have outsource personnel or supplier management experience?
9. Do you have international project team management experience?
10.How do you deal with gold plating in your project?
11.You managed the project work as per requirements. However, customer is
not happy with the result and does not accept the project. How would you
convince the customer?
12.How do you deal with underperforming project team members?
13.How do you resolve conflicts in your projects?
14.What are the three words that describe you best?
15.Why should we hire you?
16.Where do you see yourself in five years?
17.What is your current salary and compensaion package?
18.What is your salary expectation?
 
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We have gathered the eighteen project manager interview questions that you will
be asked, most probably, during your job interview. Is that it? No, we also
provided guidance on how you should answer these project manager interview
questions.
Let’s go over the questions one-by-one.
Question #1: Please describe yourself, your
background briefly.
Actually, this is a typical job interview question. You can face this question not
only in a project manager interview, but also in any job interview.
Consider this question as a self-promotion opportunity. Because, you will be
telling about your background, your education, work experience and projects you
have completed. If you are a new graduate, you can tell about your university
projects. If you are an experienced professional, job interviewer will look for the
keywords in your background that will match with the requirements of the job.
For instance, if you are a 5+ years of professional looking for a project manager
position, you should not start from your primary school when answering this
project manager interview question. Briefly, describe your place of birth, where
you grew up and your university education. These should not be more than two or
three sentences. Then, you should highlight the critical points in your background
that is relevant with the position you applied for.
For instance, let’s consider that a software analyst working in a software vendor
has applied to a project manager position. He has not any project management
experience. However, he wants to get this project manager position and the
employer invited him to the project manager interview.
What should this guy answer to this question?
Sample answer for this project manager interview question can be as below.
I was born in 1991 in New Jersey. I grew up in New Jersey and went to high school
there. I have completed my university education in Georgia Institute of Technology in
the field of computer science. After I graduated from university in 2013, I applied for
the software analyst position of Accenture in Plano, Texas. After a couple of
interviews, I got the job and since 2013, I am working at Accenture as Software
Analyst. I have worked in eight projects until now and the biggest one was shopping
cart customization project of Walmart website. Project took eight months to complete.
There were four software analysts and I worked as the lead analyst and supervised
the other three analysts. There were 11 software developers and 6 test engineers. In
total, project team had over 20 members. Last year, I got a promotion from the
employer and my title has changed as Lead Analyst. This is my background in
brief.
This will not take more than two minutes if you speak it in a project manager
interview session. As highlighted, the project manager candidate gives the critical
points in his background that can qualify him for the project manager position he
applied to. He highlights that he worked as the lead analyst in a project. This shows
that he has people management skills, which is crucial for a project manager
position. He also adds that, he got promotion, which shows that his current
employer appreciates and treasures him.

Question #2: What was the biggest or most

challenging project you managed?
You have to be prepared for this project manager interview question. Because,
your answer to this question will show your limits about your experience. Note
that, this question might come with additional questions asking about how many
people there were in the team, who you were reporting to, and how many projects
in total you were managing at the same time.
Before sitting in your project manager interview session, go through your
experience. Choose the most challenging project that you were involved.

Following can be a good answer to this project manager interview question.

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The most challenging project I was involved was Golden Gate Bridge Construction
Program. I was managing the project of construction of the towers that will carry the
bridge. There were three architects, six civil engineers and 47 construction
workers in my team. In total, I managed 56 project team members during this
project. The most challenging part of the project was meeting the deadlines. Because,
several other projects were dependent on my project. Any delay in my project was
causing delays on the rest of the project. For instance, a one-day delay in my project
was causing 200 hundred construction workers to wait for our work to be
completed. And the cost of one-day delay was around $80,000. This was causing a
big pressure in executive management of the company and therefore it was a big
challenge for me as well.
First highlighted part in this answer shows the size of the project team that this
project manager managed. Second highlighted part stresses the challenge of the
project financially. Provide numbers, budgets and statistics if you have any. These
will make your answers stronger.

Question #3: Do you have budget management

experience?
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 from 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 35 million
dollar project budget. I was in charge of approving expenses and procurements in my
projects. I was contacting directly with the vendors during procurement and
managing the communication with finance department of the company. In case
any additional funding needed, I was organizing meeting with the project sponsor to
express the reasons of additional funding. I was responsible for finding additional
funding for the project when needed.
First highlighted part of this answer shows that the candidate has a good level of
budget management experience. Second highlighted part makes the answer even
stronger. He adds that he was also responsible for convincing executive
management for additional funding when needed.

Question #4: Have you ever failed in a project?

Do you have any experience of handling failures?
Success and failures, these are inevitable facts of life and your professional career
as well. Do not even think to answer “No, I never failed in a project”. This will not
be counting a positive mark in your evaluation believe me.
Actually, this project manager interview question assesses your risk management
experience. Therefore, think of an event, meeting, activity or a moment in project
where you had trouble. Then, answer this question accordingly.

Following can be a good sample answer for this question.

When I was managing a telecommunication project, after our software package
deployment, subscribers of the telecom operator could not make calls from a specific
region. This was the biggest failure I had in my projects.
Actually, we did all post deployment tests and everything was green. Next
morning, I woke up with the phone call of my customer. He was so angry and
complaining that 87 subscribers reported that they could not originate a call from their
phone. I tried to calm down the customer on the phone and told him that we, as whole
project team, will be arriving on site in one hour to investigate the problem and fix it.
Right after my customer phone call, I called the software developers and test
engineers to come back at office to investigate this issue.
We were in the office, whole project team, in 45 minutes. Our software engineers
investigated the problem. However, they could not find any hint regarding the
problem. Majority of the subscribers were able to do calls without any
problem. Customer was getting angrier each minute because as the time passes,
number of complaints started to increase.
All reported incidents were from Louisville, Kentucky. We thought that this is a local
problem affecting only a part of the subscribers. We contacted with three of the
subscribers who reported this problem and asked them to re-initiate a call. In the
meantime, our software and test engineers collected logs of the failing calls. After
analysis, they found that a customized routing for Louisville city was not updated
by customer during deployments. After defining the routing, problem was resolved.
It was a long six hours of my life. Customer was on my neck and asking the situation
each minute while we were trying to fix the issue.
If you look at the answer, first part reflects that the candidate did his responsibility
by post deployment tests to avoid any failures. Second part highlights the
emergency of this issue. Third and the last part highlights how he handled the
failure.

Question #5: How do you monitor projects

whether it is going on track?
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 on
budget in the agree quality levels. To do this, a project manager must use his or her
skills and project management tools.
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 in 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 issue log. I assign an open issue to a
project resource or any external resource in 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
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 own 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 project manager candidate.
Because, he uses “baseline” and “issue log” terms. Answer also provides solid
samples on how to monitor and control a project like taking baseline and
comparing actual values against baseline.

Question #6: Can you tell me an example of how

you communicated a failure to your team,
manager and customer?
This project manager interview question will assess your risk management and
communication management experience together. Bear in your mind that, failures,
emergencies or critical points about a project must be communicated face to face.
If face-to-face communication is not possible, then, you should choose
teleconference meeting or phone call.
Following can be a good sample answer for this project manager interview
question.
We were working on an online learning portal project of an oil company. Deadline of
the project was Feb 15, 2016. Although we completed our development tasks and
internal tasks on time, customer could not complete their acceptance test on time.
Executive management of the customer was pushing to deliver the project on time.
However, since customer could not complete their acceptance tests, it was risky.
First, I called my manager. I wish we could have spoken face-to-face but she was
in a business trip at that time. I told her the situation. She agreed with me to speak
about the risk of the situation with the customer.
Then, I organized a meeting with the project team. I told the team that they did all
they have to do. I added in the meeting that, we, as project team, met our deadlines
and objectives. However, customer could not complete their acceptance tests on time.
Therefore, we will be postponing the project launch for one month. This made some
of the project team members upset because we were working hard to complete the
project on time but the project was postponed because of a customer-sourced delay.
Finally, I organized a meeting with executive management of the customer.
During the meeting, I told to the project sponsor and executive managers of the
customer that, customer acceptance tests are not complete yet. In addition, if we
launch the project, we might face critical problems on live environment and this can
cause dissatisfaction and lose of reputation. At the end of the meeting, executive
managers were agreed to wait till customer acceptance tests completion.
This answer shows that the project manager approaches to the failure
communication in a systematic way. First, he reports to his manager. If his
manager would not accept the situation or propose alternative ways with the
project team and customer, he could have changed the approach to the team and
customer respectively.
After getting the approval of the manager, he speaks with the team first and then
communicates to the customer respectively.

Question #7: How do you motivate project team?

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.
Following is a sample answer for 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 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 over performed 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, project manager candidate does not do only regular
celebration activities like milestone 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.
Question #8: Do you have outsource personnel or
supplier management experience?
Managing outsource personnel or supplier is a different project management skill.
If you are applying to a company that works with outsource 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 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
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 supplier of your project.

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 a SDP product expert. Therefore, we had to outsource two SDP product
experts for three months to work in 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 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.
Answer clearly shows the outsource and supplier management of the project
manager interview participant.

Question #9: Do you have international project

team management experience?
If the company you applied for is a multinational company, international project
team management will be a critical evaluation factor. You might not have this
experience. In this case, say no honestly.
This question might be followed by additional questions asking about how the
experience was and whether you have any strange story about your international
project team management experience.
Following can be a good answer for this project manager interview question.
I have managed a team of 15 project team members from five different nations. We
were working in a natural gas implementation project in Brazil. There were natural
gas engineers, environmental engineers and civil engineers in the project team. Five
members were from Brazil, three members were from UK, three members were
from Spain, two members were from India and two members were from Qatar. It
was a great experience to learn from different cultures when working with them.
It was the first time for me to work with project resources coming from a Muslim
country, Qatar. While most of the project team members were having Monday
syndrome, engineers from Qatar were performing better than other project team
members on Mondays! After some time, I asked these engineers why they are more
willing to work on Mondays. I learnt that, their official weekends are on Friday and
Saturday. Therefore, Sunday is their first weekday. Therefore, they were performing
better on Mondays in our project since it is 2nd day of their workweek. It was a strange
experience for me to see people better motivated on Mondays.
Project manager candidate answers the question with numbers through a real
project he managed. Besides, he gives a strange experience he faced with his
international project team management experience.

Question #10: How do you deal with gold plating

in your project?
This project manager interview question assess 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 project.

Following is a good answer for this project manager interview question.

When I am assigning a task to a project team member, I clearly define the KPIs,
requirements and scope of the task. Then, I work closely with the technical leaders
of the project whether the project team member is doing gold plating. We were
working for an e-commerce website development project in US. The requirement of
the customer was loading the homepage in less than three seconds across US.
Developer of the homepage was a very skilled resource. Although he completed the
homepage development before the deadline of the task and with a loading time less
than three seconds, he was trying to lower the homepage loading time. Project
technical noticed this during a weekly meeting and notified me about the situation.
Developer was a skilled and motivated resource. I had to speak with him but not
demotivate him. I called him for a coffee in a break. First, I appreciated his efforts
in the project. Then, I explained him what the gold plating is. After that, I have
expressed him that, we have a project scope to finish first and we have to deliver
what is required first. I told him that, If we deliver a website project with missing
web pages, this will be unacceptable. However, if we deliver a homepage with a
loading time less than three seconds, this will be accepted. Therefore, we need to
deliver what is required first before diving into optimizations. He understood me very
well and when he was performing his other activities; he did only the scope of his task
and then asked to get a new task.
This answer shows the knowledge of project manager candidate about gold plating
term. He also gives an example of gold plating in the project, and how he handled
gold plating in the project.

Question #11: You managed the project work as

per requirements. However, customer is not
happy with the result and does not accept the
product. How would you convince the customer?
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 in the
beginning of the project, 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, final stop of a
disagreement like this is 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 reach a
conclusion.
Following is a sample answer for this question.
At the end of my website development project, 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 telling that, their competitor has a
referral program that boosts sales. They need to have 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 customer referral program was not mentioned anywhere
in the requirements list, agreed project scope and in 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 that we can deliver this as a change
request in one month. 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. Customer accepted the proposal and we fixed this
conflict. After delivering the customer referral program feature one month later,
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.

Question #12: How do you deal with

underperforming project team members?
If you are an experienced professional, you might have worked with a demotivated
or underperforming colleague. The critical point for the project manager is, he or
she has to motivate all project resources to produce the most out of their capacity.
Project manager must motivate underperforming resources in a project.
This project manager interview question assesses your people management skills.
This question will show how you motivate your underperforming resources.

Following is a sample answer for this question.

When I see an underperforming resource, first, I observe him whether it is a one-time
issue or occurring frequently. Because, depending on the daily life, each person can
have fluctuating motivation level. If the project team member is underperforming
for a couple of weeks, I invite him to a coffee break. First, I ask  him how does he
feel about the project, whether he is happy to work in the project. Then, I ask him
whether there is anything demotivating him about the project, work or company. If
there is a problem with the project, work or company, I will try to find the root
cause of the problem and then I try to resolve the issue that is causing
demotivation. In some cases, demotivation can be because of the problems in daily
life of the project team members. In that case, if the team member tells about the
problem, I will do my best to help him.
A software developer in my banking project was performing very well. All of a
sudden, I noticed a decent drop in his performance. After one week passed, I talked
to him. I was thinking that he was demotivated because of recent promotion and
bonus announcements in the company. However, I learned that, he just broke up
with his long lasting girlfriend. It was a personal issue, however, I tried my best to
motivate him. I organized a couple of team lunches that all project team attends to
change his mood. After two or three weeks, he was performing well again.
Project manager candidate describes how he approaches to a demotivated project
team member step-by-step. Then, he gives an example from his project, which
makes his experience stronger in this project manager interview question.

Question #13: How do you resolve conflicts in

your projects?
Conflicts are inevitable in a project. A good project manager must be able to
resolve conflicts without hampering the motivation and relationship in the project
team. By its nature, conflicts seem to be resolved in favor of one side over another.
However, with good communication and conflict resolution skills, you can resolve
the conflicts in a win-win situation.
This project manager interview question assesses your conflict resolution and
communication management skills.
Following can be a good sample answer for this question.
I experienced several conflicts arising in my projects during my career. First thing to
look when a conflict arises is the source of conflict. Conflicts can be between two
project team members, between the team member and his lead, between two
stakeholders etc. After knowing the source of conflict, I look at the alternative
solutions to resolve the conflict. The best option to resolve a conflict is collaborating
where all parties are happy. Of course, I try to find a win-win situation first. If this is
not possible, then, I try to analyze the pros and cons of different alternatives for
resolving the conflict. I try to demonstrate the pros and cons of each resolution
alternative analytically because numbers, figures, statistics and mathematical
approach is the best way to convince people for a solution. After showing the
alternative solutions, I guide people to rethink about the conflict. I expect them to
reach a consensus. If this is not possible again, I try to solve the conflict with
democracy. For instance, if the cause of the conflict is a how to solve a technical
issue in a software project, I show the options to the project team and expect the
software developers to vote for the best option to resolve the conflict.
Project manager candidate approaches to solve the conflict in a win-win situation.
Then, he approaches to demonstrate different alternatives in a mathematical
approach. This is great. Because, if you can describe a solution mathematically
with statistics, numbers, figures etc. you will eliminate most of the arguments
about the topic. Then, he opens the conflict to voting. By this way, he ensures that
the majority will decide what will be the solution. He is not forcing or directing on
what needs to be done in the project.
Question #14: What are the three words that
describes you best?
This is actually a cliché interview question generally asked by human resources
personnel. This shows hints about your personality and how your colleagues think
about you in work environment.
When answering this project manager interview question, try to remember your
positive attitudes and what your colleagues say about your work behavior.

Following can be a good sample answer for this interview question.

The best three words that would describe me can be discipline, result-driven and
analytical thinker.
My colleagues call me German. I am not a German you know it J. They tell that I am
working in a very well discipline, record every detail and approach in a systematic
way to the problems in the project.
When I am working on a project or task, I always keep in mind that “what is the
expected result?” Sometimes, if you forget what you are trying to achieve, you can
deviate from your targets. Therefore, keeping in mind the expected results help me
to focus on what needs to be done during the project.
I try to rationalize status, progress and alternative solutions to a problem. I do this by
approaching analytically to a problem. For instance, I create dashboards for waiting
issues, waiting time, assignee etc in a project to monitor how well the project team is
resolving issues. Similarly, I record the number of codes each developer produces
a day to forecast remaining activities in the project.
Project manager candidate answers the three words that describe him best first.
Then, he gives examples and justifications for each word.

Question #15: Why should we hire you?

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 answer to this question. Interviewer must say,
“Wow, he knows what we exactly look for”.
For the best answer to this project manager interview question, you can search
about 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 for this question.
Following can be a good answer for 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 a 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 “home” button from IPhone and move the features of the “home” button to the
screen. My software project management experience in a screen company will be
very much beneficial for the projects in Apple. I will learn a lot from Apple culture
as well.
Project manager candidate highlights how he saw the position vacancy and why he
applied. Then, he clarifies why he matches to 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.

Question #16: Where do you see yourself in five

years?
A typical human resources interview question! This interview question assesses
whether you have a career plan and if it fits with the position.
For a project manager interview, you have to draw a career plan that fits to a
project management path.

Following can be a good answer for this interview question.

I have over nine years of experience. Last four years is project management
experience. I want to proceed my career as a project manager for the following
three years. Then, I would like to evaluate the further level of management position
opportunities, such as program manager or project manager opportunities, that will be
arising in the company.
I have PMP certification. I am planning to take ITIL foundation certification to
improve my IT service management skills and PSM-1 certification to improve
my agile project management skills.
I am pretty sure that project management experience in this company will add a lot to
my professional background.
Project manager candidate highlights that he will be proceeding his career as
project manager for the following three years. This is critical for an employer,
because each employer expects a candidate to stay in the position for at least two
years. Then, the project manager candidate adds that he is planning to get relevant
professional certifications to improve his project management skills.
Question #17: What is your current salary and
compensation package?
Be honest when you are responding to this question. Note that, human resources
departments of companies are very well aware of industry salary benchmarks.
Therefore, they will be able to estimate your salary and compensation package.
If you say a salary that is too much above the benchmark, you can even lose
the job opportunity. Because, there will be a limit of what the company can pay
for this position.
Briefly, tell what you earn and compensation package, when this question is asked
in your project manager interview.

Question #18: What is your salary expectation?

This is one of the last questions that you will be asked in your project manager
interview session. There is not a concrete answer for this question. However, the
common practice is, aim to increase your salary at least 20% in your next job.
Considering your current salary and compensation package, you should tell your
expectations. You should not say a salary and compensation expectation that is too
much above your current package.

Conclussion
We have tried to gather all questions that you will be asked (most probably) in
your project manager interview session. We have also provided sample answers to
each interview question. Note that, these are our recommendations and depending
on the industry and the position you applied for, answers for these project manager
interview questions can vary.
Before going to your interview, go through your resume and prepare your
own good examples from your project management experience for these
questions.
We have a 360 Degree Project Manager Mock Interview
program for professionals, like you, who are getting ready
for a project manager interview.

In this program, you send us your resume and details of the position you applied
for. Then, our expert project manager interviewer prepares customized questions
for you. You come together with the interviewer at the time you will select from
the available slots of our project manager interviewer. During the project manager
mock interview session, interviewer will ask you realistic questions that you will
be asked most likely in your real interview. Then, interviewer will be preparing a
detailed assessment report about your project manager mock interview
performance. In this report, you will see your strengths, improvement areas and
how well your background and skills match with the position that you applied for.
You can see a sample assessment report.

Let us help you sharpen your interview skills and give you a real hands-on
mock interview so you can get the job you deserve!

Enroll now in 360 Degree Project Manager Mock

Interview.
Author

Resit Gulec, MBA, PMP, ITIL has over 10 years of work experience. Resit worked
in 20+ countries, managed million dollar budget projects and several people. He
worked as engineer and manager in multinational companies including Alcatel-
Lucent and Ericsson. Resit trained 125,000+ professionals for PMP certification
exam since 2014. Resit is Founder & CEO of Master of Project Academy, and he
appeared in hundreds of media outlets including Yahoo Finance and Wall Street
Journal with his venture, Master of Project Academy.
Project Manager Interview Questions & Answers
Review by: Lewis Bailey
5 / 5 stars
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Project Charter: Do you know how to create the
ID card of the project?9 min. read
In one of the biggest project management knowledge areas or in other words, in
the project integration management, there are six processes. The first one is
“develop project charter process” and as the name suggests, it aims to produce the
project charter. Project charter includes the high-level project
information. Developing the project charter process is the first part of project
integration management processes, as stated in project management online courses.
Because, in order to authorize a project officially, project charter must be
produced. Project charter can be considered as the corporate identity of the project
in an organization.

Watch our “What is Project Charter – Benefits of the

Project Charter” video
In this article, we are going to define what a project charter is in a detailed way.
We will go through what should be included in the project charter and also,
what are the benefits of this important document in the project life cycle.
Further information about this process can be found in CAPM
certification training as well.

When the Project Charter is Created?

Since project charter authorizes the project in an organization, it provides
authority to Project Manager. Once a project initiation is decided, the project
sponsor is accountable for the creation of the project charter. And project manager
is assigned to a project as early as possible. Once project charter is produced, this
authorizes the project in the organization and gives authority to the project
manager to manage and coordinate project activities.
The output of the process is the Project Charter. The main purpose of the develop
project charter process is gathering relevant information about the
project and producing project charter respectively.

A Real Life Example of a Project Charter

Our sample project will be the Golden Gate Bridge construction project. Now let’s
see what should be included in the project charter:
Project Title and Description
The first thing that should appear in the project charter is Project Title and
Description. Project title and description should give a very brief information about
the project. Golden Gate Bridge is the title of this project.
For description, the following can be written: “The population of San Francisco is
increasing and the transportation needs between the two sides of the city increase
in proportion. Sea transportation cannot suffice for the need over the recent years.
This project will ease the transportation of vehicles between two sides of the city.”

Project manager of the project and his authority

They must be declared in the project charter. For the Golden Gate Bridge project,
John Winer has been assigned as the project manager. John Winer will be the
project manager of this project and he has the authority to determine the budget,
select the team members, and approve/reject the changes to project. Note that,
there may be several responsibilities of the project manager. At this part, only
high-level information about what the project manager can do with his initiative
must be listed.

Business Case
That is the reason for the initiation of the project is written in the project
charter.The business case of the project describes why is the project done and what
was the case that caused this project to be initiated. 
For instance, The Golden Gate Bridge project is done in order to solve the
transportation problem of San Francisco between two sides. After the project
completion, 80% of the vehicle transportation is expected to be done over the
bridge which will solve the transportation problem. While this is a business case,
there might be several cases for the initiation of the project. And business cases of
a project must be included in the project charter.

Resource requirements
Resource requirements of a project are planned during the planning phase of the
project and the final project team is acquired during project execution. However,
high-level resource estimation might be included in the project charter and if there
are already assigned resources to the project, these are listed in the charter as well.
For instance, Architects of the project are Gilbert Roberts and William Brown.
Head Construction Engineer is Henry Chor. Other resources will be determined by
the Project Manager.

Stakeholders
Stakeholders of a project are people or group who may be affected positively or
negatively by the outcomes of the project. Stakeholder management is a very
critical activity in a project. Expectations and requirements of the stakeholders
must be managed properly throughout the project. Especially powerful and
influencing stakeholders must be managed closely. Stakeholders of the project are
identified during initiation. However, as long as new stakeholders are identified in
next phases of the project, stakeholder list and stakeholder management strategy of
the project must be updated.

Some sample stakeholders of the Golden Gate Bridge project can be:

 Government. Since this is a major project affecting the whole country,

progress and outcomes of the project may affect the government. For
instance, if a few construction engineers die during construction, the
government may be criticized for the security preventions of the project and
this might affect their political power over the citizens.
 Residents who are residing close to the bridge area. Residents might be
affected during construction because of the noise, pollution etc. And after
 the project, their properties might gain additional value since they will be
close to the bridge. Or tenants might start to pay higher rental fees since the
value of the properties increased.
 Project Team is by default stakeholder of a project. Because they are the
performer of the project activities. Therefore, they will be directly affected
by the outcomes of the project.
 There can be several other stakeholders. We have just listed some
stakeholder examples for the project.

Stakeholder requirements
They must be listed in the project charter. Note that, there might be competing
requirements of different stakeholders. In that case, conflicts must be resolved and
agreed requirement must be taken into account. For instance, one stakeholder
might require 8 lanes in total in the project while another stakeholder asks for 6
lanes and additional lanes for pedestrians and bicycles. Since these two
requirements cannot be implemented at the same time, it must be discussed and
final requirement must be written.
Sample stakeholder requirements can be:

 The bridge will have 3+3 lanes and in total 6 lanes.

 Bridge must resist against 8.5 Richter earthquake
 Bridge Must carry 2.500.000 kilograms.
 There will be several other requirements of stakeholders in a project.

All of these should be included in the project charter.

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Product description and deliverables

Product description and deliverables of the project should be listed as well. For
instance, for our project example, Golden Gate Bridge is the end result or end
product of the project.
And some specifications of this product are:

 Height: 227 meters

 Width: 27 meters
 Two legs of the bridge must be completed in the first year.
 Of course, there are several other specifications of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Measurable project objectives

They are defined in the project charter as well. Project objectives define what
needs to be completed throughout the project in order to reach project’s goals.
Examples of the measurable project objectives can be:

 Opening a new transportation channel between two sides of the city.

 Ending the project in 3 years
 And Completing the project with 200m USD budget.

Project Approval Requirements

They must be listed in the project charter. What items need to be approved, and
who will sign-off the project is defined in the project charter? For instance,
Minister of Transportation will approve the Work Breakdown Structure of the
project. Final project approval will be determined by the committee constituted for
this project in Ministry of Transportation.And the final project will be approved by
Minister of Transportation on behalf of the Government. Additional acceptance
criteria might be listed in the project charter about payments, delivery conditions
etc.

High-level risks of the project

The risks do not mean only negative impacts to a project. There are positive and
negative risks. Positive risks are actually opportunities for the project while
negative risks are potential threats to the success of the project.
For instance, Bridge will connect the two sides of San Francisco which will
increase the geopolitical importance of San Francisco. This is an example of
opportunity or positive risk. Ease of vehicle transportation may cause to higher
usage of vehicles which can increase the air pollution. This is an example of Threat
or Negative Risk.

Project Sponsor Authorizing The Project

Note that, there might be several sponsors of the project. For instance, for the
Golden Gate Bridge example,

 Franklin Roosevelt, President of USA

 Angelo Joseph Rossi, Mayor of San Francisco
 And Joseph Strauss, Head of Golden Gate Project Committee can be the
sponsors who will be authorizing the project.

What Are The Benefits of the Project Charter?

We have seen what a project charter includes over our Golden Gate Bridge
Construction Project example. Now let’s go over the benefits of the project charter.
Without a project charter, Project Manager cannot be successful. Because the
project charter defines the fences of a project. It includes business case, major
stakeholders, what are the acceptance criteria, high-level risks, product
specification etc. This information plays a vital role in the beginning of
the planning process.
Project charter may be prepared by Project Manager but must be published by the
sponsor. Since project manager is assigned as early as possible in a project, the
project manager might prepare the project stakeholder in a project. But the
creation of the project charter is the accountability of the project
sponsor. However, in the real-world, project sponsor are very high-level people
like executive directors, vice presidents, CEOs etc. Therefore, preparation and
administration of project stakeholder might be done by the project manager.
However, the sponsor must publish once the charter is finalized.
The project charter is broad enough, therefore, there is no need to change
during project execution. As we have gone through, the project charter includes
very high-level information about the project. These are detailed throughout the
project planning in the project planning process group. But usually, there is no
need to go back to update the project charter after initiating phase.

Project Charter recognizes and authorizes the project. It includes high-level

information about the project and acts as the corporate identity of the project
in an organization.
Project charter gives project manager the authority to spend money and to commit
resources. After the project charter is approved, it is officially accepted by the
organization. Budget and resources planned for the project can be used after this
step.
High-level requirements of the project are defined in the project charter. This
constitutes a base for detailing the project requirements further during the planning
process.
And finally, project charter links the project to ongoing work of the
organization. There might be several projects in an organization. Project charter
outlines how the project will help in meeting strategic goals of the organization.
Therefore, depicts the link between the project and other works of the organization
respectively.

 
Project Charter
Review by: Clifford Caldwell
5 / 5 stars
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PMP Exam Pass Rate – Is 61% PMP Passing
Score Correct?9 min. read
Before going into the details of the PMP Exam pass rate, let’s briefly define
what PMP is. PMP is one of the most important and valuable certifications
for the project management profession. It is an industry-recognized
certification for people working in the project management field. PMP
certification may give you a higher salary than those without the PMP
certification. Thanks to the PMP certification, you can understand and
communicate the global language of project management with the other
professionals. It gives you the opportunity to connect with the community
of professionals, organizations and expert worldwide.
PMI seeks some PMP eligibility requirements from PMP candidates. PMP
candidates should satisfy PMI’s PMP certification requirements. Once you
satisfied the PMP exam requirements, you can apply for the PMP exam.
Compared to other certifications, PMP is harder to obtain and to pass the
exam you have to be more prepared. In this blog, we will describe all the
aspects of the PMP Exam Pass Rate.
After helping over 125,000 professionals in more than 180 countries with a
99.6% first attempt pass rate, we have prepared a seven-step PMP study
plan. Read this PMP study plan and create your own PMP prep plan
accordingly.

Various Aspects of the PMP Exam Pass Rate

Before answering the question about the aspects of the PMP pass rate, one
thing must be kept in mind: PMI doesn’t include much information about
PMP exam pass rate. Here is a list of things that PMI never disclose about
PMP exam pass rate:

1. The criteria related to PMP exam pass rate.

2.  The details of people passing the exam in the first attempt.
 3. How many questions will you get from which PMBOK knowledge
areas
4. If the exam questions are random or get selected according to your
answers.

Watch our “What is the PMP® Exam Passing Score and

PMP® Exam Pass Rate?” video