Voices on Project Management

Hi! I'm so pleased to join you on the Voices on Project Management blog! I works for best of breed technology companies around the world managing programs of change, projects, and people. My areas of expertise are talent management, building high performing teams, working globally, and changing cultures to adopt new ways of working like DevOps and Agile methodologies, and my blog entries will be sourced from YOUR questions on ProjectManagement.com.

The Questions forum on Project Management Central is a great place for you to ask questions on… almost everything! One of the recurring questions you have is around preparing for an interview – what types of questions should you expect; what type of interview formats do hiring managers use; and general tips and tricks to help you secure that next position in your career.  Over the next columns, we’ll be looking at industry advice as well as your comments and feedback. This week we are focusing on Types of Interview Formats:

“Is there really more than one type of interview format???” some people ask… “Surely its just people asking you questions and determining your fit for the role???”… “Be yourself”, the advice reads. “Be the person the company wants to hire” say others. How can you use the interview format to your advantage, and crucially, not be caught off guard when you walk into the room.

There are different interview formats depending on the stage of the interview process you are in. These interview formats are typically used at the beginning of the candidate selection process, instead of identifying the chosen candidate for the role.

Screening is an important step of a recruiter’s role. They want to ensure that candidates they are putting forward is a good fit for the role and the company. These screenings sometimes take place by email, and sometimes on the phone, lasting 15 -20 minutes. The downside of screening is that you might not have long to prepare, so fall back on your elevator pitch; your key successes and achievements; why you are right for this type of role; why you are right for this industry. Don’t be afraid to ask questions “why is the role available – is the business expanding or is this a replacement”; “what are the success factors associated with this role”, “how does this role fit into the organisation”

Sometimes you will match what the recruiter is looking for, sometimes you won’t. Don’t despair, as making a great impression here will add real value for your job search later on as the recruiter will likely have similar roles in future.

Telephone interviews are usually screening interviews with the company, instead of the recruiter. They will be focused on getting to shortlist of candidates to interview face to face, so the trick is to be on message. Do your homework on the company strategy, how the company is performing in their respective industry, and their recent news (big deals, reorganisations etc). Read the job profile very carefully, identifying what the real criteria are for the role – these items will be repeated in differently terminology  across the job spec – and practice your answers to likely questions, which could be competency based. Have questions you are ready to ask: “what metrics will define success for the role”; “is the project team centrally located or distributed across offices [in the country / in the world]”

Tip: Find the job posting on multiple sites (eg. LinkedIn, Monster) to help you identify those key criteria for the role. 

Tip: Don’t forget to get the names of who you speak to as they might be in subsequent interviews.

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These next interview formats are usually Face to Face. There will normally be two people interviewing you, and they will likely be asking the same questions for all interviews, and ranking you against other candidates they are seeing.

Competency Interviews, sometimes called Behavioural Interviews, are quite common and are designed to predict future behaviour based on past behaviours and experiences. This is why all questions start with “tell us a time when…” as the answer will inform the interviewer on your competency and your approach

Competency interviews are driven by the competencies required for the role. These will be listed in the role description, and can be identified in part by answers received to your questions in the screening and the telephone interviews.

Tip: Competency questions can focus on the good (“tell us a time when you built a successful team that…”) or bad “tell us about your worst project management experience and what you learned”. Be prepared for a negative competence question.

Panel Interviews will have multiple people attending the interview, sometimes dropping in for a section, to ask questions relevant to their area. They will introduce themselves and their role / role description will contain clues for what competencies they are particularly interested in. Have a question prepared on their area “what type of technology do you use for…” that will demonstrate that you understand their responsibility and role.

Presentation Interviews usually are a part of an existing interview. You will be given very clear instructions on the presentation, which might be intentionally vague. For example, the presentation might have a fixed length and an idea of a topic for you to interpret, or vice versa. My advice would be to follow  your intuition, but not to break any of the guidance. I once had a five minute presentation take 45 minutes, which meant there wasn’t enough time to run the rest of the interview. One of the competences was to communicate clearly and effectively, which definitely was not demonstrated with a 900% increase on time.

Assessment Centres & Group Interviews are ways for the company to review multiple candidates simultaneously, ranking them against one another. They are traditionally used when a number of roles are available, perhaps the creation of an entire department or area. Assessment Centres do exactly that – they assess your competence and capabilities across a range of activities. These activities can be team based (to measure how well you get on with others), or individual one on one and are usually a mix of the two. In assessment centres, my recommendation is to be the best version of yourself, relying on the preparation you’ve done for the telephone interview, and refining your elevator pitch, key competencies and experiences based on the answers.

Also prepare answers to competency based questions “tell us about a time that…” based on the criteria you’ve identified from the job spec.

Note that in Group Interviews, you will be in a single interview with multiple candidates. Ensure you get enough “airtime”

Role Play Interviews are rare but do sometimes happen in project management roles. This will be to assess your competency deeply in a single area or network of competencies.  There will be a script which may be given to you to prepare answers from.

That wraps up the types of interview formats you can expect to encounter in your job search, and I hope you found it helpful. Next time we will focus on how to prepare for interview questions; and tips and tricks. Share your tips and your experiences in the comments below.

See you next time!