I’m looking for examples of interviewing techniques for independent PMs. Obviously there are in-person and phone interviews but wonder if anyone has experienced or used other techniques to that would help determine true ability. Saving Changes...
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George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Heidi, first and foremost you need to define what “true ability” means for your organization, and probably for each project you’re searching a PM for: in one case it may have hundreds of interrelated activities so you need a good scheduler, in another case you may have a difficult client so you need excellent relationship building capabilities.
A good start would be PMI’s PMCDF 2nd Edition – it presents a framework of competencies considered by a large team of PMs from around the world as required to qualify as a “competent” project manager. I know of many companies that adapted it for the specific organizational particularities to use it as an assessment and improvement tool. In some of customizations and implementations I performed I also included a “project profile” defining the “baseline PM competence” based on project specifics. I would think it would be just a small step to also use it to define interview questions, or ask for sample evidences associated with the criteria measuring various competencies you’re looking for.
Hope it helps,
Heidi:
Andrew Makar posted several discussions and published a series of articles on this very topic late last year on this site. Do a search under his name.
You might want to consider requesting in your Request for Offer/ Statement of Work a series of questions designed for a candidate to answer to address specific competencies you are looking for. Also, this will help provide you with specific information up front normally buried in a resume. Also, situational questions in an interview will provide you with their leadership styles and soft skills competencies, approach and analysis skillsets and PM knowledge of tools and techniques used in various phases of a project. You will have to understand that there are many ways to approach a problem so there is no right answer; so the answer must be clearly the best answer to solve or mitigate the problem.
~Naomi Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Heidi, great post and replies. I would only add that as an interviewer the use of both closed and open-ended questioning can help you to find and help the applicant to provide a context to their abilities and keep the interview progressing positively. After the normal introductions and exchanges, you might segue into a discussion of areas of need that your organization has and what you are looking for in a candidate (true abilities) and ask the candidate if they possess the qualities that you are seeking (yes/no). Rather than listing every possible PM skill, prioritize the skills and capabilities that are most vital to you. Follow your closed ended question with an open-ended question and ask the candidate to provide a few examples that demonstrate that specific capability. And for the critical capabilities that you are looking for (not necessarily every capability), then ask the candidate a following closed-ended question such as if they can give you a reference to comment on the candidate's demonstrated abilities, etc. While such planned questioning may seem like an interrogation not an interview, it actually helps the candidate to best provide you with the information that you need, detailed, references that are pertinent and results in a win-win interview experience. Some interviewers talk a lot; others listen a lot. Either tendency is actually okay; the key is to control the flow of the interview to get the best possible information from and about the candidate so that you can make a make a preliminary assessment of fit as well as ranking per your prioritized PM capabilities amongst your other candidates. Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Hi Heidi,
Some of the questions I use (agreeing with Marc to use open and closed questions to obtain the full picture are)
- Can you elaborate on projects which became a huge success and you where the project manager
- Please describe the 2-3 biggests disaster projects in your career of which you were the pm? What have you learned from them?
- What is your favorable approach to turn a project around
