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Interviewing for a high-visibility project internally or a new opportunity outside your company can be nerve-wracking. Using mind-mapping techniques to organize your introduction, elevator speech, key experiences and follow-up questions can help you prepare. Here’s a primer for a typical 30-minute interview.
As project managers, we are often looking for the next available project as the current project closes. Regardless if you’re seeking a new position in the market or the next internal high-visibility project, interviews are a common occurrence in the project management domain. Understandably, senior management and perspective employers want to “audition” and approve the project manager before handing over a multi-million dollar program or project.
Preparing for an interview is a nerve-wracking experience. You know everything you say and do is being evaluated. You are concerned about your appearance, making a good first impression, responding with articulate answers, and hoping you’re providing sufficient detail without overwhelming the hiring manager about past project nuances, acronyms and tidbits. The amount of preparation may vary depending on your risk tolerance, interview skills and the job importance. Some project managers can simply walk into an interview with little or no preparation and describe their qualifications like a recap of last night’s American Idol performance. Others spend a few hours updating their resumes, making notes, and even rehearsing for the interview. I’ve always been a fan of preparation, although usually five minutes before the interview, I’m reviewing my resume and comments frantically thinking I forgot something. After all, I wanted to be prepared for any possible question with the perfect answer.
Jim Hoover, one of my former managers, helped reduce my pre-interview jitters by describing an approach for any interview. I applied his approach and, ever since, interviewing has been as easy as holding a casual conversation. I also applied a mind map format to his approach and now I can quickly pull out a single sheet of paper, perform a quick review of key thoughts and experiences, and relax knowing I’m prepared for the interview.
The Approach
The approach is designed for a 30-minute interview, although it can be applied to longer interview sessions. It is important to remember the key points you want to communicate in addition to answering the interview questions.
Introduction (5 minutes)
The introduction is a lot more than a greeting while looking the hiring manager in the eye with a firm handshake. Onsite office interviews are often scheduled in-between meetings during a manager’s free time. Often, the interviewer may be a few minutes late or generally unprepared to start the interview. This is an excellent opportunity for you to direct the discussion with a brief summary of your background.
During the introduction, you want to recite your prepared “elevator speech” that summarizes your background and qualifications. For example, “I’m a PMP-certified program manager with over 12 years experience implementing large scale ERP implementations in human resource and finance functions. Over the past three years, I’ve established PMOs for enterprise programs in both software development and infrastructure management organizations.”
I’ve used this approach several times when the interviewers struggled at initiating the interview questions. It is an effective approach to demonstrate initiative and confidence in the interview.
Position Overview (5-10 minutes)
The next five to ten minutes the interviewers will typically provide a brief overview of the project. Depending on the dialogue, the interviewers may go into additional detail before asking key questions. You want to apply your listening skills because the next series of questions will try to determine how well your background fits the project.
For each of the next three questions, you’ll want to apply the STAR formula: Situation, Task, Action, Result. For every interview question, respond with a description of the situation, summary of assigned tasks, key actions performed, and the action’s results. Don’t overlook the Result variable of the formula. People often do a good job describing the project and actions taken, but fail to mention the positive results of their actions.
Relevant Experience (5 minutes)
After the project overview, the interviewers will likely ask about your experience as it relates to the project. Assuming you know a little about the project, you can reflect on your experiences and find a related example. If the project management position interfaces directly with clients or business customers, you’ll want to highlight past experiences demonstrating how you connected with customers for effective delivery.
Technical Skills (5 minutes)
The title of “project manager” is often bestowed upon anyone in a leadership position despite their lack of technical project management knowledge. The technical project management question is intended to determine if you really know the science and not just the art of project management. This is an opportunity to highlight your technical experience performing critical chain analysis, calculating earned value, or resource leveling a project schedule.
Soft Skills (5 minutes)
The soft skill question is usually asked to test a project manager’s team management skills and overall leadership behaviors. Look at your experiences and recall examples of conflict resolution, issue management, managing customer’s expectations, and team building. You’ll notice this technique focuses on experiences and not specific positions. Citing experiences from multiple positions is an effective technique to demonstrate breadth.
Wrap Up (5 minutes)
The last five minutes of the interview is your opportunity to ask any questions and inquire on next steps. Remember to reiterate your interest in the position and ask if there is anything else that requires further clarification.
Once you understand the basic interview format, there shouldn’t be too much to worry about. In a 30-minute interview, you’re controlling one-third of the discussion. You know at least one question will be related to the position and the other questions will address your project management background. The format should help remove any nervousness about potential interview questions.
Longer interviews will likely follow a similar format. The PMBOK is also an effective resource to map experiences to potential questions. Scope management, risk management, integration management, financial management and other PMBOK sections are excellent areas for interview questions. Review your experiences and map your professional history against the PMBOK.
The Mind Map
Organizing your thoughts in preparation for the interview can produce a combination of scribbles, scrawls and Post-It sticky notes all over your resume. Using a mind map to document your introduction, elevator speech, key experiences and questions will help you prepare for the interview. Here’s a sample interview mind map:
The basic format of the mind map includes a section for interviewer information, company or project background, your introduction, elevator speech, and recent position summary. Additional topic nodes include a summary of technical management experiences and situational project management experiences. Each example branches into the STAR formula of Situation, Task, Action and Result. The format is simply a guideline. Expand the mind map for the key elements that fit your background and style. The mind map is a quick and easy tool to prepare for an interview. Using the prescribed format and the mind map tool may not remove all pre-interview jitters, but it will help you prepare for a competent discussion. Since the mind map fits on one sheet of paper, you can quickly review your notes a few minutes before the interview and feel relaxed knowing you’re well prepared for a successful discussion.
This article was written by Andy Makar and originally published at http://www.projectsatwork.com
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