Mike Jacobsen

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MOST POPULAR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Civil Service Question Bank
Project Manager Question & Answer Sheet

Other interview questions that are similar

1. How do you handle difficult people?
2. Do you get along with everyone you work with?
3. What do you do if someone is not responding to your requests?
4. Have you ever needed to go ‘over someone’s head’ because they were not responsive to your requirements?
5. Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult coworker or team member. How did you handle the situation?
6. Can you share an example of a time when you had to resolve a conflict with a customer or client?
7. Have you ever had to persuade someone to support a decision they were initially opposed to? How did you go about doing it?
8. Tell me about a time when you had to change your approach or strategy to achieve a goal. How did you identify the need for change, and what steps did you take to implement it?
9. Describe a time when you had to manage multiple competing priorities or stakeholders. How did you prioritize your tasks and manage expectations?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

This is an extremely popular question so you need to make sure you have an answer prepared and ready.

This question tests you across a range of things. Firstly in the basics; do you know what a stakeholder is? Do you know their importance and can you analyse their needs and manage them adequately?

Further than that the question is asking for your experience in managing difficult stakeholders. Not every project is going to go smoothly and not everyone you meet will be open and supportive to your aims.

If you are in a professional working environment for any amount of time you will encounter difficult stakeholders. It is important that you are able to manage these stakeholders so that you can meet your goals and further the aspirations of your organisation.

How you will manage these difficult stakeholders is what the interviewer is interested in when they ask this question. Most stakeholders are not ‘difficult’ just for the sake of it:

• Some will be incredibly busy people who cannot devote the time you want
• Some will have been given different targets which your project will impact so they will not be excited about helping you
• …and of course some people are just awful people!

Your interviewer wants to see how you approach all of these types of people. And of course the best way to find out how someone will approach a scenario in the future is to look at how they have reacted to similar scenarios in the past and understand if they learned anything from the experience.

And that my friends is the crux of why we get asked this question.

The best approach to answering this question

As this is a “Tell me about a time” interview question your answer is going to need to include an example. The best answers will be detailed while also being concise. In order to achieve this the B-STAR technique should be used.

Let’s see how that would work in this question.

B – Belief – What are your thoughts / feelings / processes regarding the subject matter? – Here you should talk about how whenever you are facing difficulties with a stakeholder that you always seek to understand the issue first before engaging with the stakeholder, then you approach with empathy and attempt to resolve the issue to everyone’s benefit.

S – Situation – Set the scene of your example – This is an interview so you wont have all the time in the world to describe what was happening. Explain the situation briefly, leaving more time for the steps that you took. A good scenario to describe would be one where the stakeholder was being difficult due to outside pressures that you then helped to alleviate.

T – Task – What was your role in the situation? – Talk about what you had been tasked to do and how this stakeholder being difficult was impacting that. Ideally you will be in a project management or equivalent role where stakeholder management is one of your key responsibilities.

A – Activity – What did you do? – Lay out all the steps you took to manage this difficult stakeholder. Good answers will talk about how you investigated the issue to understand the concerns of all parties and then approached the stakeholder with empathy toward their point of view. In the end though you need to talk about the action you took to remediate the issue.

R – Result – How did everything end up? – This is an interview so it is best to talk about times in which you were successful in your endeavour. Good answers will talk about how the stakeholder’s concerns were removed and they were no longer difficult or a hinderance to your goals. Talk in this section about any lessons you may have learned for the next time you face a similar scenario.

How NOT to answer this question

Do not dismiss the premise of the question. It is quite easy to fall into the trap of saying that you have never worked with a difficult stakeholder before. Some candidates will say this thinking it shows how well they get along with everyone. But this will not endear you to the interviewer. There are difficult stakeholders in every workplace up and down the country. It is not a reflection on you that someone else is difficult, saying that you have never had to deal with someone like that is showing your inexperience.

Do not ‘steamroll’ the stakeholder. I’ve seen this time and time again in work settings and in interview settings. An ambitious PM looking to force their project through will smash through any barrier that comes their way. Mostly what happens is a stakeholder raises an objection and the PM will remove the stakeholder from the project or go above their head to report the stakeholder for creating obstacles. This is not the right way to approach these issues. A PM should try to understand the issue in the first instance and resolve with the stakeholder. Ignoring the issue and pushing ahead regardless is not a good answer.

Tell me about a time you have had to manage a difficult stakeholder – Example answers

The examples provided below can serve as a foundation for creating your unique answers. For additional inspiration, our new guide includes five sample responses to this question and over 100 answers to all of the most common interview queries.

Check out “INTERVIEW SUCCESS: How to answer 20 of the Most Popular Interview Questions (with over 100 sample answers!)”

Project Manager Example

“Difficult stakeholders are unavoidable when you have been in the industry for any amount of time. It is just one of those things that you need to be aware of, not everyone is going to be on the same page or have the same goals as you and you will need to handle these people appropriately in order to deliver on your goals.

Whenever I find someone being difficult or not giving me the level of support I require in my projects I tend to do 2 things. Firstly I make sure that I fully understand the issue and therefore my colleague’s concerns and secondly I approach my colleague to discuss potential remedies to get things back on track.

For example, recently I was working on a project that would automate a key data gathering task within the process. This task was performed by 2 teams within the organisation and the lead SME of the teams was assigned to my project.

After some time I found that the SME was not participating in project meetings and any actions they would pick up would go incomplete or be delivered very late.

I spoke to the rest of my team individually as well as some contacts I had in the wider department. I learned that there was a rumour going through the two teams that once the project was delivered that the organisation was going to fire the 2 teams as they would no longer be needed with the new automation process going live.

This was not true however. Our actual plan once we delivered the project was to train these colleagues on a different process where more resources were required. I approached my senior manager to discuss a change to our communication strategy so that a notice could be sent to all impacted parties.

Once the communication was confirmed I approached the SME to explain the situation and remind them that the project still required their 100% focus. Thereafter the SME was much more involved in meetings and all actions were delivered on time. The project ending up a success and the teams were successfully trained on the new project with no colleagues being let go.“

Sales Rep Example

“In my previous role as a sales representative, I managed relationships with key clients in the healthcare industry. One of our largest clients was becoming increasingly difficult to work with, as they were consistently requesting changes to our contract terms and were not receptive to our proposed solutions.

To address this, I reviewed the client’s contract and conducted research into their industry to better understand their needs and priorities. I then worked closely with our internal team, including legal and operations, to determine what changes we could make to the contract while still meeting our company’s needs.

I set up a meeting with the client to discuss their concerns and present our proposed solutions. During the meeting, I made sure to actively listen to their concerns and provide them with options that addressed their needs while still meeting our company’s objectives. I also kept the lines of communication open by providing regular updates and ensuring that both our team and the client were aligned on the changes being made to the contract.

As a result of these actions, we were able to successfully negotiate a new contract with the client that addressed their concerns while still meeting our company’s objectives. The client was satisfied with the changes and ultimately remained a loyal customer.

Through this experience, I learned the importance of active listening, research, and collaboration in stakeholder management, regardless of the role or industry.”

Marketing Coordinator Example

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank
Project Manager Question & Answer Sheet

Other interview questions that are similar

What does the beginning of the project look like to you?
How do you prepare at the start of a project?
What is the first stage of project delivery?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

This is a very popular question for junior and intermediate project managers.

The interviewer wants to see whether you know the PM theory and principles to know how a project should be opened, but they also want to see your experience in starting projects and what your approach is.

While there are best practices with regard to how to open a project, each project manager will have a different take on what works best for them. This is what the interviewer wants to see, whether your way of working is likely to excel in the organisation.

The best approach to answering this question

This is a blend of a technical and experience based question. The interviewer is not strictly asking you to provide an example (“Tell me about a time”) but your answer will always be stronger if you are able to highlight your experience in the area.

For this question the best approach to answering will be using a modified B-STAR answer.

Let’s look at how that would go:

B – Belief – Talk about your thoughts, feelings or philosophies regarding the question – In this instance you should answer the technical aspect to the question first. Detail how you usually start your projects, what do you like to get out of the way first, how do you prepare for success?

S/T – Situation/Task – What was going on and how were you involved? – Seamlessly segue from explaining how you normally start a project to describing an actual project that you were involved in.

A – Activity – What steps did you take and why? – Using the project described already run through the steps you took at the very beginning and explain why you took those actions.

R – Results – How did everything pan out in the end? – The interviewer has only really asked about how you start projects but since you’ve gone through all the effort of describing an actual project to them you may as well tell them how it finished (nobody likes an unfinished tale) remember though the bulk of your answer should be in the Activity stage.

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t sound like a textbook. The interviewer is not your teacher marking you on your project management essay, they will know full well what the supposed ‘best practices’ are for initiating a project. They are not interested in hearing that. They want to hear what you do first and why you think it important. Add some personality to your answer.

Don’t confuse the question. This is asking you what you do ‘first’. Not how you plan your projects or any other number of questions. Make sure your answer is directly about what you do first and why you feel that first step is the most important (or the one you give priority to out of all others)

Don’t avoid the question. If you’ve never worked a project in a professional setting then you need to go further afield, think outside the box. Think about volunteer work you have done, or some extra-curricular activities, have you ever organised a holiday with friends? Even a school project that you had to complete. Anything is better than saying “I have never done that”.

When you are given a new project what do you do first? – Example answer

The first thing I do when given a new project is to seek out the project sponsor and ensure that we are both on the same page. I prefer to do this face-to-face but will settle for a call or video conference if that is all that is available. I feel that at the start of a project it is crucial to make sure that nothing is lost in translation and that all expectations are clear.

In my current organisation the sponsor for most of my projects is the Chief Technology Officer. Just recently I was given a new project that would deploy a major upgrade to one of our core systems. I made sure that I caught a coffee meeting with the CTO so that we could discuss the project.

I enquired as to what the expectations were from both the business and from him personally. I find asking this is key as my CTO has higher expectations than the wider business so while the business was expecting delivery by the end of the year my CTO was expecting it much earlier.

Similarly with regard to quality and budget, the business had minimum quality requirements and a budget restraint. My CTO however had higher quality requirements and made me aware that the budget could be expanded if I needed it – something that was not in the project presentation provided by the business!

Finally I confirmed with the CTO which project members were available and made a mental note to which colleagues I had worked with before and which were new to me (for the new ones I tried to pry information from the CTO as to their skills and work style)

As far as first steps goes I feel like getting the project sponsor, in this case the CTO, to have a frank and open discussion as to the aims and expectations is the best thing to do. After my conversation with the CTO I was in a really good space to start my planning, with the next step being to bring the project members into the loop.

In the end we managed to deliver the upgrade within the timelines and meeting the quality expectations set by the CTO – something that might not have been given the proper attention had I not taken that first step.“

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

Other interview questions that are similar

Tell me about a time when you managed a project team of people from different areas of the business
Have you ever needed to form a new team to get the job done?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

Working Together is one of the core behaviours / competencies that is assessed when applying for jobs at the Civil Service. But it’s not just public sector jobs that will assess you on this, a lot of private sectors will as well. It probably won’t be called ‘Working Together’ when they ask but the questions will be similar. All about bring people together and working together to maximise output. Oftentimes cross-functionally.

With this particular question the interviewer wants to see that not only are you able to work cross-functionally but that you are capable of being the one that brings people together in the first place.

This means they want to know if you are able to understand the importance of bringing people together, whether you possess the people management skills required to facilitate working between different groups and finally they want to know if you have the experience of doing this before.

The best approach to answering this question

This is a ‘Tell me about a time’ question so your answer needs to use a relevant example. The best answers will follow the B-STAR method.

Here’s how that would look for this question:

B – Belief – What are your thoughts / feelings regarding people working cross-functionally. Talk about how you appreciate that some projects require different people with a range of skills and expertise and the best way you have found to get the most out of these people is to have them all work together, sharing ideas without any obstacles.

S – Situation – Describe the scenario to the interviewer. Remember that you only have a short amount of time to answer each question so ensure that you don’t get too involved in describing every minute detail of your example. High level descriptors only, if the interviewer wants to learn more they will ask follow-up questions at the end.

T – Task – What was your role in the situation? Take another look at the question, it says to talk about a time where you were responsible for bringing people together. So ensure that your role in the tale is correct and that you were the one in charge of setting up this cross functional team.

A – Activity – What steps did you take? Talk about how you first identified the need to bring people together, then talk about how you set about doing that.

R – Results – How did it all turn out? This is an interview so your example should have positive results that benefit the company. Try to mention how the result was a direct consequence of the team working together.

How NOT to answer this question

Do not have a passive role. It is not enough to have just worked together will people from different areas. This question is specifically about you bringing people together. Make sure your answer touches on how you sought out other people to work with for the betterment of your piece of work or project.

Do not talk about a failure. This is an interview, if you are allowed to boast at any time it is in an interview. You need to sell yourself to these people in order to land the job. It is much harder to do so if you give an example of a time that failed. Sure you might be able to spin the failure into a good learning experience and the interviewer might score that response highly. But it is much, much easier to score highly by giving a successful example.

Tell me about a time where you were responsible for bringing people together to work on a project or piece of work? – Example answer

“As a project manager I often have to deal with people from various areas of the business. At the start of every project I feel that it is important to have a range of differing expertises within the project team as I believe this produces a better environment for the fostering of ideas and eventually a better run project.

There was a project in my organisation recently which was established to deliver a new finance tool that would seek to automate some of the current manual functions being performed by the business.

I was asked to be the project manager on this project. In my first meeting with the project sponsor I advised that I would need to establish a cross-functional team to act as the project team.

The first step I took was to identify who I needed, I did this by examining the project scope and determining what expertises would be required and matching this to the expertises available within the organisation. I quickly realised that we were missing crucial team members so sought approval to being in vendors to fill the gap.

Once I had established all of my key players I produced a roles and responsibilities report so that all team members were aware of what was required by them, when it was required and who they could lean on for support.

I held daily stand-up meetings with the whole team so that any issues could be raised quickly and be resolved then and there. These meetings proved very useful in facilitating conversations between the various different business groups.

In the end the project was delivered successfully and the new automation tool reduced the process time by around 75% in the 3 months post-launch, a success I attribute in no small part to the smooth working of the team.

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)