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Interview Question: What are your three biggest strengths? – Answer Tips

November 7, 2022 by Mike Jacobsen

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What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

There are probably an infinite number of questions that the interviewer could ask you on the day. Some questions are incredibly common appearing in almost every interview you will have, while other questions you might hear once and never again regardless of how many jobs you apply for.

Fundamentally though all interview questions are really trying to find out one of 3 things:

1 – Can you do the job? (Do you have the skills/experience needed?)
2 – Will you do the job? (Do you have the drive/motivation to get the job done?)
3 – Will you fit in? (Does your personality match the workplace culture? Are you likeable?)

That’s it. Those are the 3 things that the interviewer is trying to ascertain. Every question that is asked of you will fundamentally be trying to resolve one (or more) of these 3 things.

This is a relatively straight forward question. And it is obvious that the interviewer is trying to find out No. 1 above – “Can you do the job?”

There’s no real hidden agenda at play. The interviewer simply wants to know where you believe your strengths lie.

The interviewer will be coming into the interview knowing exactly what their team/organisation need. What experience or skill set is missing from their current employee base. They are looking to see if your strengths will marry up well with what they are looking for.

The interviewer will have your CV so they will know exactly what you’ve done, but they want to know in your own words what areas of the job you excel in.

The best approach to answering this question

This is an interview so there is no point being modest. The best answers will briefly discuss how you believe that you have a quite varied skill set and a possess a great many strengths that are applicable to the role before drilling down into 3 that you believe to be your best.

This is not a story based question (like a ‘Tell me about a time‘ question) where the interviewer is expecting you to walk them through one of your experiences (where the B-STAR technique is the correct approach)

No for this question the ideal approach is to list all 3 strengths and then in turn go into further detail about why you feel that you possess each strength and how you are able to use that strength in your current role (the best answers will also relate this strength to the role that is being discussed).

How NOT to answer this question

Do not avoid the question. – This question is about your strengths. Ensure that is the question you answer. I have seen people take this question all sorts of ways; ranging from candidates just rehashing their experience without mentioning what it was they were good at, to someone who actually talked about what areas she thought she was weakest in. Keep it straight forward. The interviewer asked for strengths, give them some strengths.

Do not be overly modest. – It’s an interview, you are allowed, – nay – required, to sell yourself. Blow your own horn and share with the interviewer what your skills are. Being modest here will just mean that you do not get the job.

Do not give a one-sentence answer. – Just listing off 3 strengths will not get you far with this question. You need to explain to the interviewer why you feel this is one of your strengths, linking back to your previous experience and trying to tie that in to how you would use this strength in your future role.

BIGGEST STRENGTHS – Example answer

“As you can see from my CV I have a great deal of experience in a wide range of roles. This experience has afforded me the opportunity to considerably grow my skill set over the years to the point that now I believe I possess a great many strengths that can be applied to excelling in this role.

You asked for my 3 biggest. I think my 3 biggest strengths are my problem solving abilities, my communication skills and my industry knowledge.

The first of these strengths I wish to discuss is my industry knowledge. I have been working in this area for my full career, working all across the spectrum in various roles. I believe this puts me firmly in the Expert category when it comes to our sector, I will bring this knowledge into every project I work.

My 2nd biggest strength is my communication skills. After 3 years of sales experience I have no problem building rapport and in creating instant connections with stakeholders of any level. I have created long lasting relationships with customers, suppliers and all levels of management. If I were to join X company not only would I seek to make a great first impression to all my new stakeholders I would also seek to tap into my existing network for the betterment of the organisation.

The last strength I wish to discuss may sound a bit cliche but I do think it is my strongest area. I am able to quickly and efficiently solve problems as they land on my desk. In my last role this came in handy during COVID when we were working remotely with a reduced workforce, everything needed to be completed quickly but without sacrificing quality. I can use these skills to aid in projects that have tight turnaround times or that require ‘thinking on your feet’.“

Interview Question: How Do You Assess And Monitor Risk Within A Project? – Answer Tips

August 3, 2022 by Mike Jacobsen

Question forms part of

Project Manager Question & Answer Sheet

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

Bread and butter project based question this one is.

This is a question you will find in a lot of junior or graduate positions. Once you move into a more intermediate or senior project management role you can expect a lot fewer textbook questions like this. However do be prepared for the question anyway as it could be the case that the interviewer asks the question with a slight twist (e.g. “Tell me about a time risk was not adequately scoped…”).

So what is the interviewer looking for exactly here? Basically do you know your stuff. Do you understand the principles of project management and can you explain that back to the interviewer to show that you appreciate the importance of Risk Assessment and Monitoring within a project.

As simple as that.

The best approach to answering this question

As mentioned this is a fairly textbook question and should prove no issue if you have the required knowledge or qualifications. If you do not have any formal education in project management it might be worth reading the PMBOK prior to your interview just to get yourself accustomed to some of the terminology.

While this is a ‘textbook question’ that does not mean you should give a ‘textbook answer’. The best answers will expand on the textbook answer by providing your insights and backing up your answer with relevant examples from your experience.

How NOT to answer this question

Do not say you have no experience. This question is not asking you to explain your history with projects and how you have assessed and monitored risk in the past. This question can be answered easily in the hypothetical. Even if you have no experience in the subject matter at hand talk about how you would approach risk in a future project.

Do not say you do not manage risk. Whenever an interviewer asks you “How do you…”, it is never a good idea to say you don’t do what they were asking about. The interviewer is clearly asking the question in that manner as it is expected for you do what is being asked. In this instance managing risk is a fundamental part of the project management process and saying that you do not think about risk during a project will not be taken well by the interviewer.

How Do You Assess And Monitor Risk Within A Project? – Example answer

“Managing risk is one of the most important tasks that I undertake as a project manager. It is crucial to success that risks are appropriately identified, assessed and monitored throughout the project lifecycle.

In order to achieve this one of the first project artefacts that I create when forming a new project is the RAID log. Within this log I record all potential risks to the project (as identified by the project team and stakeholders).

Within the log risks are assessed as to the likelihood and severity and an appropriate plan is put in place, usually looking to reduce or eliminate the risk or to mitigate the impacts should the risk crystallise.

Within the log I include a date for review. When this date comes around the item is re-examined to determine if all the underlying logic still holds true.

I have found that the on-going monitoring of the risks is the most difficult to get people engaged with. It is easy to explain the need for the initial session but slightly more persuading is needed to get people involved in continually updating the risks.“

Interview Question: What would you do if a Stakeholder approached you with a change midway through a project? – Answer Tips

July 2, 2022 by Mike Jacobsen

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank
Project Manager Question & Answer Sheet

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

This is a fairly typical PM question. You can expect this question to be asked if you are applying for Junior Project Manager or Business Analyst roles, you are less likely to receive this question if you are in other project support functions but it is a possibility. Similarly you are not likely to get this question if you have a large amount of project experience and are going for more senior positions with more responsibility.

The interviewer is looking for 2 things when asking this question:

Are you aware of the best practices with regard to Change Management within a project? Do you understand the difference between Agile and Waterfall projects when it comes to making changes midway through a project, and can you articulate the differences when prompted?
Given 1. above how do you communicate with stakeholders?

The first thing the interviewer is looking for is a fairly ‘by the book’ response. Change Management is a fairly defined process and this should not cause any issues for anyone who has studied Project Management previously. The second part of the question is more about you and your stakeholder management skills. This part of the question is not ‘by the book’ and should allow you the opportunity to describe your communication style – and hopefully differentiate you from the other candidates.

The best approach to answering this question

The best approach to this question will hit on the 2 key points raised above.

Firstly describe how if it was one of your projects, that there would be a defined change management process in place. This process should have been approved by the client/customer, supplier, project team and all relevant stakeholders.

Once you have gone over that you can now talk through how you would remind the stakeholder of this change process and offer to walk them through getting their Change Request submitted for review by the project team. The best candidates will weave into the response an example from their prior experience. Talk about a project that you recently led that had a change request come up right in the middle (Use the B-STAR technique)

Make sure that you are prepared for follow-up questions such as:

What would you do if there was no defined change process?
What would you do if the stakeholder in question held great authority over the project?
What if the change that was raised is considered a show stopper?

Finally ensure that you make the interviewer aware that you are answering the question assuming a waterfall approach was undertook. If the project was being ran using Agile methodologies talk about how the change would be looked at and prioritised immediately and adjustments made to the sprint plans and backlog catalogue.

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t refuse the change point blank. There are well defined processes for how to handle changes within all project methodologies. Flat out saying NO is not in any of them. Talk about how you worked with the stakeholder and guided them through the previously agreed process.

Don’t just accept the change without review. Similar to above, there is a process for change management. This process should have been approved prior to the project initiation. Do not just say that you would accept any changes, mention how you would put the CR through the defined process and go with the decision that is produced.

Don’t just give an example. Weaving an example into your answer is what separates a good answer from a great answer. However you still need to describe the theory behind your answer. You need to explain and detail how you are aware of proper project management processes only then can you show that you have real world experience with an example. Otherwise the interviewer may not be assured that you know the process or if the example was just a fluke.

What would you do if a Stakeholder approached you with a change midway through a project? – Example answer

“If this was one of my projects then there would be a clearly defined change request process that should be followed for all requests. This will have been discussed with all stakeholders and approved by all. Given this I would speak to the stakeholder in question and guide them through the Change Request process so that their request could be reviewed and actioned if necessary.

When these type of requests occur I find it best to gently remind the stakeholder that there was a process agreed at the beginning of the project and to remind them of that process and how changes are reviewed and progressed. I had a similar request recently where a senior stakeholder wanted to increase the scope of the software product we were deploying in a month’s time, the stakeholder reached out to me directly and requested it was added for the first release. I gently reminded my colleague that all change requests needed to be raised to the CR portal and would be triaged by a member of the project team, as his change was above the agreed small change limit it would need to be approved by the Change Board. The colleague was content with this and progressed his item through the proper channels were the request was approved for deployment in second release.

Of course this all assumes that the project was being deployed using waterfall methodologies, if we were following a more agile approach the change request would have been prioritised and added to the sprint plan where appropriate.“

Interview Question: What new skills do you hope to learn over the next 6 months? – Answer Tips

June 9, 2022 by Mike Jacobsen

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

Developing Self and Others is one of the key behaviours that the UK Civil Service looks for when recruiting staff. Even if you are not going in for a Civil Service position this is still a question that might arise.

The interviewer is looking to see if you are interested in personal development and this idea of continuous improvement. If we are not looking to improve as individuals and as an organisation then sooner or later someone will come along and take our place.

That is why the interviewer wants to know what you are planning on learning in the next 6 months. They want to see whether you will help with their plans to improve and evolve as an organisation.

The interviewer is also looking to see if you can provide an unbiased assessment of your current abilities. This question gives you the opportunity to talk about your current skill level and areas in which you wish to strengthen.

The best approach to answering this question

The interviewer is looking to see if you value personal improvement as it relates to professional development. Let’s make sure we answer that.

This isn’t a question that is suited to a direct application of the B-STAR technique. What you want to do instead is modify the technique a bit like so:

B – Belief – As we discussed above you want to start your answer off by discussing how you feel continuous learning is vital for individuals and organisations to grow. Say how you always feel there is more to learn and are always looking for ways to better yourself and your work.

S / T – Situation / Task – Move on to talking about what you feel is important for you to learn in the next 6 months. This should be directly lifted from what you know to be important to the company and to the role you are looking to move into. For example if a particular process or methodology is used by your potential new employer talk about how you wish to learn more about it and become an advanced user (be careful that you show that you have the required knowledge but you want to learn more as it will aid you in your role).

A – Activity – Talk about how you intend to complete this learning. Are there qualifications available that you could take. This could also be a good segue into asking the employer what training they offer within the organisation (or circle back to this point at the end when it is time for your questions).

R – Results – Round out your answer by discussing how you think learning this new skill will create better results for you and your organisation.

How NOT to answer this question

Do not lie. There will more than likely be follow-up questions so you need to ensure you are actually interested in learning this new skill otherwise your answers to the follow-up questions will sound empty and fake.
Do not oversell yourself. Don’t portray yourself as an intermediate looking to progress to advanced or expert skill level when you are actually a beginner looking to advance to intermediate. As discussed above there is going to be follow-up questions and you will look foolish when you struggle to answer intermediate level questions
Do not say that you don’t need to learn any new skills. This just reeks of overconfidence and will not endear you to the interviewer.
Do not talk about non-work skills as the main part of your answer. The interviewer is looking to see how you perform at work today and how you will perform at work in 6 months time. Is the company making a smart investment by hiring you? Going on for 5 minutes about how you are learning the trombone is unlikely to help the interviewer answer this question (outside of some trombone specific roles I suppose). On the other hand do not be afraid to slip in some new extra-curricular skills that you are learning, it will show that you do mean it when you say you always seek to learn new things, just don’t make it the core of your answer.

What new skills do you hope to learn over the next 6 months? – Example answer

“I am always looking to learn new things. I believe that once we stop learning we stop growing, both as individuals and as a business. Sooner or later someone will come along and overtake us. That’s why I always keep my ear to ground, as it were, and make sure I am always up to date with all the latest advancements in my area.

Within the change and project space I can see the shift to Agile methodologies growing even further and reaching into industries and firms that would previous move at glacial speed using Waterfall projects. My previous role at a Top 4 Bank showed me that even in a traditionally cautious moving firm they were slowly adopting to more agile mindsets, that is where I was working when I studied for, and attained, my PRINCE2 Agile qualification.

For me in the next 6 months I wish to expand my knowledge further from this qualification and undertake learning for the Certified Scrum Product Owner qualification. While I have been a Product Owner in my previous role I believe formal training will allow me to further develop my understanding of the role.

I think by learning more about the Product Owner position I will be able to further enhance this organisation’s release strategy and hopefully open up further progression opportunities for myself within the firm when the time comes (assuming I get the role of course!).

After Product Owner I think I will want to get further acquainted with Programme and Portfolio management skills, but let’s just take it 6 months at a time for now.

Interview Question: How do you ensure that you have considered all stakeholder needs when undertaking a new initiative? – Answer Tips

June 3, 2022 by Mike Jacobsen

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

Stakeholder management is an important part of working in an organisation. ‘Seeing the big picture’ is what the Civil Service calls it. It means that not only are you interested in how you perform in your role and function but that you are aware of how your work impacts others within the organisation, and the organisation itself.

The interviewer is looking to see a few things:

Do you appreciate the importance of stakeholder input in your work?
Are you capable of assessing who is a stakeholder and who is not?
How do you approach stakeholders to get their input?
What is your communication strategy for keeping stakeholders ‘in the loop’?

This is a pretty standard question particularly in project based positions. Stakeholder management is a key project management skill and you should be well versed in how to answer this question as the interviewer will be expecting strong knowledge in this area.

The best approach to answering this question

This is a technical based question so you don’t need to provide an answer with an example from your experience, however if you are able to including examples in your answer this will definitely be a plus. We can’t use the standard B-STAR technique here but we can take some parts of it to form our answer.

If you are interviewing for a project position it is crucial during your answer that you discuss completing a RACI Matrix, or equivalent. If you are unfamiliar with this term then get familiar quick.

B – Belief – Start your answer stating how you believe stakeholder input is crucial to the smooth operation of a workstream or project. Talk about how you need to know how your work impacts others in order to get the maximum benefits for the organisation.

T – Task – Briefly state what your role usually is. Ideally you will talk about how Stakeholder analysis and management is your role and you oversee and ensure it is performed correctly.

A – Activity – Talk about what steps you take to ensure stakeholder needs are met. Try not to sound like you’re reading straight from a textbook but talk about how you usually; gather a list of relevant stakeholders (and stakeholder advocates), complete a RACI matrix to define responsibilities and finally how you create and maintain a communication strategy document.

R – Results – Wrap up your answer by saying when you follow the steps above you have never had a stakeholder complain about their needs not being met.

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t answer a different question than what is being asked – In my experience applicants have a tendency to go off-road with this question. There is a popular related question “How do you deal with difficult stakeholders”, people tend to answer that question instead of the one that was actually asked of them. Ensure your answers stick to what is being asked and that is about meeting stakeholder needs

Don’t just give one example – As mentioned earlier this is not a ‘Tell me about a time’ question. The interviewer is looking to see your process for meeting stakeholders needs. It’s fine to talk about a specific example but make sure you really hammer home to the interviewer that this is how you operate all of the time.

Don’t say you don’t do that or don’t have experience in that area – You would think this would be obvious but the amount of applicants I have seen give answers like “I don’t need to check on stakeholders in my role we just tell them what has changed” or “I have no experience dealing with stakeholders”. Stakeholders are important to projects and workstreams as they provide alternative viewpoints, you may not value their importance but the interview sure does that is why they are asking the question.

How do you ensure that you have considered all stakeholder needs when undertaking a new initiative? – Example answer

“I think getting input from stakeholders is crucial when undertaking any new initiatives. As a project manager I am often asked to lead projects in areas that I have no experience, and even if I am leading a project where I know the subject matter well it is always good to get a diverse range of thoughts on the project and its deliverables. After all ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’.

That’s why whenever I start a new project I complete a full stakeholder analysis. This begins with a deep dive session to identify everyone that will be impacted by the project, both during delivery and with the end result.

The next step is to produce a key stakeholder list. For example in a recent project I managed we had deduced that the finance department would be stakeholders, but it would have been irresponsible to include every member of the department in our communications so we consulted with the Finance Chief and assigned one key stakeholder for the department (and one backup). We did the same or similar for all the stakeholders previously identified. If we came to a stakeholder group that we couldn’t feasibly include then we assigned an advocate. In the same project our PMO analyst would act as a representative for the customer (as she actually was a customer!).

Once I have finalised this list of key stakeholders I formalise everything by creating a RACI matrix and a communication strategy. This way we have all of the stakeholders listed, their responsibilities toward the project and how/when they will be contacted with updates. This is approved by each stakeholder.

Overall when these steps have been followed correctly I have never had a complaint from a stakeholder to say that they felt their needs were not being met.

Interview Question: Learn Something New – Answer Tips

April 6, 2022 by Mike Jacobsen

Tell me about a new skill or qualification you have learned over the last 6 months?

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

What the interviewer is looking for when asking this question

This is an extremely popular question – particularly in public service roles like the Civil Service – so you should make sure you have a good answer ready. And make sure you are ready to answer any questions about what it is you were learning or upskilling in (which you will have no trouble with I’m sure since you recently)

When asking this question the interviewer is keen to understand if you are someone who will go out of their way to learn something new if it will help you perform your role.

The interviewer is also trying to gauge how well you can learn something new. It’s not enough to just be willing to learn something new but you need to be able to show that you can learn new skills and new technologies quickly.

This is especially important when you are moving into a new organisation. There are a number of technologies that are ubiquitous (Microsoft Office) but every organisation will have its own software suite that you will be expected to learn very quickly.

The best approach to answering this question

Obviously the best approach is to tell the interviewer what you have learned recently!

Always have a few things in your mind for this question as there are a number of different ways it could be asked:

Tell me about something you have learned in the past 6 months
Tell me about something you have learned in a previous role
Tell me about something you are learning now
Tell me about something you think you will need to learn for this role

See how each question is fundamentally the same but over different timelines. If you go in with how you learned SQL for a previous role and the question actually asks about what you are learning now then you will be stuck.

A good thing to do is to say you enhanced your knowledge on something that is in the job description/advert. Mention how you had been using the software/tool/skill for a while in your current role but you felt that you were not getting the most out of it so took on formal learning to round out your knowledge.

The interviewer will always have follow-up questions. So prepare yourself for questions in relation to the thing you learned. For example if you learned new project management techniques the interviewer might ask you which one you use the most. Or if you learned a new programming language the interviewer may ask which language is your favourite to code in and why.

Things like that. So whatever new skill or technology or process you learn make sure you can, and are ready to, answer detailed follow-up questions.

How NOT to answer this question

“I haven’t learned anything new recently, my current role doesn’t allow me any extra time to take on new skills and there is no real need to as my job doesn’t change”

Don’t say this. Even if it is true that you have no free time at all the interviewer will not look favorably on an answer like that.

If you are in a job that ‘doesn’t change’ you could talk about how you learned a new skill that would make the job faster.

“A new IT system was deployed in work and all of us in the office were required to get certified in how to use it. We went to a training seminar and there was a test at the end. I am good with computers so it was no problem for me”

This is another example of a pretty poor answer. While yes, technically, the interviewee has shown that they are capable of learning new things the answer doesn’t show much enthusiasm for development. The scenario in question was thrust upon the interviewee and they didn’t really have much choice in whether to take part.

The final remark about being good with computers comes across as flippant. It also is pretty vague. What part of computers is the interviewee good at?

“Tell me about a new skill or qualification you have learned over the last 6 months?” – Example Answer

“In my current role I use Microsoft Projects extensively for scheduling tasks when working with certain clients. A few months ago I learned that one of our newer clients used Primavera as their preferred PM tool.

Even though the new firm were content that we continue to use Microsoft Projects I thought it would be best to upskill myself on Primavera so that I at least could understand what the client was used to versus what we would be providing.

I started by following some courses on LinkedIn and eventually I asked my employer if they would support me in attaining the certification – which they did.

I passed the qualification on the first go and was able to successfully amend our MS Project reports so that they more closely resembled what the client was used to”

This is a decent answer for a few reasons:

1 – The interviewee was proactive in seeking out opportunities to learn. They seen that there might be a gap in the service quality they could provide their new client and immediately looked at ways to fill it.

2 – The interviewee embarked on the learning on their own and only came to their employer once they were ready to be certified.

3 – They managed to slip in how they passed on their first go without sounding too big headed (it’s ok to be a little big headed during an interview though)

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