51 Project Manager Interview Questions: Answers & Tips
Craft Your Career Story: Frame your career journey as a natural fit for the role, showing how your goals and experiences align perfectly with the opportunity.
Prove You’re a Team Player: Demonstrate your ethical mindset and cultural fit by sharing examples of how you’ve handled tough situations and team dynamics with professionalism.
Geek Out on Digital Trends: Let your passion for digital project management shine! Talk about the latest tools, trends, and side projects to show you’re invested beyond the job description.
Highlight Your Leadership Style: Showcase your unique working style with real examples, proving that you’re organized, detail-oriented, and a skilled problem-solver.
Turn Experience into Impact: Highlight your project management successes with numbers and tailor examples to the company’s needs—making it clear that you’re ready to make a difference.
Landing a project manager interview is exciting—but it can also be nerve-wracking. What kinds of questions can you expect? How do you convey your skills without sounding rehearsed? And how can you best showcase your experience to stand out from the competition?
Over the past 7 years, I’ve been on the other side of the table, hiring more than 70 digital project managers and interviewing hundreds more. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and everything in between. I know what makes a candidate stand out and what tends to fall flat.
So, I’m here to demystify the process for you. In this guide, I’ll break down the most common project manager interview questions, share tips on how to approach them, and show you how to present your experience in a way that resonates with hiring managers. By the end, you’ll feel more confident—and ready to land that next role.
51 Common Interview Questions For Project Managers
In any project manager interview, you’ll likely face a range of question types designed to dig into specific areas of your experience, skills, and working style. To help you prepare, I’ve organized this guide by question categories so you can get familiar with each type and start thinking through your answers.
Interview Questions About Motivation
When an interviewer asks these types of questions, they're typically trying to understand what drives you in your career, why you’re interested in the role, and how it aligns with your professional goals. Potential questions include:
- Why are you leaving your current role?
- How did you get into project management? Why digital?
- What do you enjoy about being a digital project manager?
- What don’t you enjoy about being a digital project manager?
- What are you looking to achieve in your next role?
- What’s your long-term plan? Where are you going to be in 5 years?
How to answer: When answering motivation-based interview questions, the goal is to show how your career journey and interests naturally make you a good fit for the role. You should be honest, but not too honest. Even if money is the main reason you're looking for a new job, emphasize your other motivations. Maybe you’re eager to take on more responsibility, looking for specific experience, or excited for a new challenge.
Pro tips:
- Connect your answers back to the role: Show that what you’re looking for aligns with what the job offers.
- Balance ambition with realism: While it’s good to be ambitious, aim to stay realistic and grounded in your answers.
- Tell your story: Use your career journey to frame your answers and help the interviewer understand how each step led you to this role.
Interview Questions About Ethics & Chemistry
Employers will also want to gauge how you’ll fit within their team and culture, and how you'll handle real-life ethical dilemmas. Be ready for questions about working with challenging colleagues, making tough decisions, or balancing competing priorities. Potential questions include:
- Tell me about yourself. What would you like me to know about you? What’s unique about you?
- What was your most important contribution to your last team, your last project, and your last employer?
- How will you improve the agency or business?
- How would you deal with a situation where your project is running behind because the resource you’ve booked is being used by another urgent project?
- How do you like to manage a team? How do you motivate them?
- How do you manage a project that’s under-resourced?
- What would you do in a scenario where you’ve estimated for a project, and you’re told you need to cut the costs?
- What was your biggest mistake? What did you learn from this? How did you make sure it wouldn’t happen again?
- What's your approach to conflict resolution?
How to answer: When it comes to ethics and chemistry questions, your interviewer is really just trying to learn more about you—how you handle tough situations, work with others, and adapt when things don’t go as planned.
These questions can be difficult to answer, so it's okay to take your time. If a question catches you off guard, pause to gather your thoughts. Need clarification? Just ask! And remember, if you’re handed a scenario that feels impossible, it’s okay to admit that trade-offs are necessary in project management. Sometimes you really can’t have it all, and being able to recognize when costs, timing, or scope need adjusting shows good judgment.
Pro tips:
- Use real examples: Whenever possible, share specific experiences that demonstrate your approach in action.
- Focus on solutions: Show that you prioritize finding solutions and maintaining professionalism, even in tough situations.
- Demonstrate self-awareness: Acknowledge any lessons you’ve learned, and show off your commitment to continuous improvement.
Interview Questions About Digital Passion
These questions are designed to asses your knowledge of PM tools, methodologies, and industry trends. Your interviewer will want to know what experience you have with specific software, frameworks, or recent developments in digital project management. Potential questions include:
- What the coolest digital thing you’ve seen recently?
- What are people talking about in the world of SEO/Analytics/UX/Coding/Design?
- What was the last bit of tech you bought? What’s good about it? What would you change?
- What is your favorite app? Tell me what you would change about this app.
- How do you personally make sure that you continuously improve?
- What’s your approach to learning and sharing knowledge?
How to answer: To really nail questions about digital passion, focus on showing that you’re genuinely interested in digital trends, tools, and continuous learning. Hiring managers don’t just want a project manager—they want someone who’s plugged into the digital world and is going to keep up with what’s new and exciting.
If you’re already reading up on industry news or exploring new tools, great! This is your time to talk about it. Think of these questions as a chance to show you’re not just in it for the 9-to-5. Bring up any side projects or volunteer work you’ve done that show how you go beyond the basics. It’s all about demonstrating that you’re passionate and ready to bring fresh ideas to the team.
Pro tips:
- Show your enthusiasm: Let your interest in the digital world come through in your answers. Don't be afraid to come off a little nerdy!
- Connect answers to project management: Whenever possible, link back your answers to your role as a PM to show that your digital knowledge directly benefits your work.
- Be curious and open-minded: Highlight your willingness to learn and adapt—whether that’s learning from team members, gathering feedback, or adapting your approach based on project needs.
Interview Questions About Working Style & Character
When interviewers ask questions about your working style and character, they’re looking to understand how you work on a daily basis and how well you’ll fit within their team. These questions dig into your leadership approach, communication skills, and the way you handle common PM challenges. Potential questions include:
- What makes a good project manager? What makes you a good project manager?
- How would your co-workers or subordinates describe you professionally?
- How would you describe your approach to managing projects? How do you manage people and projects?
- What is your management style? What is your communication style?
- How do you deal with underperforming team members?
- How do you deal with people who aren’t working fast enough, or the quality of their work isn’t good enough?
- What type of performance problems have you encountered in people who report to you, and how did you motivate them to improve?
- How do you manage to keep your documentation up to date throughout a project?
- What gets you stressed out on a project?
How to answer: When talking about your working style and character, focus on showing that you’re thorough, level-headed, and genuinely invested in getting all of the details right. Bring in specific examples to back this up—mention real projects you’ve managed, or, better yet, bring along samples of your work or documentation to demonstrate your approach. When it comes to handling difficult people or situations, keep the focus on how you found a solution. Share how you anticipated issues, proactively tackled them, and escalated when necessary to keep things on track.
Pro tips:
- Bring evidence of your work: Bring samples of project plans, reports, or documentation that showcase your organizational skills and attention to detail.
- Stay solution-focused: When describing challenges you’ve faced, focus on the steps you took to resolve issues rather than dwelling on the problem.
- Show off your leadership style: When talking about your management style, share real stories that illustrate your approach, whether it’s how you motivated a team through a tight deadline or worked through a conflict.
Interview Questions About Project Management Experience
Of course, you're not going to get through a project manager interview without talking about your actual experience! But interviewers aren't looking for you to just read through your project management resume. They want to understand how you approach projects, handle challenges, and deliver results. Potential questions include:
- Talk me through your experience and the types of projects you’ve managed.
- Describe a typical day as a digital project manager.
- What digital project management tools do you like to use?
- Describe your dream project process or way of working from start to finish.
- Talk me through the most complex budget, timeline and project you’ve managed. What budget management and time management strategies did you use?
- Talk me through the documentation you use in a project. How did you manage it?
- What types of projects have you worked on in the last year that you enjoyed? Why did you enjoy them?
- What kind of projects don’t you like? What gets you stressed out?
- Give me an example of a project that went well. Why was it a successful project?
- Give me an example of a project that didn’t go well. Why didn’t it go well? What did you do to get it back on track?
- How do you create the right conditions for project delivery?
- What does leadership mean to you? What’s your leadership style? How do you demonstrate leadership skills in managing and motivating your teams?
- How do you manage risk?
- What are your weaknesses? What digital project manager skills do you need to improve?
- What project management software and tools have you worked with?
How to answer: Provide plenty of detail here. What was the budget? What were the timelines? What were the deliverables? How big was the project team? You might be asked for sample documentation or to do a competency assessment in the form of a statement of work exercise, for example. The interviewer will be trying to assess your ability to pull together a plan for a project and create basic project documentation.
Make sure that every project listed on your resume is something you’re comfortable discussing in depth, from the technical aspects to the challenges you ran into. If a project didn’t go as planned, be ready to share what you learned and what you’d do differently next time. Remember, if you have a broad range of experience, let the hiring manager know where your strengths and preferences lie—that way, you’re considered for roles that align with the type of work you genuinely enjoy.
Pro tips:
- Use metrics to show impact: Wherever possible, quantify your achievements (e.g., “reduced project delays by 20%” or “delivered a $500K project 10% under budget”).
- Keep examples relevant to the role: Choose examples that match the type of projects and tools used in the job you’re applying for. Tailoring your responses to the environment shows you’re already thinking like part of the team.
- Highlight cross-functional skills: Share how you’ve collaborated across teams (like design, engineering, or marketing) to demonstrate your ability to work well with diverse groups.
Other Potential Interview Questions
There are plenty of other questions you might get asked during a project manager interview. You can't prepare for them all—and that's okay! Just remember that at the end of the day, your interviewer is just trying to gain a deeper understanding of who you are and if you're a good fit. Some other potential questions include:
- What startup would you work on if I gave you money to do so? If money wasn’t a factor, what job would you do all day?
- What did you do over the weekend?
- What haven’t I asked you about, that you wished I had?
- Anything you’ve said that you wished you hadn’t?
- Why do you want to work for us?
- Questions for me?
How to answer: When answering more personal questions, remember to balance honesty with professionalism. While these questions might make it feel like you're just chatting, you’re still in a job interview. Be professional. Avoid stories about drunken craziness where you ended up in the clink.
Pro tips:
- Use humor professionally: A bit of light humor can make you memorable, but keep it subtle and appropriate for the interview setting.
- Show curiosity: Be prepared with questions of your own. Asking thoughtful questions will show off your genuine interest and help you make sure the role is the right fit.
- Frame your answers: When discussing your motivations, interests, or what excites you, look for ways to link it back to what the company values.
How To Prepare For Your Project Manager Interview
To get you started, we made a video that goes over the project manager screening, hiring, and interviewing process. We ask a handful of common PM interview questions and explain how we’d answer them, and why.
Here's a handful of other tips I'd recommend when it comes to preparing for your project manager interview.
- Do a deep dive on the company: What products or services do they offer? How does the role you're applying for fit into the organization? What are the company's values? What is the working environment and company culture like?
- Practice with a friend: Play out a mock interview with a friend or family member. This can help reduce your stress, and get you used to not knowing what question is coming next, so you're prepared for the real thing.
- Show off a bit: This is your time to really sell yourself and the value you'll bring to the role. Don't be shy about talking up your accomplishments. The interviewer wants to hear about how you came in 20% under budget on that website project, or how impressed a particular client or stakeholder with your marketing campaign.
- Ask good questions: Asking proper questions at the end of the interview shows your interest and offers you a chance to make sure the project manager position is a fit for you. Here are a few ideas: What does a successful project manager look like in this role? What metrics will be used to determine success? What do you enjoy most about working for this company? What does a typical day in this role look like?
FAQs About Project Management
Here's a few frequently asked questions about project management. If you're relatively new to the field and you're on the hunt for your first job, start here, or find out more about how to get your first job in project management.
What are key skills for project managers?
Project managers need a combination of soft skills, hard skills, and traits to be good at the job.
You're well-suited to a project management role if you're organized, have excellent communication skills, and a strong critical thinker. It's also worth considering whether you're detail-oriented, good at working on a team, have excellent at problem-solving skills, and have strong decision-making and prioritization skills.
These are usually inherent qualities that project managers just tend to have, but you can improve upon them through practice.
When it comes to hard skills (which are easy to learn, to some degree), you'll need to have abilities in process management, documentation, project planning and initiation, tracking dependencies and milestones, task management, and risk management.
Project management certifications are good ways to learn these hard skills, and they're also great for getting familiar with the project life cycle and specific project management methodologies like Scrum, agile, or waterfall, as well as tools as techniques like Gantt charts and work breakdown structures.
Find more project management skills here.
What do project manager salaries look like?
Project management salaries can vary widely according to your industry, experience level, and location.
In a recent study, we found that the average project manager salary in 2024 in the United States is $104,919 USD. Project managers in Canada make $106,451 CAD, and project managers in the United Kingdom make £56,182.
See the full results of our project manager salary survey here.
What's the difference between project managers & project coordinators?
Project coordinators are more of an entry-level position compared to project managers. While the project manager is the one leading kickoffs, conducting risk assessments, and checking in with the team on a regular basis, the project coordinator acts in more of a support role.
This includes tasks like updating documentation, sending out meeting invites, and other internal comms.
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