5 Frequently Asked Program Manager Interview Question | 4 Skills Every Program Manger Should Know

Program Manager is an attractive field and one can witness many young aspirants going towards it. However, there are some Program Manager skills that need to be developed to get success in the role. Moreover, you also need to learn about some common Program Manager interview questions that may be asked during the selection process. Coming to the Program Management interview questions, though every recruiter may have a different criterion of selecting a candidate there are some common questions in every interview. Paying attention to these question patterns, you would be able to not only get through the selection process but also make a mark for yourself in front of the interviewers.

Well as per experts, there are five such common questions which if you are able to answer correctly can get you through the selection process.

Five Common Questions

1. Foremost you may be asked to provide effective examples of stakeholder management, particularly when it was a difficult situation for you to handle. You may be required to communicate how you were able to handle that very situation, what was the result, and what all did you learn from this very experience.
2. Secondly, you may be asked to offer an alluring example of a project or a program that you may have run in the past. You also need to be comfortable while talking about different components of the particular project. In addition, you may also have to answer as what solution could have been better in a particular situation or what you think might have gone wrong with the situation.
3. You may be asked to dwell upon your communication style. Now, different Program Managers have different communication styles for approaching things. Some of them may be directive while some of them may be interested in taking a more social approach towards things. Moreover, if you possess different communication approach than the interviewer, this may be the best chance to portray how you can jump over to the different approach and are highly flexible in doing so.
4. You may also be asked to highlight a particular time when your project failed. At this point, you may have to show that you possess the required awareness to acknowledge that sometimes things may go wrong. It is also important at this point to say that you would definitely do differently next time and here is what you learnt this time. In addition, you have the chance to portray that you would be able to implement all the learnt lessons effectively in further situations or projects.
5. Finally, you may be asked to provide examples of the situations where you worked across functionally. Though it is more of high-level question it can very well demonstrate your familiarity while working with different stakeholders. For example, you can talk about working with stakeholder whose subject matter expertise may have been different than yours and how you handled the entire situation without breaking any protocols.

Top Four Skills Required For Project Management

Well, as per experts, the top four program management skills required for a successful career in the field are:

• Stakeholder Management
• Strong communication Skills
• Strategy and Operations Skills
• Emotional Intelligence

All these four skills are a major requisite for building meaningful relationships as well as assessing the stakeholders, the audience members, or the end users. Moreover, these skills are a major requirement to ensure that whatever you are building make proper sense and works for all of them.