Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult client or stakeholder on an engineering project. How did you handle the situation?

Managing the needs and expectations of clients/stakeholders is the key to the success of any project. One of the most critical aspects of managing stakeholders is capturing their expectations and project goals. It's critical that the project manager and team invest time in identifying, prioritizing, and assessing the client and project stakeholders to build a strong strategy and client/stakeholder management plan. This will help ensure that the project goals align with those of the clients and stakeholders so that the project can move forward smoothly and on time. The project manager should work closely with the team to accomplish tasks, but also communicate and practice project stakeholder management to build rapport with senior leadership.

"Since it's early in my career, I haven't had a lot of experience dealing with clients one-on-one, but I've had the opportunity to learn from other skilled and empathetic project managers and senior engineers. I think disagreements between clients and engineers on some issues are unavoidable, and many people don't really handle them well. In my last internship, there was a pharmaceutical client who was uncommunicative and indecisive, which delayed our lab research and production schedule. The project manager sent an email and then set up a meeting to let them know. In the meeting, he let the client have their say and it was only when they stopped that he gently let them know the situation, the delays that were occurring, and the impact on delivery. I believe clients should be treated with respect and informed to their satisfaction because both of us want the same thing in the end: a quality finished project/product."