Tell me about yourself.
Your interviewer wants to know more about your education and the professional roles you've held, but for a senior project manager, this question serves another purpose. Specifically, your interviewer wants to test your presentation skills under pressure. They want a senior project manager that is prepared, polished, relatable, and ready to handle the stress of a senior position.
Remember to cover these three main topics to cover every time you answer this question.
- Your education
- The companies you worked for and the roles you held
- A brief breakdown of the major projects you've managed
If time permits, it can be helpful to include a few of the following :
- Why you're excited about the open position
- Travel you've done relevant to any international communities you may work with
- Customers, technologies, or vendors you have experience with that are relevant to the open position
- Certifications applicable to project management (PMP, Scrum Master, SAFe practitioner, Six Sigma, etc.)
- How you know the person who recommended you
- Your short-term career goals
I have a degree in management. My first job out of college was working with a property management company that owned over 200 properties. I facilitated contract negotiations, move-in, move-out, and turnover activities. I also managed repair projects and handled tenant emergencies. I worked there for five years and learned how to manage client expectations, resolve conflicts, partner effectively with vendors, and prioritize a heavy workload.
I now manage projects for a residential construction firm. I work with designers, estimators, and the leads of our various construction crews. I also partner with project managers and general contractors from the various vendors we use depending on the type of project. I have been in this role for three years, and I enjoy my work. I have focused on the development of my project planning, budgeting, and leadership skills and I am now assigned to complex initiatives that require coordination across multiple teams, serve at-risk clients, or have large budgets and/or unique scope requirements.
I am very excited about the project manager position with the XYZ team at ABC company. I feel I am ready to expand, and working in a commercial construction setting will allow me to leverage my current skills on a larger scale.
I graduated from Cal Tech with a degree in computer science. I worked at an eCommerce startup company for six years. I started out as an engineer, but I regularly took on tasks outside of the role of a traditional engineer. For example, I performed duties typically assigned to analysts, product owners, and project managers at larger companies. I formally transitioned into a project management role two years into working there.
I am currently a project manager at a mid-side SaaS company. I am responsible for budgeting, planning, task delegation, and technical strategy. I enjoy the leadership and talent development aspects of my role the most. I would like to one day work as a senior IT leader, and I feel that moving into a senior project management position here at XYZ company will offer me an opportunity to hone my management and leadership skills in alignment with my long-term goals.
Jim Smith recommended me for this position and speaks very highly of your company and you as a manager. I am excited about the prospect of working with larger cross-functional teams and on projects with a greater level of impact. I would also like to pursue my PMP certification and I have heard that is an opportunity offered to senior project managers.
I have a degree in marketing and worked for my family's event-planning business in high school and for the last seven years. I currently oversee all of our large-scale events such as weddings and corporate events with over two hundred attendees. I lead teams of three to five depending on the size of the event. We provide end-to-end services and handle everything from budget planning, vendor selection, and day-of-service coordination.
I am excited to interview here today because I would like to work for a marketing agency. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of my education and I want to work directly with creative teams. I feel my event planning project management experience is applicable in many ways. For example, I regularly facilitate the creation, approval, and distribution of event marketing materials such as invitations, and email campaigns on behalf of my clients. I also have experience working directly with the marketing departments of my corporate clients.
Additionally, I have participated in the owner-level activities of our family business including strategic planning, staffing, reporting, payroll, and all related financial duties. I feel my business acumen combined with my advanced project management experience make me an excellent candidate for the senior project manager position
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