IT Project Manager Interview Questions: What Hiring Managers Want to Hear

Key takeaways

IT project manager interview questions focus on project management in the context of technical projects. 

• Interviewers may ask you a range of behavioral, situational, and technical questions.

• Ensure your knowledge of project management methodologies is up to date. 

• You can use the STAR approach when forming your answers to draw on real-life examples of your work in IT and project management. 

Learn about project management tools and methodologies to add to your experience in an IT role and help you prepare for your interview. Consider enrolling in the Google Project Management Professional Certificate to learn Agile and Scrum practices needed to succeed in an entry-level IT project management role, all in as little as six months. 

What makes IT project manager interviews different?

As an IT project manager, you need a solid grounding in technical skills, knowledge, and experience, but you also need leadership and management skills. A project manager position means you operate on a strategic level. You are solving problems, developing and closing projects, managing stakeholders and budgets, integrating technology, and meeting goals. Technical know-how is important, but employers are looking for your project manager skills first and foremost. 

Advances in technology mean that you may be able to manage an IT project with less technical ability than required previously. This means that employers may now focus on specific project management skills like your ability to lead a team, stay calm under pressure, make decisions, as well as manage budgets and timescales. These are likely to be the focus of an IT project manager interview.

What types of IT project manager interview questions should you expect?

When interviewing for a senior role like a project manager in IT, you'll be asked questions covering a spectrum of responsibilities and areas of expertise. The interviewer will want to know about your leadership skills, technical capabilities, and understanding of higher-level, strategic matters such as risk, security, and compliance.

Leadership interview questions for IT project manager positions

Leadership is an important part of IT project management, as you'll lead teams, manage finances and resources, and ensure the project runs on time. As a project manager, you lead the entire project management lifecycle from start to finish. Possible leadership-based interview questions for an IT project manager position include:

What is your experience in managing and leading cross-functional teams?

As an IT project manager, you’ll lead processes across teams and departments. This may also include remote teams. The employer wants to know how you communicate, lead, and motivate teams with so many different responsibilities. 

How to answer: Talk about your skills and experience in managing teams across functions, including using Agile or other project management methodologies, and the type of teams you have experience in managing. If you don’t have much experience, be honest and instead focus on what you would do in this position. 

How do you keep your team motivated?

Leading a team means keeping everyone motivated and keen to drive things forward. An employer wants to know how you keep morale up so that projects run on time. 

How to answer: Tell the interviewer about how you build a strong team that feels safe, supported, and valued, and how you set common goals to work toward. Give real examples of how you’ve encouraged and motivated a team to succeed. 

How IT project manager interviews differ from other IT interviews

While you need IT knowledge to work as an IT project manager, in an interview, the focus is largely on your ability to manage projects. An interviewer will test you on your methodology skills in a technical context. An interview for an IT position in general might include questions around your ability to program and your knowledge of frameworks and languages, whereas an IT project manager interview will look at how you manage these actions to deliver a product or service. 

Technical oversight and delivery questions

Project managers work in all industries, and these generally match your expertise. As an IT project manager, you’ll know the IT industry and will have the necessary technical skills to lead projects of this nature. Therefore, an interviewer will ask questions about your IT knowledge and experience. Examples include:

Which aspect of IT management do you like the most?

A question like this allows you to show off your skills by choosing an aspect of IT management that you know about and that is relevant to the job.

How to answer: Choose an area of IT management that you know well and give examples of your expertise, your previous successes, and your use of technical tools and methodologies. 

What project management methodologies do you use when managing IT projects?

As an IT project manager, you’ll be familiar with project management methodologies, and an interviewer will want to check your knowledge.

How to answer: Discuss your use of methodologies such as Agile, Kanban, and waterfall, which are essential to the role. You’ll use these to manage budgets and timescales, as well as to identify any problems before they arise. Make sure you provide examples of how you use these tools and methodologies to effectively manage projects.

Risk, security, and compliance questions

Part of your role as an IT project manager is complying with industry and government regulations while also managing risk and governance to ensure accountability and ethical business practices. Given its importance, it will likely come up in your interview. Possible questions might be:

What would you do if you encountered a high-impact risk?

The interviewer wants to know how well you manage a crisis situation while assessing your knowledge around risks, security, and compliance. 

How to answer: Speak about strategies you would have in place to manage risk, such as a risk log, and discuss how you might review these and work with colleagues to implement a solution that minimizes risk and supports the project and your team. If you can use real-life examples of something you’ve had to do in the past, even better. 

How would you use different methodologies to ensure compliance?

The interviewer wants to know about your understanding of methodologies and what you use them for.

How to answer: Pick at least two methodologies and speak about their strengths in terms of compliance. For example, you might point out that waterfall works well for compliance on fixed scope projects, whereas Agile allows for continuous feedback. 

Behavioral IT project manager interview questions and answers

Behavioral interview questions aim to understand your experience and how you handle challenges and situations. The idea is that how you have performed in the past will likely affect future behavior. Behavioral questions often start with 'Tell me about a time when'¦' or 'Describe how you'¦' For example:

Tell me about a project that did not go to plan. What did you learn?

Your answer to this question helps you demonstrate how you handle setbacks and how you might apply what you learn to future challenges.

How to answer: Choose a real example that is unique to you and your experience. Describe the project, what you were trying to achieve, and what did not go as expected. The key point here is to show what you did to turn things around. How did you overcome the problem, and what happened as a result? Think about what you learned from the experience and how you might apply it going forward.

What is the STAR method when interviewing?

The STAR method is a behavioral interview technique that you can use to make sure you are giving the interviewer real-life examples to demonstrate the skills an employer is looking for. STAR stands for:

• Situation: Give your example some context.

• Task: Explain the goal.

• Action: Describe the action you took.

• Result: Explain the outcome or achievement. 

Technical and situational interview questions for IT project managers

Situational interview questions assess how well you problem-solve and make decisions. When thinking about interview questions for an IT project manager, an interviewer might frame this type of question in technical terms. You'll recognize a situational question because it will likely start with 'How would you'¦?' or 'What would you do if'¦?' For example:

How would you approach a project milestone that was slipping?

Interviewers typically want to hear how closely you monitor projects, how well you spot risk before it causes problems, how effectively you communicate with your team and stakeholders, and what you do to problem-solve.

How to answer: If you have been in this situation in real life, refer to real examples and tell the interviewer that you have experience. Talking about something you have actually done is more valuable than hypothetically speaking. If you can give real, measurable outcomes, even better. If you don’t have experience in this area, focus on what you would do, drawing on other relevant experience and knowledge. The interviewer is testing you on how you solve a problem and cope under pressure. 

Read more: IT Project Manager Salary: Your Guide

How to prepare for an IT project manager interview

When you receive your call for your IT project manager interview, consider these tips to help you prepare:

Have examples ready: Drawing on examples is important because an employer wants to know what you’ve done in the past, and also how you are likely to cope with situations in the future. Examples show your wealth of experience, your skills, and how well you can adapt to changing situations. Include measurements where you can. 

Get to know STAR: As part of your practice, and in an interview setting, use the STAR method to answer questions. Define the situation and talk about your role in the task, the action you took, and the result of your action. 

Research: Research the company holding the interview, but also make sure you research any changes in the industry. Technology evolves fast, and it is good practice to keep up-to-date with trends and developments and also to know your project management terms, methodologies, and tools. 

Mock interview: Practice an interview beforehand. Ask a friend or colleague to help you. Practice both situational and behavioral questions, so you learn to draw on your knowledge and to think quickly about how you might approach a situation. 

Explore free resources to prepare for an IT project manager interview

Subscribe to Career Chat, our weekly LinkedIn newsletter, for updates on skills, tools, and certifications to aid your personal and professional development. Then consider checking out some of these free resources:

• Explore career paths: Project Management Career Progression: Job Levels & Skills to Advance

• Watch on YouTube: Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers

• Take a quiz: Project Management Career Quiz: Is It Right for You? Find Your Role

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