Crafting Powerful Responses in PM Interviews

Crafting Powerful Responses in
Interviews
(For Project Managers / Scrum Masters)
17th March 2024
Abhishek Prasoon
Agile Coach
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aprasoonin@yahoo.com | +91 9891819681

Abhishek Prasoon (MCA, PGDM)
• 19 years of experience in IT industry. Have been working with
companies like NIIT, HCL, Mastek and Coforge
• 25+ IT Industry Certifications
• Winner NEXT 100 and Innovative CIO Award
• Author: The Forefront Manager and The Infallible Weapons
• Published 120+ articles on Technology and Management
• Trained 500+ Executives
• Orator on various platforms, avid traveler and Yoga enthusiast
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekprasoon/
2

aprasoonin@yahoo.com | +91 9891819681 3
Agenda
• Why every interview is important?
• Tips to attempt Interviews efficiently
• Special attention for Virtual Interviews
• Types of Interview Questions
• Most important question - Tell me about yourself
• Opening questions
• Subject related direct questions
• Situational based questions
• Behaviour based questions
• 2 Bonus at the end
• Duration – 40 Minutes

Why every job interview is important?

Before Interview
• Don’t Expect Straight Forward Interview Questions
• Demonstrate your full potential.
• Be confident.
• Be presentable.
• Be on time.
• Be relaxed, Be calm - It’s just a Job interview.
• Be with Positive Mindset
• Respond Smartly
• Study similar JD carefully before the interview.
• Be well prepared with common interview questions.
• Eat less.
• Put your mobile in silent mode.
• Search about interviewer in much advance
• Be prepared for all sorts of justifications like
 Why did you leave this job in 4 months.
 Why there a 3-month gap between your two jobs
• Be prepared with Mock interview.
• Be prepared for unrelated questions.
• Be prepared for questions related to race, gender, caste,
religion, community, age, previous salary.
• Treat yourself as a Seller, be welcoming, no interruptions.
• Show enthusiasm.
• At the end interviewer might be ask “do you have any
questions” Be ready with appropriate questions
• Don’t skip the interview round even if you are not willing to
take this opportunity.
Tips to attempt Interviews efficiently

During Interview Just after the interview
• Greet
• Smile
• If you don’t know the answer to any question, politely say I
don’t know the answer don’t beat around the bush. It will
not be going to help.
• Apply common seance.
• Give reason / justification of your answer.
• Respond in a short and simple answer.
• If required, take the help of pen-paper or markup-
whiteboard to explain your answer.
• Give examples with your answer wherever required.
• If you made a mistake quickly cover it up - Take the example
of 12th Fail Movie.
• Don’t keep your phone / bag on the table.
• Just after the interview, note down questions. It will be
helpful in future interviews.
• Follow up after couple of days.
• Have Patience
Some tips to attempt Interviews efficiently

Special attention for Virtual Interviews

Special attention for Virtual Interviews
• Please ensure you have a good internet connection.
• Your equipment, like camera, mic and headphones are
working fine.
• Get ready with alternatives.
• Attempt interview from quite place,
• Stay away from all distractions. Switch off your mobile
• Inform your family in advance.
• Camera on. Dress appropriately
• Keep your resume and other important documents in one
place.
• Sit nearby light source.
• Install required meeting software in advance and do dummy
meetings with your friend to ensure everything is working
fine.

Example
Warmup / Opening questions Tell me something about yourself
Subject related direct questions What is the usual duration of Retrospective meeting?
Situational based questions What would you do if you were unable to meet a deadline?
Attitude / Behavior related
questions
Tell me about a time when you took the initiative in improve a process without
being asked to do so?
What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
Motivation based interviewing
MBI
Give me an example of a time where you needed to get people who had very
different work styles to work cooperatively on a project?
Walk me through how you felt internally about the people that gave you
pushback?
Types of Interview Questions

The first question - Tell me about yourself

No of Years of Experience Employment History Role Played
Skills and Knowledge Education and Certification Personal Information

Hi, I have a total of 19 years of experience in the IT Industry.
Currently, I am working as a Project Manager with Coforge and handling a project for the UK-based
Santander bank.
I started my career as a Software Engineer in 2005 and gradually played various roles like Tech Lead,
Project Lead, Scrum Master, Project Manager, and Project Head.
I have worked in various domains like Education, E-Governance, Healthcare, and BFSI.
I have experience working on various types of projects such as Government Projects, In-house projects, IT
Products, and IT Consultancy.
I am well-versed in the latest IT industry trends like AI-ML, RPA, Data, and Cloud.
I am a Master's Degree holder in Computer Application, and I have a PG Diploma in Business
Management. I am PMP and CSM certified.
On a personal front, my wife works with ICICI Bank, and I have two beautiful daughters. I love traveling and
Yoga.

Opening Questions
1. Can you explain your current project, and what are your role and responsibilities in the project?
2. What are your day-to-day activities? Where do you spend most of your time each day?
3. How much time do you spend on management and technology? Are you more inclined towards the
management side or the technology side?
4. What is your team size and structure? What is your position in the organizational hierarchy?
5. Which project management tools/software and ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) tools have you used?

Subject related direct questions
1. How do you calculate story points?
2. What is your team’s velocity?
3. What is the difference between capacity and velocity?
4. How do you conduct the Sprint Retrospective Meeting? Do you use any tools to capture the meeting's output?
5. Who maintains the product backlog in your team?
6. What do you understand by Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in Scrum?
7. What is Technical Debt?
8. Can a Scrum Master and Product Owner be the same person?
9. What is the Definition of Done? What is the difference between DoD and Acceptance Criteria?
10. What is the difference between Epic, Function, User Stories, and Tasks?

Scenario based questions
1. During a sprint, stakeholders request additional urgent features that were not originally planned. How would you
address this situation while maintaining the sprint goals and sprint duration?
2. The Product Owner is frequently unavailable for clarifications and feedback during sprint execution. How would
you ensure smooth progress of the sprint in such a scenario?
3. One of your team members is technically very strong. The team has a lot of dependency on him. But he is
arrogant and not providing support to the team properly, which leads to frequent conflicts. How would you
handle this situation?
4. Can you provide an example of a major challenge you faced in your previous project and how you resolved it?
5. Let's suppose you have to work on a project with a limited budget. How would you ensure cost-
effectiveness and maximize value?

Behavior based questions
1. What are your weaknesses and strengths?
2. Describe your "out-of-the-box" initiatives or value additions in your past projects.
3. Have you ever made a mistake as a Project Manager? If yes, what mistake did you make?
4. Why do you want to change your current organization?
5. Can you describe a challenging situation you've faced at work and how you handled it?
6. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult client or customer. How did you handle the situation?
7. One of your team members is not happy with his/her appraisal and is demotivated. How will you handle this
situation?
8. How do you motivate your team members?
9. Do you prefer working from the office or working from home?
10. Are you okay to work on a contract? / Are you okay to work night shifts?

The last questions
Do you have any question to ask?

AI Tools for Interview Preparation
https://interviewai.me/
https://app.yoodli.ai/
https://bard.google.com/
https://chat.openai.com/
https://grow.google/certificates/interview-warmup/

Bonus 1 – Free Mock Interview Questions for Project Managers and Scrum Masters.
(230 Questions)
Scrum Master Interview Questions (80 Questions)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/scrum-master-interview-questions-abhishek-prasoon-pmp-/
Project Manager Interview Questions (80 Questions)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/project-manager-interview-questions-abhishek-prasoon-pmp-/
Behavioural Interview Questions for Managers (70 Questions)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/behavioral-interview-questions-managers-abhishek-prasoon-pmp-

Bonus 2 - You can schedule a one-to-one free mock interview session with me.
• For Scrum Master and Project Management jobs.
• Duration of this session will be 40 Minutes (30 minutes interview + 10 minutes feedback).
• At the end of the interview, I will provide you with feedback.
• I will record this session and post it on YouTube so other people can also learn. You can refer it later.
Contact Me – aprasoonin@yahoo.com
WhatsApp community
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CaXyk9xUM5EB2sWFExYQD1
+91 9891819681

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PMP and PMI-ACP is the registered trademark of PMI, PSM is the registered trademark of Scrum.org
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How can I help you?

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Contact Me – aprasoonin@yahoo.com
+91 9891819681

Crafting Powerful Responses in PM Interviews

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