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Introduction to Project Management

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Different companies require differing degrees of project management skill.

If you're interviewing for a junior role, you're likely to manage your own projects. Senior candidates will more often work with a dedicated project or program manager. Either way, it’s helpful to have working knowledge of project management tools and frameworks.

Companies often have their own processes for driving execution, so this is a good area to investigate during the end of your interview when you get the chance to ask questions. As a bizops person, effective project management requires aligning the team’s existing structure and culture with the workflow.

How BizOps interviews test for project management

Remember, bizops is all about execution. If you do expect project management responsibilities, interviewers will be looking for:

  • Overall planning and execution skills, possibly at different levels of project ownership.
  • Knowledge and experience with frequently-used project management processes and tools.
  • Ability to use tools and processes properly to track project status, trajectory, and mitigate risk.

For instance, it’s good to show you know how to create GANTT charts. However, your real value shines through explaining that you saw the team wasn’t on the same page about progress – so your GANTT chart provided the much-needed transparency.

You’ll probably get questions related to project management skills during behavioral interviews, so take the time to review the story bank lesson.

Specific questions you might get include:

  • “Tell me about the most complex project you’ve led.”
  • “Tell me about a process you improved.”
  • “How would you mitigate risk on a high-visibility project?”

We will cover two dimensions of project management in the next lesson.

  • How to manage the project.
  • How to manage the team.
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