If you enjoy complex planning, process-oriented tasks, and a high level of organization, project management might be the right job for you.
The growth of project management jobs often corresponds to market trends, and demand for project managers through 2027 is increasing at a faster rate compared to other occupations, according to a report from the Project Management Institute, which cites a dramatic increase in the number of jobs requiring project-oriented skills, attrition rates and a significant uptick in demand for project talent, especially in rapidly developing economies such as China and India for the increase in demand for these jobs.
A number of industries are seeing an increased demand for project management positions as these fields change, particularly those with rapidly changing technology needs, including healthcare (which has an expected 17% growth in project management jobs through 2027), manufacturing and construction, information services and publishing, finance and insurance and
management and professional services.
Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't collect data on project management positions since they often do fall under other types of industry-specific managers, they report faster than average growth for several related positions. For example, employment of computer and information systems managers is projected to grow 12% from 2016 through 2026 (an increase of approximately 44,200 jobs).
So how do you get a job in project management? First you have to ace the phone interview questions. Whether you’re an entry-level project manager or a senior PM looking for a new role, use our questions, collected in part by asking hiring managers which questions they ask applicants in project management roles, to prepare for the interview and land a project management job.
- What are some of the techniques you’ve used to define the scope of a project?
- Please define "processes" and "process groups" in a project management framework.
- What’s your leadership style?
- What’s your delegation style?
- What makes a great project manager, in your experience and opinion?
- What are some of the tools and resources you’ve used to develop your team?
- What project management software are you familiar with? Which do you regularly use or prefer using?
- How do you motivate your team members?
- What are some examples of times you’ve kept your promise at work, even when that might have been difficult to do?
- What types of projects do you like working on?
- What types of projects do you tend to avoid?
- When was the last time you didn’t delegate, and what happened?
- How have you improved project management processes at your current organization?
- What creative problem-solving techniques do you use?
- How do you handle changes to a project?
- Work from home has become the new normal in the post-COVID-19-world. How well are you prepared to manage a distributed team?
- What is your strategy for prioritizing tasks?
- Suppose a project you’re working on has gone off the rails. How do you know the project is off-track? What steps would you take to get it back on track?
- What do you spend most of your time doing at work?
