my name is Jeff h-type and I have over 10 years of recruiting experience including 5 years at Google 3 of those years were spent hiring program managers and since I released my first program manager interview video 10 months ago I received a ton of comments thank you so much I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of clients who are interviewing for program manager roles a lot of which have been at Google and I've spent more time learning about the position so a lot of that has been in conversations and some of that has been doing research and I realized I needed to do another video so today's video is program manager interviews a deeper dive and in this deeper dive we're gonna really break it down in two different ways it's seven items the first two items are gonna be a little bit more interview focused more generic interview focus for PMS and then the last five items are going to be really more specific to interviewing for this type of role specific sections like we called out in that first video and even though those concepts are focused for program managers there's a lot of valuable content for anybody interviewing if you like my content please hit that subscribe button I really appreciate it and before we dive in a quick quote from a program manager that I worked with at Google they told me what we look for in program managers is not having the answers but the ability to find the answers and this is so impactful and a great segue into item 1 ask questions this is not unique to program managers every candidate should ask questions in an interview but p. m. specifically need to ask great probing questions and this really starts with listening so if you're truly listening to the question you're gonna start to think about okay how does this question apply to the PM role and what is the outcome they're looking for from this question and based on those two items ask specific follow-up questions to determine the why and these questions are gonna show an ability to listen to communicate to problem-solve and lastly to understand your audience and a paean interview is going to consist of interviewing with other PMS other PMS will want to know that you're not afraid to ask questions questions will allow you to determine how to best move forward item 2 have a plan similar to behavioral interview questions when you have a prepared example understanding the complexity of a p.
m. role and having a plan for how to answer common questions common scenarios that come up is really critical so this specifically refers to open-ended questions so you're gonna take the standard path with these questions you're gonna restate the question you're gonna ask follow-up questions and then based on the answers to your follow-up slash clarifying questions you will tweak your already prepared plan ok so what do I mean for example typical questions in a program manager interview are going to be what are the steps you take when creating a new program when you step into an existing program how do you know it's being run efficiently how do you identify why a program is over budget or behind deadlines what are the steps you take when dealing with stakeholders who cannot agree etc and as a p. m.
you've likely faced all these situations all these scenarios multiple times so let's take the example of a p. m. stepping into an existing program you're probably going to review any existing documentation review budget and timeline review resources review data and scope set meetings with the stakeholders collaborative partners meet and small and potentially larger teams and then create a plan and a shared vision to work towards those goals and so there's a number of different ways you can present and communicate this information but let's go back to step 1 so I would dive through those 7 8 10 items however many you're gonna present in your plan and say Jane is there one area you want me to focus on more than another remember Jane might be struggling to find a p.
m. that she believes can really lead without Authority these stakeholders so by asking this question it's super impactful because the rest of the information might just put Jane to sleep it might really make her disengage and you want her super engaged so by asking that question you might be able to identify what's most important to her and this is your starting point right you're gonna tweak it down and get a little bit more nichy if it's a p. m.
for supply chain versus a p. m. for security etc but examine what are the most common scenarios before going into these p.
m. interviews and just know the steps you're gonna tweak this a little bit but every single tech company is going to ask you these types of questions so having that plan is super important and so now let's transition and get even more p. m.
specific so item number three is stakeholder leadership now stakeholder leadership is often referred to as stakeholder management but I use this wording for a reason you are leading without authority you are not their manager so anytime you hear this phrasing intentionally change the word from management to leadership it will work really well for you so how does this show up during a p. m. interview in a number of different ways so one communication and that comes with active listening and asking great questions influence so influencing without authority when change is needed and when conflicts arise expectations so this is clearly defining the process setting goals having metrics in place and then ultimately working towards that shared vision and other items might include risk management presentation and facilitation skills and ultimately just being an awesome and great coach some questions might be what do you do when stakeholders don't agree how do you proceed what does the first meeting look like when you're stepping into a new program or existing program how do you determine that you have the right stakeholders in place and when a program requires change how do you communicate that to stakeholders etc creating answers that ask great questions when you have a and can touch on communication influence expectations and these other items is going to lead to great success and one other important item that continues to come up with my clients that is really critical is these stakeholder challenges right stakeholders that don't agree or misaligned and you're meeting with them individually and then you're bringing them together put me in the room are you using a whiteboard are you using a Google presentation did you order pizza like put me in that room get me into that room because when you can make the visual representation that puts me sitting there with you it just helps me have greater connectivity so it's really really important it's such a common question and all my clients go very generic put me in the room it really helps item for collaborative partnerships so definitely a crossover from item three but the big differentiator is everybody involved in the program is likely not considered a stakeholder maybe they're a collaborator maybe they're a contributor but their roles are super important so they could be a stakeholder but they could also be another program manager they could be a project or product manager they could be on the tech side they can be on the business side internal-external they might be a subject matter expert that you knew you needed as a resource from the beginning or one that you needed to add as the project went on and you really realized there was a gap or a hole and you needed to bring that person in so how does this show up during the interview if you look at any job description for a program manager collaborate collaboration collaborating will be a constant theme in any of those job descriptions and so when collaborating across groups I just want you to be thinking about is it a large program are the teams distributed dealing with conflicts dealing with being over budget or behind deadlines and not having enough resources etc so keeping in mind how you communicate how you lead without authority and lastly and a big one in this space is how you recognize your own strengths and weaknesses because as we collaborate especially in these larger program across larger groups we're really relying on the team so continue to involve that word team continue to bring team into the mix item five shared vision and this is a great segue from item three an item for your ability to speak about a shared vision is a direct result of excelling at stakeholder leadership and working with collaborative partners so a shared vision will recover a lot of different types of interview questions from scope and scale to defining creating and documenting process to creating and aligning expectations and goals to how do you utilize metrics to how you communicate and ultimately in a shared vision how you compromise this topic and any of the topics I just mentioned they could be their own video and that's speaking to the complexity of the PM role so the two most important items when speaking about a shared vision specifically in an interview is that you do continue to focus on team and you have a plan for a shared vision so you're utilizing this term throughout the interview but defining the components of what a shared vision looks like for you and and what success looks like with a shared vision it's going to be super impactful and connect you to the interviewer who is again likely also a p.
m.
