Are you looking to expand your project management infrastructure by hiring a new project manager? Or perhaps several new project managers? Or maybe you made some bad hiring decisions and lacked the PM experience in the organization to experience success on some of the more complex technical engagements that have come your way. What do you do? Who do you look for? Where do you look?
I have some tips on hiring the best PMs available that I’d like to share – and I welcome additional thoughts from our readers as well. Here are my top 5 tips for getting your PM stocked with the best of the best in terms of project management resources…
Look at leadership skills. The best of the best project managers have great leadership skills. It does take skills and the right personality to get your project team to follow you into battle no matter what. Not everyone has it and not all PMs have it. The most successful ones do, however. Look for that in the hiring process and design questions around that thought. Ask something like, “Tell me about a project where you had to make an unpopular decision and how your team reacted to that.” The best can make their team understand why it had to be and they managed to get the best out of their team and that situation anyway.
Look at tech skills. Even if the types of projects that you generally service aren’t all technical in nature, general tech skills are going to help most project managers. They show an analytical side that project managers need to have in order to succeed more often than they fail.
Look for passion. Project managers need passion when leading projects. They are driven to finish successfully, they are driven to serve their project clients and they are driven to successfully lead their project teams and get the best and the most out of them. Look for a passion for the position you’re discussing with them and a passion for the profession in general. If you don’t see it or hearing during the conversation, move on to the next candidate. And stay away from the whiners. If they are complaining at length about a past position or organization, run away. You probably don’t want them. If they say something about not getting proper project support from a senior leader, then that may indicate passion for the project and frustration with not being able to give 110% to the project customer. That’s ok.
Get some detail on project successes. You can tell BS from reality if you’re a good interviewer or hiring manager. When those candidates start talking about past projects if it rolls of the tongue like a 2nd language, you know they know what they’re talking about and aren’t giving you some rehearsed lines from a page. They go into details about dollar amounts, team sizes, struggles they worked through, etc. You’ll probably hear about their weaknesses and strengths without even needing to ask because it will come out in the discussion of their past experiences with projects and project clients.
Emphasize experience over certification. If you want certification, that’s fine. But don’t overlook the experienced PMs out there who have been through it. So many great project managers do not have certification. If you just overload your staff with certified PMs and don’t get good, experienced project leadership on board, you will be sorry…guaranteed. And look anywhere. You can hire a great PM in another city, state or country and use them remotely….possibly with some travel required. A very good PM will be self-disciplined enough to manage one to many projects very well in a remote situation. And that way you can get great talent that you might otherwise not get because they don’t want to relocate and in this economy you probably don’t want to pay for relocation anyway. You don’t have to – remote can work to your advantage.
Summary
I think we all know that hiring good staff in any position is an art form – it is NOT luck. Be careful, be aware, and be prepared to ask the right questions. Look for knowledge about projects, customers, financials, resource management – all those things that go into being a good project manager on a daily basis.
What about our readers – what are your tips on hiring the right project managers for your PM infrastructure? And PMs looking for positions – what are your questions or experiences that you’re running into in the marketplace? Share and discuss.
I have some tips on hiring the best PMs available that I’d like to share – and I welcome additional thoughts from our readers as well. Here are my top 5 tips for getting your PM stocked with the best of the best in terms of project management resources…
Look at leadership skills. The best of the best project managers have great leadership skills. It does take skills and the right personality to get your project team to follow you into battle no matter what. Not everyone has it and not all PMs have it. The most successful ones do, however. Look for that in the hiring process and design questions around that thought. Ask something like, “Tell me about a project where you had to make an unpopular decision and how your team reacted to that.” The best can make their team understand why it had to be and they managed to get the best out of their team and that situation anyway.
Look at tech skills. Even if the types of projects that you generally service aren’t all technical in nature, general tech skills are going to help most project managers. They show an analytical side that project managers need to have in order to succeed more often than they fail.
Look for passion. Project managers need passion when leading projects. They are driven to finish successfully, they are driven to serve their project clients and they are driven to successfully lead their project teams and get the best and the most out of them. Look for a passion for the position you’re discussing with them and a passion for the profession in general. If you don’t see it or hearing during the conversation, move on to the next candidate. And stay away from the whiners. If they are complaining at length about a past position or organization, run away. You probably don’t want them. If they say something about not getting proper project support from a senior leader, then that may indicate passion for the project and frustration with not being able to give 110% to the project customer. That’s ok.
Get some detail on project successes. You can tell BS from reality if you’re a good interviewer or hiring manager. When those candidates start talking about past projects if it rolls of the tongue like a 2nd language, you know they know what they’re talking about and aren’t giving you some rehearsed lines from a page. They go into details about dollar amounts, team sizes, struggles they worked through, etc. You’ll probably hear about their weaknesses and strengths without even needing to ask because it will come out in the discussion of their past experiences with projects and project clients.
Emphasize experience over certification. If you want certification, that’s fine. But don’t overlook the experienced PMs out there who have been through it. So many great project managers do not have certification. If you just overload your staff with certified PMs and don’t get good, experienced project leadership on board, you will be sorry…guaranteed. And look anywhere. You can hire a great PM in another city, state or country and use them remotely….possibly with some travel required. A very good PM will be self-disciplined enough to manage one to many projects very well in a remote situation. And that way you can get great talent that you might otherwise not get because they don’t want to relocate and in this economy you probably don’t want to pay for relocation anyway. You don’t have to – remote can work to your advantage.
Summary
I think we all know that hiring good staff in any position is an art form – it is NOT luck. Be careful, be aware, and be prepared to ask the right questions. Look for knowledge about projects, customers, financials, resource management – all those things that go into being a good project manager on a daily basis.
What about our readers – what are your tips on hiring the right project managers for your PM infrastructure? And PMs looking for positions – what are your questions or experiences that you’re running into in the marketplace? Share and discuss.
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