各位知乎友，基於最近收到的很多的諮詢，下面是基於過往面試的問題做了更新（斜體部分），基本上cover 了所有的外企面試套路，在行業內從小小專案工程師混到負責亞洲的專案管理工作，下面是一些常見問題及答案，供各位參考，希望能有幫助，如有需要具體指導的朋友，歡迎付費諮詢。

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A GODEN RULE：

Job Interview is a fair play show, Answer a question as well as ask a question you need. Ask with Confidence and kindness, present with your guts. it's a game of Show and Tell in essence, First answer the questions with clarity, then following by a specific example, then ask a question to the interviewer as you need with sincerity.

1。 Tell me a little bit about yourself？

Well as you may see from my Resume， I’m Michael， Michael Wang， Professionally speaking， I’ve been working on the project management and new product development over 10 years in Multinational companies of automotive fields in China， Currently I’m working in xxx ， a Swiss company， as Customer Program Manager for Vehicle Acoustic and heat management parts ， Previously as Product Program Manager in xxx of Fiat for Powertrain Components， Before that as Program Manager in xxx for seating and interior parts。 Now I’m open to looking for new opportunity is due to company organizational Change- Most PM job will be allocated to plant for cost reduction。 From a view of my personality， I’m a guy of the Proactive and Persistent which fit the role of Program Management。

Could you please kindly tell me something about you？

Note： You don‘t have to tell each experience you had if you have too much， just tell the point that interests/related to the employer。

2。 How do you resolve the conflicts among project team members？

Well。 firstly PM should accept that facts that conflict is nature from mentality， it means team cares about what they do to our project

。 Understanding the root cause of the conflicts to know why it happen， then discuss one by one to see their concerns， then call them together to have an align meeting，

focus on the problem instead of personality， no point fingers， to see what they can do together proceed，

this approach normally solves 90% of conflicts。 Sometimes it’s just a matter of short of input from other functions or misunderstanding。 Escalation or highlights is a strong tool that can be

used carefully to solve the remaining 10%

， For example， if our buyer complains our engineer about too many engineering changes that increased a lot of her “extra work”。 I will check with each one of them to clarify and comfort。 to buyer： because we’re in a phase of development and customer requirement changes， we have to work together to drive this， to engineer： we might involve supplier earlier next time to know their capabilities and seek advice in early design stage。 To both of them， we will get xx profit increase for us if we do xxx， otherwise our competitor will do xx。 We will lose xxx。 And Top management will be upsetting to our performance。 Btw， what kind of authority is given to PM in your company to review team’s performance？

3。 How do you assure project budget/cost is under control？

1ST and fore most is clearly knowing the assumption of Award definition of project scope， a

nd the detail business case of our project nomination before project kick off。

for example what is the budgeted Cost of BOM， ED&D， Tooling， Additional Capex if any。 etc。 which is the financial baseline of a program。 SOW&SSOW。

2nd is to acquire detail breakdowns of each cost item， and follow them with the development progress by financial charts such as EBIT， ROS， IRR， Payback， for example if an foreseeable dramatic cost increase than the baseline budget， a recovery plan has to be driven to get it back on track。 Take advantage of engineering change initiated by Customer to maximize project profit as much as possible， and seek every possibility of cost down might have acquired from suppliers or internally ， such as from plant， or laboratory， etc。

3rd， the last but not the least is， as the Program Manager， we need to treat each penny spent like spent from my own pocket， especially when I’m in an easy position to make decision， and seek every single opportunity to increase project margin， I’m wondering how much budget control responsibility given for PM in your company？

4。 How do you achieve a Customer Satisfaction during the product development？ Especially when you are suffering some product problem caused by yourself。

1st。 Based on my past proven practices， there is a great rule to make Customer Satisfaction Happen， which is “Under Commit and Over deliver” as my lessons learned in the past 10 years。 For example， if we might solve a product issue within 2 weeks based on the facts and data we analyzed， and customer is pushing us to provide an target date ASAP to close， I’ll tell them that we need roughly 3 weeks to solve it and I’ll confirm with my team to let you know， then if we solve it 2 weeks， customer is happy and we’re safe， otherwise if we say 1 week which could lead to customer complaints for slow feedback。

2nd。 Promptly response small requests from Customers， if there is some simple thing we could help， we shall do it which is also helpful to promote good customer relationship， for example， if Customer want us to provide an scrap part for the counterpart boundary check， and he or she have no sufficient resource to buy from us， as PM shall support for the point if there is no big cost increase。 How do you view the facts of Customer Complaints to PM group？

5。 What is the most difficult thing you have done during your project Management experience？ And how you solve it？

Well， Yes I fully aware PM is an exhaustive position that requires a great energy

and patience

。 The definition to the difficulty changes in the growing of my professional skillsets and MINDSETS， for example， when I was just enter the business as an program engineer， I found the most difficult thing was to get feedback from team members on time， now I teat it’s a good opportunity to know a person well。 As a matter of now， if I have to say the most difficult thing is to change a team member’s passive mindset towards an proactive way， because job skills can be developed， even behaviors can be corrected by giving soft or tough treatment。 But a people’s mindset only can be influenced by continuous positive messages and example， and it takes time， what I can do is demonstrating a positive example to show them what can be done， and what progress can be made to influence their mindset， My method is looking on the bright side and seek what can be done， DO NOT COMPLAIN together with team members。 Sometimes I might give in to get something in return as trade off， but I will never， never ever give up。 So may I ask， What do you think of the most difficult thing is in your company？

6。 Why do you think you have the capability to advance as a PM leader in next few years？

That’s a pretty good questions， as you could see in my resume， I once was a PM leader in my previous company which provides me a solid experience knowing the difference between managing a team and a project， manage a team requires a lot of more focus about people than the task itself， the priority of a functional leader is to drive the group targets done by coaching and motivation them according to their skillset， that is Put right people in a right place， which I already had in MM， Manage a Project requires a lot of more focus on solving a problem not a personality， the priority of PM is to get one specific job done according to agreed plan。 And prioritize issues by First thing first， That is deliver right product at right time。 For example， I once re-allocate job split in MM PPL group which was under my leadership by using their Character difference to have a good outcome。 an introverted lady focus on design and paper work， an outgoing guy focus on local OEM PM jobs。 What are the your metrics to evaluate a performance of a successful PM ？

7。 How do you assure product development within timing control？

1st Clearly understand the Customer Milestone and the different requirements on each phases， which is the essential input to create internal product development plan。

2nd Work out an Program Development Critical Path based on company’s Development Procedure and define internal program milestone， which needs to be 2 -3 weeks ahead of customer milestone。 And get detail work plan of each related function responsible。

3rd， Get program Plan reviewed AND AGREED by project team members， which make sure they know what they do and when they need to complete and follow it regularly in project review meeting by MS project software， r

egarding the

potential delay

， the 1st tactic is to influence the factor of potential delay and prevent it happen， 2nd tactic confirm the consequence if it really happen， sometimes the delay is just a bluff or just want to probe our schedule bottom line， figure out the recovery plan with team if delay is confirmed。

4th， Always consider some buffer timing in possible activities such as PV or qualification phase。 Always Prepare Plan B for High Risky items。 Is there any budget allowed for contingency during making project budgets？

8。 How do you manage the balance of Quality， Cost and Timing in development？

As we all know the core competency of a PM is to achieve the best balance on the golden tri-angle constraints， which can be made by scope management， as program manager I fully aware all of the 3 aspects are same important that is critical for project success。 the way to realize the balance is knowing the dynamics among them， avoid to go extreme to one of them， to deliver the right quality within right cost level at right time。 For instance， if Customer wants us to provide an Poka-Yoka/error-proofing solution to improve the assembly line robustness， we may have different solutions at different cost level， as a Program Manager， I will drive the team to work out an suitable one to just meet

the requirements

， Neither over engineering nor under design。 We do what the best we could do within cost level and timing duration， if the requirements exceed our defined scope， we need to drive to go through change process， May I know what your leadership’s most concern or expectation on PM role？

9。 What’s your typical working day like？

Well this is an easy question， Normally I get up at 6：30 am then run about 5km with

fresh breakfasts

， then drive to office and start my computer at the same time I’ll make a cup of coffee。 Then check my workbook on the to do list， and write done what need to be done today and plan what need to be done in upcoming 1 week， in the morning I’ll check my emails and make some planning job。 Follow up some project activities and dealing with some IMPORTANT job first， such as Communicating with Customers or CTF on timeline updates， In the afternoon， I hold project review meeting with team if planed， because there is a study shows that people is easy to be influenced in the afternoon。 join some global review meeting with European colleagues。 Then to check what have done as planed in the early morning。 Check。 If not， I’ll make it to next page， then call it a day。

10。 You don’t have the product knowledge we’re looking for， why you think you are qualified to the job？

Well， Surely product knowledge is one part of project management 3P field need， which is People， Process and Product， Product knowledge can be learned in a short way based on my knowledge on R&D and engineering background。 And I’m a quick learner， for example， I quickly learned a brand new 2D drawings and check the component structure in Cartia， I once tear down an Multiair2 CKD air module and assembly it again within 1 day by following BOM and assembly drawings。 What I’m confident to take the job is based on my accumulated skillset on using PM tools and methods and capability to lead the team to get a job done。 Such as timeline management， cross functional

team leadership

， cost control， 8D/FMEA Quality issue resolve， etc What do you think of it？

11。 What will you do when all the team member are against to your decisions or ideas？

This is a rare case， but if it happen， Given this situation what I will carefully reflect on if my decision based on figures and facts or benefits for our company， if yes after check with my line manager before making the final call， I’ll keep on stress on the benefit we can get with team until they’re convinced， for example when team member thinks a task that have to be done is too difficult， I’ll tell them look on the bright side of the difficulties， such as we may get more experienced in our know-how personally and gain more profits from the market， and may increase the personal values for career advancement， If still no， seek on other alternatives with team alignments， because all the roads leads to Rome，

I believe there is not only one way to solve or mitigate a problem

。 How do you view a complaint to PM from other functions？

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Last Question to interviewers：

Well， it‘s a pleasure talking with you， and thank you for your time， So Can you offer me the job？ when I will know your final decision？