50 Program Director Interview Questions 2019

Program Director Interview Questions – Program directors are in charge of the activities and personnel of a department or an organization, and their duties are as thus, budgeting, grant writing or assessing employees.

They also organize the efforts of their employees, arrange programming and some other events, make and monitor schedules and keep precise records of all projects. These professionals may also be in charge of selecting the content of programs and assessing a program’s efficacy.

Program directors must have solid organizational and communication skills to oversee different employees and tasks. They may also need to work with some other kinds of technology, so some experience with computer software and websites may be beneficial. The following chartgives you an overview of what you need to know about entering this field.

Program Director Tasks.

• A program director organizes and directs the activities of personnel and departments within the program they are part of.
• They make work schedules and appoint tasks to staff members including performing personal duties, such as hire staff, assess an employee’s work performance and maintain budgets for their programs.
• Added to his these responsibilities, they’re required to organize and supervise fundraising events and to coordinate with community outreach programs.
• They may write grant proposals and keep track of large-scale donations. As a program director, you’d be expected to assess your program’s needs and to ensure that it meets its objectives.

Responsibilities and Duties of a Program Director

• Ensuring an appropriate program or project management framework is in place, incorporating the NI Gateway Review Process if required
• Preparing the program briefly, project initiation documents or equivalent and business case among other documents
• appraising options and submitting for approval
• securing resources and expertise from the client organization as required, for example, appointing professional advisers to support the project sponsor role
• co-ordinating and directing end user input
• co-ordinating value management strategy
• controlling changes following approval
• determining and managing risks to the program
• managing the program budget, including risk allowance
• acting as the sole point of contact with the program manager
• co-ordinating and fostering teamwork
• managing the program manager’s performance of delegated responsibility
• establishing formal reporting arrangements on program or project progress
• defining criteria for control and management of the program or project
• assisting the program manager in the resolution of problems
• receiving and reviewing detailed reports on the program or project from the program manager
• ensuring the program manager receives decisions on time
• establishing, with the program manager, a common approach to major issues that arise
• establishing a mechanism to ensure regular dialogue with contractors to promote problem-solving, team working and risk sharing

Required Skills and Attributes for Program Director Job Position.

The Programme Director should be able to:

• apply quality management principles and processes
• apply risk assessment and management principles and processes
• network effectively, negotiate well and influence people
• to broker relationships with stakeholders within and outside the program
• be aware of the broader perspective and how it influences the program

What Are the Salary Expectations and Job Outlook for a Program Director?

Program directors can be found in many diverse fields of career, including medical, education and broadcast media. A program director position with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), for instance, deals with funding and fostering research on neurological disorders. A person in this position would also require to help oversee the funding of new directives in such a program.

Other positions as a program director may land you a job in radio and television broadcasting, where it is your job to define the needs of your audience and execute the best ways to ensure the program’s success. In this field, you may have the chance to run your own station and select the content personally.

This field also offers positions with the Public Radio Program Directors Association, whose mission is to be public media’s principal advocate for content on the radio and on all other platforms. According to O*Net OnLine, the median salary for program directors was $68,440, as of 2015.

Director Interview Questions

• 1. Have you managed a project in our industry previously?

• 2. Tell me about a recent project that you managed from beginning to end?

• 3. What is the most complicated project you managed?.

• 4. What was your favorite project and what did you like about it?

• 5. What are the top 3 lessons learned from your past projects?

• 6. How have you handled failed projects or conducted a project turnaround?

• 7. Tell us about a time when you made the wrong decision on a project, the impact and the corrective actions you took to fix it?

• 8. How have you handled a challenging situation on a project and how did you deal with it?

• 9. Can you tell us how you’ve demonstrated creativity to solve a past problem?

• 10. Have you managed remote teams, outsourced teams or teams located in different areas?

• 11. How have you applied the PMBOK processes to your project?

• 12. How do you deal with project changes?

• 13. What project management methodology do you prefer?

• 14. How have you improved project management processes in your current role?

• 15. How do you initiate a project?

• 16. What is the best way to set up and manage a cross-functional team for a larger project or program?

• 17. Describe the steps involved from the time of project initiation to project completion?

• 18. How do you prioritize multiple urgent tasks with the project team?

• 19. How do you plan a project schedule?

• 20. How do you allocate resources?

• 21. How do you plan, monitor and manage project risks?

• 22. What is the largest project budget you’ve managed and how did you manage it?

• 23. When do you know if a project is off-track?

• 24. What metrics do you use to ensure the project is still on track?

• 25. How do you go about turning around a troubled project?

• 26. When a project hits a roadblock and doesn’t go according to schedule, what actions do you take?

• 27. How do you provide status updates?

• 28. What goes into a meaningful status report?

• 29. How do you close a project?

• 30. What are the top 3 leadership behaviors a project manager should demonstrate?

• 31. What’s your leadership style?

• 32. What three skills do you think are most important to be an effective project manager?

• 33. What’s the one thing a project manager should do?

• 34. Tell me about your organizational skills

• 35. How do you improve your project management knowledge?

• 36. How do you communicate a failure or negative news the team?

• 37. Assume the customer is not happy with the project’s result and does not accept the solution. What would you as a project manager do?

Interview Question Intent

• 38. What kind of people do you find difficult to work with?

• 39. How would you describe your communication and leadership style?

• 40. When do you seek help outside of the project team?

• 41. How do you work with customers, sponsors, and stakeholders?

• 42. Did your colleagues or your manager ever challenge your decisions?

• 43. How do you gain agreement with teams?

• 44. How do you handle office politics?

• 45. Can you give us an example of a time you successfully managed up?

• 46. How will you gain and keep the support of your project sponsors?

• 47. How do you handle conflict?

• 48. Tell me about a time when you had to work with difficult co-workers?

• 49. How do you keep your team members motivated?

• 50. How do you handle a team member who isn’t productive?