Engineering Manager Interview Questions
Engineering management is a vital wing of engineering and technology. Engineering managers lead teams of engineers and technicians and successfully carry out projects. Engineering managers are mostly engineering graduates with a post graduate management degree. Their expertise covers project planning, proper team selection, allotment of work according to skills, motivation of the team to complete it before deadline and to lead a team to solve problems occurring during the project. They would also be expected to take care of the quality of the work done.
Interviews for engineering managers generally include questions to test their team leading skills. The answers should reflect the managerial abilities of the candidate like team success rate, maintaining goodwill in the team, protecting the team members during instances of failures etc. Answers reflecting problems in the team lead by the candidate would discourage the interviewer.
- Tell about yourself.
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- How do you communicate with your team?
- What is your experience in managing small and large teams?
- Explain your experience in project management.
- What do you consider as the biggest success in your career?
- What do you consider as the biggest failure in your career?
- How do you handle your best team member?
- How do you handle your worst team member?
- How do you handle your team member who is frequently absent for work?
- Rate yourself in terms of technical skills.
- Rate yourself in terms of management skills.
- How do you handle work related stresses?
- What changes have you made in your team since taking charge?
- What do you think are your blind spots?
- Describe any situation where you have worked with a tight deadline.
- What is your experience in product development?
- How do you compensate for initial delays in your project?
- What are the start and end points of a project?
- Why do you want to work with us?
- Why should we hire you?
- Why do you want to move from your current organization?
- How have you progressed during the course of your career?
- What are your hobbies?
- What is your ideal vacation spot?
- How do you rate your spending habits?
- We give you $500 to shop of only 2 items totaling exactly. What would you buy?
- How do you take care of your health?
- Have you achieved today, what you had dreamt five years back?
- How would your team rank you in terms of getting work done before deadlines?
- How would your superior rank you in terms of getting work done before deadlines?
- Rank yourself in terms of leadership.
- How comfortable are you at addressing 100 people?
- When and how do you protect your team?
- What are the methods you implement to motivate your team?
- Do you have any questions for us?