Impossible Interviews

Hi James,

I'd disagree a bit, this is more about project management - which is where an awful lot of engineers end up - than senior management. As a senior manager my answer would be "I'd put a good project manager on the job"

It's actually quite a good question, but the answer I'd be looking for (and I have used similar questions in interviews) would be "you can only manage what you can manage, but what you can do is plan effectively, keep tracking the project to the plan, adjust the plan so that it is realistic, and - most importantly - the moment that you are aware of issues that are out of your control that could delay the plan you raise them, LOUDLY" If someone just said "plan" I certainly wouldn't give them the job.

Engineering employers are always desperate to find engineers who are or can become effective project managers. If I'd been any good at it I'd have probably got to senior management 20-30 years earlier than I did! Although maybe if I'd have been a good project manager I'd have been a worse engineering leader...we'll never know.


There was an interview question that used to be a favourite at the BBC which, at the time it was given to me for an internal promotion, I considered an "impossible" one: "You are supervising a wireman who is brilliant at his job, and works three times faster than his colleagues, but after lunch (this was back in the days of drinking at lunchtimes!) you can't get any work out of him at all. How do you manage him?"

With hindsight, the correct answer for me - although definitely not the answer they were looking for - was "You and I work together to give me management training so that I know how to do it!!!" (In fact that may have been what I said, either way I didn't get the job. I left and ended up in a much more interesting R&D role...although in fact my first project management role was supervising wiremen who drank heavily at lunchtime!)


Cheers,

Andy

Hi James,

I'd disagree a bit, this is more about project management - which is where an awful lot of engineers end up - than senior management. As a senior manager my answer would be "I'd put a good project manager on the job"

It's actually quite a good question, but the answer I'd be looking for (and I have used similar questions in interviews) would be "you can only manage what you can manage, but what you can do is plan effectively, keep tracking the project to the plan, adjust the plan so that it is realistic, and - most importantly - the moment that you are aware of issues that are out of your control that could delay the plan you raise them, LOUDLY" If someone just said "plan" I certainly wouldn't give them the job.

Engineering employers are always desperate to find engineers who are or can become effective project managers. If I'd been any good at it I'd have probably got to senior management 20-30 years earlier than I did! Although maybe if I'd have been a good project manager I'd have been a worse engineering leader...we'll never know.


There was an interview question that used to be a favourite at the BBC which, at the time it was given to me for an internal promotion, I considered an "impossible" one: "You are supervising a wireman who is brilliant at his job, and works three times faster than his colleagues, but after lunch (this was back in the days of drinking at lunchtimes!) you can't get any work out of him at all. How do you manage him?"

With hindsight, the correct answer for me - although definitely not the answer they were looking for - was "You and I work together to give me management training so that I know how to do it!!!" (In fact that may have been what I said, either way I didn't get the job. I left and ended up in a much more interesting R&D role...although in fact my first project management role was supervising wiremen who drank heavily at lunchtime!)


Cheers,

Andy