This will help you (the candidate) prepare for a competency based interview using the STAR technique. It contains common Q&A's that I've been asked to answer during an interview. I've tried to make the questions more generic so you can use these to relate your responses to your roles. This document is another voluntary contribution I've created to help others in the market to have the edge in the market and to support my personal development units required to maintain some of my qualifications.

1. • Contains some possible Q&A’s that I’ve historically used to prepare for a competency or technical based interviews based upon my
experience as a PMO Manager. However, these questions can be used for many types of roles. You can use this template as a guide to
scribe your own answers, that align to your experiences.
• Remember you only get one chance to make a first impression.
• Within these slides I’ve answered some specific questions (bare in mind there could be many types of questions) but I’ve tried to pick the
common ones that are relevant to my personal working experiences. However they would be useful to anybody wishing to understand
HOW you should approach answering them, for a competency based interviews and this puts your responses in the forefront of your
mind ahead of the interview.
Benefits
• Builds your confidence to answer questions of this magnitude. Provides you with a framework to answer and refer your competency
experiences and forms of memory to specific scenarios based your career experiences.
• Maybe handing your interviewer a completed copy of your Q&A at the end of your interview shows your initiative and organisation skills
to prepare for the interview and its always good for your interviewer to have something tangible to take away.
• Good Luck and remember if you want something in life, you have to fight for it, no one says success can be achieved with your hands in
your pockets, be smarter and be ahead of the game.
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Aim Of This Presentation

2. [Candidate Name] preparation for a Competency & Technical
Based Interview With [Interviewee Name] at [Company Name]
Using The STAR* Interview Technique.
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STAR = Situation, Task, Action, Result

3. Give me an example of how you used your leadership skills?
Response
Situation:
• Fire drills were non standard reporting and often came from the EXCO as adhoc requests.
• The EXCO wanted to know what the risk of exposure/increased cost was from suppliers having large amounts of unnamed resources built
into the forecast.
Task:
• Prioritise my current workload to accommodate this requirement.
• Engage each PM with there project suppliers [WIPRO] & run a “generic resource” report to determine the “as is” status for remediation.
• Analyse the data with the stakeholders to remediate larger then expected amounts of unknown resources, to reduce the cost of risk exposure.
Action:
• I worked collaboratively with each PM & WIPRO to reduce forecast volumes.
• The STAR report only showed forecast changes we made, on the next working day report, only then could we evaluate the benefits we had
made to assess the risk reduction. This was exercise was repeated through to resolution until the risk had decreased to an acceptable level.
• Organised a quality assurance meeting with my team to ensure data accuracy and integrity of the changes before finalising into a
consolidated report to the EXCO.
Result:
• I owned the problem but as a team we completed the EXCO request reducing the forecast risk of potential project slippage.
• We built an additional query into the industrialized STAR report so we could take a preventative approach to tackling resource related issues
of similar nature in the future. 3
Skills Used: Resource, Time and Stakeholder Management, Issue Ownership, Data Analysis, Quality Assurance, Work Prioritisation

4. Describe a challenge you have faced in work and how you overcome it?
Response
Situation:
• The Commercial Banking Risk portfolio at Lloyds was large & complex with 30+ projects.
• Upon my arrival I needed to get up to speed quickly and gain knowledge of the portfolio so I could support the projects effectively and prioritise
my daily responsibilities along with trying to decreasing my learning curve for understanding new processes so I could immediately add value.
Task:
• Determine who the key stakeholders were
• Identify any challenges they faced with the PMO service offerings and support there project lifecycle framework needs.
• Quickly learn and present a helicopter view of what each project was aiming to deliver.
Action:
• I worked additional hours to understand the complexity of the portfolio & the projects within it, documenting and saving source locations.
• I built a single portfolio view using Visio, to identify key metrics and show the shape of the portfolio. (Increasing efficiency in my learning curve)
• I held workshops with key stakeholders, documented any challenges outlined from the PMO service offerings. I offered ideas for change and
obtained agreement to invoke change so benefits could be realised.
Result:
• Gained a quick win with the visual reflection of the portfolio, this allowed key stakeholders and I to understand the portfolio structure.
• The Visio diagram highlighted key concerns and facts about the portfolio that I could address and implement continuous improvement too.
• I built relationships within my team and senior stakeholders and earned some initial credit for integrating a portfolio architectural diagram that
helped my Head of Programme Delivery have access to multiple portfolio metrics in a single view, and it was adopted by over peers.
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Skills Used: Adaptability, Ability To Prioritise, Team Collaboration, Decrease My Learning Curve, Relationship Building, Portfolio Management

5. Can you give me an example of change that required the PMO’s support and
how you and your team managed it?
Response
Situation:
• Top level management imposed a review of its project processes to effectively reduce costs and streamline best practice.
• Product estimates were never challenged, it was assumed estimates from SME’s were sufficient for Business Case (BC) submission.
Task:
• The PMO team implemented an analysis layer into the BC creation and submission process to challenge estimates.
• Their was never a function or process between BC creation and submission to scrutinize estimates which asked the question:
“What cost improvements have you identified, or achieved before BC submission & approval?”
Action:
• The PMO created a this process layer and integrated a preventative approach to analyse it before each business case was submitted.
• Each supply team validated and evidenced cost performance improvements, where possible.
• In some cases additional calculative risks would arise as part of those improvements.
Result:
• Business case submissions undertook more analysis.
• Benefits gained were factored into the business case submission.
• More due diligence and optional cost savings were gained and earlier insight to unidentified risks.
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BC = Business Case – SME = Subject Matter Expert
Skills Used: Process Creation & Improvement, Chair Workshops With Seniors, Ability To Challenge, Politically Adaptable.

6. Give an example of a win-win situation you negotiated?
Response
Situation:
• Senior management imposed an organisational review of its FTE’s to reduce cost and streamline portfolio management.
Task:
• Consolidate 3 segregated business Risk portfolios into a single portfolio merging overlapping resource tasks that each portfolio previously performed in silo.
• Retain quality as much as possible, reduce or eliminate tasks, or bring previously owned tasks from offshore teams back into the accountability of local
resources.
Action:
• Identify, Review, Eliminate cross functional portfolio task duplication; identify tasks based upon a scoring metric to retain or discard a task based upon value
measurements
• Made synergies to compensate for the revised organisation structure.
• Analysed and reduced the reporting frequency. Re-assigned previously owned offshore PM tasks supported by PMO back to onshore PM’s. Created centralised
governance calls from all 3 risk areas.
Result:
• Maintained morale and professionalism to the end of my contract even thou I knew I would be losing my work placement.
• I left a legacy by building a revised framework to support the future PMO framework whilst still retaining professionalism until my departure.
• Effectively a creating a WIN/WIN for both Lloyds as an organisation and my last days of value towards the change.
Skills Used: Ability To React and Prioritise Workload, Contribute To Operational Improvements, Retain Professionalism Under Constraints,
Depart leaving a legacy of benefits.

7. What are your key competencies and why should we hire you?
Do you have any weaknesses?, If yes, how have you developed to improve them?
Response
• I only judge my competencies based upon on my last role, however repeat engagements with the same organisation is a reflection of my
capabilities and the value that I bring. These are coupled with internal employment references which support my technical knowledge and my
soft skills to communicate effectively.
• I focus and align business vision to the organisations PMO service offerings so I can support and streamline best practice to any programme,
concentrating on results.
• A PMO needs to reflect a vision of value add and not be deemed a burden to its stakeholders through policing and keeping to standards.
• PMO maturity is about taking people on a journey, providing guidance, perseverance and acting upon supporting their needs.
• I believe in team work and making sure responsibility is equally shared. Maintaining transformation of knowledge across the team is also
important so where possible I strive to promote this.
• Organizations are continuingly trying to reduce costs and maintain or improve service levels, and in my experience within this field, compiling
audits on your own PMO and offering survey feed back to your stakeholders is an important aspect of PMO growth, diversification and
advancing best practice of project management. Although costs can only be reduced to so much before the service is affected.
Weakness: Historically I like to think I have made some good and bad hiring decisions.
• I’ve re-enforced my learning experiences back into each new hire and I believe my knowledge of hiring effectively has matured due to my
experience, confidence and my ability make more valuable and quantifiable judgements.
7Focus points: I really enjoy my work and its just as important for me to make sure I enjoy my working environment as much as it is important for my
employer to choose the right candidate. My previous engagements have been continuous because A) I deliver results, B) I have a professional but fun
character C) I know how to give my role 100% and support evolving organisations.

8. Q & A Answered Answered
During The At The
Interview End
• What is the current size of the PMO team and how are the roles defined within it?
• What’s the total monetary size of the portfolio?
• At what intervals do you currently hold steering committees?
• What foreseeable challenges do you have where you could see my role adding value to this
position?
• Do you currently have any PPM tools like Clarity or do you utilize SharePoint to aid in governance
and centralization of information?
• How many projects within the portfolio does the PMO currently manage?
• Will there be any travel involved to other regional sites?
• How would your direct reports describe you and your management style?
• Is this a new role or would I be replacing an existing permanent/contractual employee?
• If I was offered the role would I be provided with a Laptop/VPN Access/Blackberry?
• What’s the turn around time for on-boarding the chosen candidate once the decision has been
made?
• How do you feel the interview went today, and did I meet your expectations?
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