Yay, I have an interview but need tips etc

[theadventuresofhawkmoth]

So I have an interview for that internal position, project manager role, and it's next week so I have a week to prepare which is a surprise - more notice than usual.

I've to give a 15 min presentation on a project I've seen from initiation to evaluation. I'm a bit unsure of what key things to include, what they might be looking for me to discuss and what they might ask after the presentation if anyone has any ideas?

The 5 competencies are:

planning and organising (I'm a bit stuck at this one)
Team working
partnership working
communication and influencing
analysis and problem solving

I haven't worked in this department before so I don't have any examples or experience in the area, I would be joining the department on a temporary basis and hope to get more skills.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

Have you been a project manager before (ie had to pull together a team, build project plan, communicated tasks, activities and timelines)?

The key starting point is identifying your project (or activity of some description where you've done the organising) so you can build your presentation around it.

I'm just a bit concerned by your comment that you're stuck on Planning and organising, which is at the heart of a Project manager's role.

Not as a job title but I have managed projects although none didn't really involve bringing together a team or managing a team, mostly working with other departments, liasing with them and also external partners.

I think my issue with the planning and organising competency is that I'm not sure any of my examples are 'good enough'? I think they all sound pretty weak.

I've been told by a colleague that the questions under this competency tend to be about 'tight deadlines', 'producing to a high standard', 'failed to meet expectations', 'conflicting priorities'.

My DH says to talk about my dissertation which I completed recently and was work sponsored...but I'm wondering if they'd be wanting something a bit better.

I could maybe talk about a report I had to do that involved lots of data analysis, with an urgent timeline, to go to an external partner, but part of the work wasn't really my role and once I had pulled information together, I struggled with making sense of it and how best to present it and had to pass it to another team...I don't know if that's good enough because it makes me look like I can't do something.

I probably have lots I could use but none of them sound good enough.

Also the presentation asks me to talk about A project but DH thinks I should talk about a project specific to the role I'm applying for which is in an area I've never done before (but want experience in, and it's a maternity cover role)

It's tough!

If you're going for a project manager interview, you need to give them evidence that you have the required competencies to manage a project - discussing your dissertation and how you delivered it could constitute delivering a project.

For example

timelines, planning your phases for the dissertation (Lit review, gathering data, writing, draft versions, managing your stakeholders eg supervisor, study participants etc) and how you organised dependent activities into the right sequence.

Don't fall into the trap of just describing your dissertation, you need to ensure it will convince them you understand project management principles.