Hey!

I'm Kelsey.

And welcome back to The Retro on The Digital Project Manager podcast—where we dig into past lessons, future trends, and what they mean for your career.

I wanna start us off today with a question.

If you had to describe yourself as a candy bar, which one would you be?

I got asked this question once in a job interview and it totally threw me off.

I immediately forgot the name of every candy in existence.

But in the realm of tough interview questions, that's honestly pretty mild.

But what about when you get hit with a real curve ball?

Something you didn't prepare for that digs into your experience or skills?

How do you keep your cool and answer in a way that actually helps you land the role?

For project managers especially, interviews can feel like a pop quiz on every project you've ever worked on.

It's like a minefield of "tell me about a time..." questions that can make you second guess if you've ever actually managed a project in your life.

So that's what we're getting into today—how to prep for your next PM interview.

How to tackle the questions you can predict, how to respond to the ones you don't see coming, and what to do when things don't go perfectly.

Joining me today is Kayla Quijas, a senior project manager and career coach who helps professionals land project management roles.

Kayla, welcome to the show!

Hi, Kelsey!

Thank you so much for having me.

Kayla, tell us a little bit more about yourself and the work that you do.

My professional career started a little bit un traditionally.

I actually started as a professional cake decorator.

I did that for about five years and then realized that I was stuck at a dead end.

I had one day in particular where I worked a 12 hour shift and then was asked to come back, and that day just something snapped inside of me that made me realize.

Complete dead end.

This is going nowhere.

And I quit on the spot that day with no backup plan.

I ended up being determined to move into the corporate world.

So my first move was to become a receptionist at a law firm, and from there, I rapidly climbed the corporate ladder.

So now I'm a senior project manager at a global law firm, and I oversee some of the firm's largest client accounts, and I absolutely love it.

When I started to look back over my career trajectory, I realized that coaches played a huge part in my career success, and that led me to find my real passion, which is inspiring others to escape their dead end jobs and pursue fulfilling careers of their own.

Now I am also a certified senior career coach, and I empower others to make intentional career transitions.

That's such an interesting backstory, and we're really excited to have you on for this episode, which is all about curveball interview questions.

So these are questions that by definition, you don't see coming, but I do wanna challenge that a little bit.

So what are some of those not so common challenging questions we can expect to get asked in a project management job interview?

That's a great question.

And before I dive into specifics, I really think it's very important to oom out for a little bit and talk about why these kinds of questions come up.

Because curveball questions, they're not about content, they're about character hiring managers.

Use them to see how you think, how you lead.

How you handle pressure when things fall apart, which is exactly what project management demands.

So when someone throws you a question that catches you off guard, what they're really doing is watching for something deeper than what is shown on your resume.

They're looking for who you are under pressure because that's what they're hiring for.

So are you someone who can stay calm when things go sideways?

Can you think clearly when you don't have all the data?

Can you admit what you don't know without getting defensive?

And can you adapt on the fly?

Making smart calls when the plan has to change because in real world project management, that is the job.

So you asked about specific curve ball questions.

I really see these falling into two categories.

One category is where you've never faced the situation before, and another one is where you have faced the situation, but the story doesn't make you look great.

So I have a couple frameworks for these and I'm sure we're gonna dive into those a little bit as we flow through the conversation.

Absolutely.

I love that framing of this and the way to think about it of if you're in the project management career, you probably have a lot of the skills you already need to answer questions that might catch you off guard.

So yeah, let's get into it.

Tell me a little bit more about the framework for answering these types of questions and preparing ourselves for them ahead of time.

Yeah, so I think preparing is really key.

The best preparation isn't about trying to guess every single curve ball question that's going to come your way because you're going to try yourself nuts if you try to do that.

Who would ever think if you were a candy bar, what kind would you be like?

You're never, yeah, you're never gonna come up with that.

So in this world, you are just gonna drive yourself insane.

So what I encourage my clients to do is come up with a story bank.

At least six, possibly more.

That's the bare minimum.

So when I work with my clients, I give them what I call project management flashcards.

And these flashcards have them come up with stories around certain themes, successes for sure, but also failures.

Times you've had to deal with conflict times you manage risks.

Things that show how you lead without authority and how you deal with ambiguity and these stories, they are flexible enough so that you can use them in multiple ways.

So that's really where you wanna start, is having a strong story bank.

And then when you have that, mapping those to a few key traits.

One story might demonstrate leadership and problem solving, whereas another one might show emotional intelligence and adaptability, and then you practice thinking out loud.

That's the next key step because curve balls aren't just about content, they're about how you process.

Under pressure, and I guarantee you that's what that candy bar question was all about.

They don't care what kind of candy bar you are.

They care about your thought process and how you think through it, and what happens when you're presented with a question that is just completely out of nowhere.

So practice explaining your logic step-by-step so that you can stay grounded even when your brain says uhoh.

So if you prepare like that, you're not just memorizing answers, you're building.

A range.

So that's just general preparation.

But I do have two very specific frameworks that we can think about.

So one of 'em is for when you really don't have a time, right?

This classic interview type question is, tell me about a time when.

And that could be considered a curve ball if you're like, oh my gosh, I don't have a time when, or, there's the questions that are designed to make you look bad.

What is your greatest weakness?

Tell me about a time you failed.

Things like that.

So I have two frameworks.

The first one is designed to deal with these questions that you don't have a story for.

It helps you gracefully navigate that situation.

While still showing the traits that a hiring manager is looking for in a project manager, it's all about staying calm, reframing the question and thinking strategically.

And I've put it in a way that project managers will hopefully resonate with and not roll their eyes at, I call it the RAID framework, RAID.

So R.

Recognize the intent.

What are they trying to get at?

So instead of panicking, taking a beat and figuring out what's the intent here?

Are they trying to figure out, how do I lead?

Are they trying to figure out how do I manage conflict resolution?

Or is it prioritization?

What's the underlying objective there?

So pausing and saying, that's a great question.

I'm thinking through what would best highlight how I typically handle X types of situations.

Fill in the blank there.

So that's the first step.

The A is to acknowledge the gap.

Own it.

Own the gap with maturity, not defensiveness.

If you don't have a direct story, just say so.

It's not a weakness.

It shows honesty and self-awareness.

Just say, I haven't faced that exact situation, but I've handled something similar that used the same type of skills.

And then you do the I aspect, which is you identify the transferable situation, pull a parallel story from your experience bank.

You don't have to match it exactly.

It just needs to be relevant.

It shows that you're resourceful and that you can be flexible across different situations.

For example, in one project I had a senior stakeholder push back hard on a timeline.

And while it's not the exact same scenario, it taught me a lot about managing up and holding boundaries.

These are the things that it taught me.

And then finally, and this is like that candy bar question you were asking, describe your thinking, walk them through the mental process out loud.

So this is the D.

Describe the thinking.

Show how you'd approach it, break it down like you would as a project manager in a work plan.

You don't know everything as a project manager, you're not expected to, but you need to know how to approach anything that's thrown your way.

So you could just say, if that came up, here's how I'd approach it.

So that's the rate framework that I came up with.

I love that.

I think we can all relate to that moment of panic when you don't feel like you have a good answer during an interview.

Being able to slow down and say, okay, R-A-I-D-R.

Recognize the intent.

A, acknowledge the gap.

I identify the transferrable story, and D, describe the thinking.

I absolutely love that framework.

Tell us a little bit more about the framework for that second scenario where you're asked a question that's designed to make you look bad.

For us, we think they're meant to make us look bad, right?

That's what it seems like.

But in reality, they're really trying to test how you think on your feet and how you handle some of these situations.

So we don't know that they're coming and they certainly hit like a gut punch.

Sometimes there are questions designed to see how do you handle being human in a high pressure, high stake situation, which.

Let's be honest, an interview is for some of us more than others, depending on the situation.

What matters in these situations where they're testing you.

It's not whether or not you've handled something perfectly in the past.

It's what you learned from it and how you take that into your practice as a project manager moving forward.

How I have designed this framework is it's a postmortem framework, which again, with project managers, we're very familiar with postmortems and lessons learned.

So POST, first you wanna start with painting a picture.

Give some context just enough so that we know what happened.

O own the mistake.

Own up to it.

That shows maturity and emotional intelligence.

Nobody's perfect.

We all make mistakes, but if you try to dodge and point fingers, it just is a glaring red flag.

S show the impact that it had.

I did this thing as a result.

Here's what happened.

And then t turn the lesson into positive leverage.

Show how you grew or the difference that it makes Now, it's not about defending yourself, it's about.

Demonstrating growth, and I actually have a really good example of this in my own experience as a project manager if you want to hear it.

Yeah, no, I would love that.

So as a project manager, I actually behave much more like a program manager.

I work with a lot of high powered stakeholders with very strong personalities.

I one time forwarded an email from one of those stakeholders to another one, just with a quick FYI, and that was it.

I was busy.

I didn't think about it.

I was just like, oh, this stakeholder needs to know.

Boom.

Sent FYI.

That was it to my horror stakeholder.

Number two, reached out to stakeholder number one to put a stop on what she was doing and copied me.

And basically said, Kayla told me this please stop what you're doing.

And stakeholder number one was furious to say the least.

Caught her completely off guard.

And she lost a great deal of trust in me.

Trust that I had worked very hard to gain, and she made that abundantly clear to me in a lot of ways.

So I gave it a little bit of time to cool off and then I set up a video call with her.

I worked remotely, but in a situation like that, it's very important to have as much human contact as you possibly can.

And I came right out and I said, I owned up to the mistake.

I said, I'm sorry.

There was no malice intended, and I will do everything I can to earn your trust back.

I opted for honesty and vulnerability in that situation.

And she met me with honesty and vulnerability of her own, telling me that, she was frank.

She said, I hope you can gain my trust back and that it's gonna take time and it's gonna take effort.

Kayla, on your part.

We set clear guidelines around how she expected me to keep her in the loop going forward, and I was very careful to be sure that I followed those guidelines.

And eventually I did earn her trust back this experience, while tough taught me the importance of understanding stakeholder communication expectations early, and that I act in accordance with that.

So if you can see like stepping back, that is a time I messed up.

I messed up badly.

But I really did learn a very valuable experience from it.

Yeah, I love that.

And such a great example that I think a lot of listeners can probably relate to.

And I wonder if too, can you talk a little bit about some of the wrong ways to approach a curve ball question?

What are some of the mistakes, the challenges we should avoid in answering questions that might trip us up in the moment?

Absolutely, yes.

I love this because most people don't realize that the biggest mistakes with curve balls don't come from the answer themselves, but it's how you approach it.

Like we've been talking about.

So I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make is panicking or freezing.

You hear the question and they can see it on your face.

You blank or you rush into a messy answer just to fill the silence.

Because when you're the one on the receiving end, the silence feels like forever, right?

And I get it right.

It's uncomfortable, but the best thing that you can do.

Is pause and take a breath and by yourself a little bit of time, a calm five second pause is better than a 62nd spiral.

And the funny thing about pausing in conversations is it's actually perceived as more charismatic because it means that you're thinking about what they said.

You're being thoughtful about it, so it's much better than panicking.

Another thing, don't fake it.

Don't make up a story or feel pressured to cobble something together.

If you don't have the experience, own it.

Use the RAID framework.

Come up with something that's parallel, and then just say, if I were in this situation, here's what I would do.

How you handle it.

That's a strength, not a weakness.

Definitely don't ramble.

Being concise and not rambling is definitely something that you want to be aware of.

So that's why these frameworks are really helpful.

And don't apologize.

Being in uncomfortable situations, it's pretty natural to fill that space with, I'm sorry.

Or oh gosh, I don't have an answer.

Oh God, I'm so sorry.

It's a human reaction.

I'm sorry when it's not warranted.

But if you mess up, say, I'm sorry, but I'm sorry when it's not warranted.

Signals low confidence and that maybe you're not qualified for the position.

So those are a few things that I would say to steer away from.

Yeah.

And I've definitely been guilty of a few of those.

I always wanna fill the silence.

That's a big one for me that I've had to learn throughout my career is just let there be a few seconds.

You're the only one that's like overthinking how long it's been since someone has spoken.

Totally.

And the, I'm sorry.

One, I hear a lot from my clients.

Too.

Pausing.

Yes, totally.

That's a big one.

Not filling the silence.

And this, I'm sorry.

It's such a like Yeah.

People just like wanna, it's a reaction.

And just generally replacing, I'm sorry, with Thank you.

It's a game changer.

It really is.

Like I encourage everybody listening to try that.

It's huge.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Love that advice.

I heard you mention both confidence and charisma when you were talking about mistakes and things to be conscious of while you're answering questions like this.

So I know that they play a big role here.

And I've heard you talk about charisma as well as something that you're not necessarily born with, but a skill and a muscle that you can build.

So can you talk a little bit more about that, like what's the best way to refine that skill and use it in this context?

Absolutely.

Confidence and charisma are absolutely huge in interviews, and that is, I think what is fundamentally misunderstood is people think either you are born with it or you are not.

And that is just.

It, and that is not true.

They are skills, they're muscles that can be built just like you go to the gym and you don't know what you're doing.

But when you start somewhere and start taking that action, you build the muscles over time.

And it's the same with confidence and charisma.

I've worked with plenty of quiet introverted people who come across as lacking confidence.

And we come out of it.

That's often something people say to me is, you help me gain confidence, and it's just practice.

It's practice and giving yourself permission.

So that is the equation.

Confidence equals preparation, plus permission preparation, knowing your stories, knowing your values, having the frameworks there that we discussed.

And then permission, which honestly is the hardest of the two.

Giving yourself that emotional permission to take up the space, to stop downplaying your experience and to own your wins and your failures without apology.

And then there's the charisma aspect.

I think of this as energy plus intention.

Charisma is not loud.

And it's not charm.

There's two different words for that because they're not the same thing.

It's the energy that you bring into a room and your ability to connect with people in interviews.

That means being present and not overly rehearsed.

It means making eye contact.

It means mirroring body language.

It means.

Speaking clearly and showing that you're excited to be there.

Not desperate, but engaged.

So what about for people who don't have a ton of project management experience, how do you find that confidence in yourself during interviews?

That is such a good question, and I think, like I said, the confidence comes from preparation and permission, and a huge part of this is permission.

It is not.

Downplaying your experience.

So just because I was a cake decorator does not mean that I was not managing requirements and deadlines and quality.

That's all I was doing right all the time and on very fast, high volume, high pressure turnaround situations.

Now looking back, I can see that because I didn't have a me.

Telling me that.

So I opted for a bridge job.

I went from cake decorator to reception, and then worked my way up a little bit.

And honestly, for me, that made the most sense because going from cake decorator into corporate into a management position probably wouldn't have made the most sense.

But it's owning your experience and recognizing that you do have value.

You do have the experience, and if you need to talk to other people who are a little bit further along in their journey, do it.

People wanna help you.

They really do Find those people who are five years ahead of you.

LinkedIn is amazing for that.

Talk to them.

Hear their stories, connect with them.

They will help you.

Then as you find that connection with them and start to see your own values, start to see what you are actually doing.

That is project management.

Pull out those stories and prepare.

So if you feel like during a project management interview that you've done a really bad job at answering a question or two.

What's the move like?

Do you reach back out to the interviewer?

Do you do something in the moment, or does all of that just draw more attention to it?

I love this question and I love that you answered it for yourself.

Which is the latter part of it just draws more attention.

Honestly, I would strongly suggest that.

You do not send a follow up with a, oh, you asked this and I did.

I could have answered that better.

Here's my answer.

It comes across as second, guessing yourself not owning your power and being a little desperate.

I.

Unless it's absolutely like you're a hundred percent sure that doing that move is going to strengthen your candidacy, which 9.9 times out of 10, I would say it's not going to.

Let it go.

And instead follow up with a strong thank you note.

And I hear people's eyes rolling right now in the future before this has even gone out.

About the thank you notes, but the amount of times that I have heard people say, oh, I don't get thank you notes anymore.

So when I do, it really means something.

It blows my mind that people don't do it to begin with.

Yeah.

And then if it is strong and you draw your, the attention to your strengths and how you would be a good fit for the role, and then particularly if you bring up something from the interview that you thought resonated with you.

Then those are all fabulous things.

I have acted in the capacity as part of an interviewing team, and when I get strong thank you notes, it's just like the icing on the top, particularly for an interview that did go well, but that thank you note I cannot emphasize enough.

Please do it.

It's so important recently.

I interviewed somebody and in the end, this particular candidate, when I said, do you have any questions for me?

He asked a couple.

And then the last one was, may I please have your email address?

Ooh.

And I knew, I immediately knew.

I was like, oh, he's gonna send me a thank you note.

And he did.

And the fact that he like took ownership over that situation did not put himself at the mercy of some recruiter.

Or some third party email finder.

That was so impressive.

That was just like one additional, it showed agency, it showed taking control of the situation.

Like these little things, they seem so small, but those, it's not how you answer the questions.

Yes it is important, but it's these things.

These things, the way you handle situations that is important.

Oh, I love that.

We're just about out of time here.

So Kayla, I have one last question for you.

If you had to describe yourself as a candy bar, which one would you be?

That is such a good question, and as I think of myself as a project manager, I am very good at dealing with all kinds of stakeholders and molding myself into situations.

And modeling my behavior based on the situation.

So if it's a high pressure situation, adjusting myself to that situation versus where if it's just like a day to day just talking to people, moving myself into that situation.

So I see myself as like in a candy bar realm, like a crowd pleaser.

My perception of a crowd pleaser is a Kit Kat.

Ah, I feel like most people are like, yeah, I'm not gonna turn away a Kit Kat.

I almost said a Reese's Pieces, but then some people are allergic to peanut butter.

Yeah.

So I was like okay.

That's maybe not a crowd pleaser, but a Kit Kat.

I'm gonna go with that.

I love that.

Yeah.

See, the problem I have with this question is I'm actually allergic to chocolate, so I have to pick a non-chocolate candy bar, which like.

I don't even know if that exists.

So I'm like, I don't know, I'm a nerd.

Rope or something like, I dunno.

Though, it's how you talk through that question.

Yeah.

So if you see, like when I answered it, I talked through it and how I see myself as a project manager and it's interesting and you could even say that so I am allergic to chocolate and I would say that as a project manager, I'm very observant.

So while I myself cannot have chocolate.

As I observe my friends and my family and the kinds of chocolates that they like, I see that the majority of them like fill in the blank Uhhuh.

And for that reason, I think that's the type of candy bar that I would choose.

Oh, I love that.

It's just a suggestion, but right off the cuff based on your situation.

I love that.

That's amazing.

Okay, real, real last question to wrap us up here.

Could you leave us with one thing we can do today to set ourselves up for success in job interviews?

One thing, reach out to someone who is where you want to be and establish a relationship with them, even if it's just a 15 minute coffee chat.

It is so valuable.

People wanna help.

I love that.

Yes.

Very tangible.

We'll just take a few minutes.

Kayla, thanks so much for spending time with me today.

This has been so helpful.

Thank you, Kelsey.

It was really a pleasure to be here.

That's it for today's Retro.

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