Recruiting a Project Manager: A Hiring Manager's Perspective

Project management is a practice based profession. Just knowing the project management principles does not make a person a successful project manager. It is more important to assess how the candidate applies the project management principle in practice than merely knowing the theoretical aspects of project management. Project Managers play a critical role in the organization. They are responsible for maintaining the revenue stream by ensuring steady flow of project deliverables, be it an internal initiative or a client program. As a Hiring Manager one has to use the right tools and methods to select the right candidate for the position of Project Manager. In this article some of the basic qualities of a Project Manager and the interview techniques adopted to select a Project Manager are discussed. The paper ends with discussion on new competency areas of Project Managers and new roles played by Project Managers in those areas.