“Describe an important project you’ve worked on” is one of the most common questions you can expect in an interview. The purpose of asking this question is to check your project management experience and project management skills.
The other traits that they would like to check are , how you manage or deal with tough situations, your approach towards challenges, skills in leading a project successfully. So, you should answer this question carefully.
The other traits that they would like to check are , how you manage or deal with tough situations, your approach towards challenges, skills in leading a project successfully. So, you should answer this question carefully.
The first thing you need to do is prepare for this question in advance. As this is one of the common questions, you should very well be prepared with an effective answer. For it, you need to prepare a list of all your projects and clearly mention all the goals and the roles you have played in completing those projects.
With the help of your answer, your interviewer should get to know about your priority setting, decision making, meeting deadlines, and assigning tasks etc.
Some of the points while preparing the answer are
1. Provide a best suitable example
2. Be clear and specific3. Your role should be explained clearly
4. Brief them the mistakes to avoid
Project Explanation in Interview for Freshers and Experienced:
There are few things which any interviewer would expect from a project you have done previously irrespective of being a fresher or experienced. They are,
1. The way you solved a problem in the project.
2. Your role in the project.
3. Your imagination or creativeness in the concept of the project.
2. Your role in the project.
3. Your imagination or creativeness in the concept of the project.
These are the main things any interviewer would expect from your project. Try to categorize your project into various steps and explain in a very crisp way to make them feel one with your project to win the interview. The various steps to explain a project are,
1. Project Introduction:
This is very important in explaining a project as it overall sets the mood of the interviewer about the project. So try to impress the interviewer with a good heading or you can start by telling the application of your project in the market. Also, try to tell your motivation behind choosing this as your project.
2. Modules description:
There might be various modules for a project. It differs according to the project you choose. Try to break your project into various modules and explain. This will bring clarity to the interviewer about your project.
3. Advantages and the main functionality of your application:
Try to speak about the functionality of your application in a few words and also include their advantages. Sometimes pictorial representations will help for the better understanding. So explain your project with a flowchart, chart diagrams, or any graphs. This will add extra scores to your explanation about your project.
4. Tools, Technologies, and Platform used:
This is also a very important aspect when explaining a project. Tools, Technologies, and platform used will help the interviewer understand better about the working of the project. As well as it will create an impact on how new is your project. Try to explain it very short and be to the point.
5. Personal contribution and your role in the project:
Any interviewer would only focus on how well you have contributed for the project. Try to show your individuality in the project while explaining. It might be small or big, it is how you portray yourself for the project. Don’t try to be too modest by telling it is a team work, because this is an interview for an individual and not for the team.
6. Challenges in the project:
You might had some difficulties and challenges during your project. Explain the interviewer how you had overcome the challenge and also explain about the thought process of yourself to overcome the difficulties.
7. Number of people in the project:
Even though individuality in the project is expected, an interviewer might also check the team work and your compatibility during the project with a team. So try to highlight the teamwork when explaining the project.
8. Amount of time it took for the project:
Amount of time involved in the project will be expected from the interviewer side to know how you manage the time limit when given to you. So explain it in two to three lines about the time limit of your project.
9. Improvements in the future for the present system:
Try to show your involvement in the project. You can also explain the future improvements for the present project. Also, talk about the expectations of you towards the project in future. This in turn will showcase your confidence, and positivity towards the work.
10. Drawbacks:
This has to be handled carefully, as never explain too many drawbacks of your project. And use correct words to explain the drawbacks. Show your positive mental attitude when explaining the negatives of the project. All they want is how much you are capable in handling negatives in the work.
Interview Tips For Experienced Candidates:
There is a lot of difference between a fresher’s experience in explaining a project in their graduation and an experienced person explaining the project. Both are equally important, but expectations differ for the both. For example, from an experienced candidate during the interview, project explanation will decide how capable he is for the job. There are few things which has to be remembered while explaining about the project during the interview.
They are,
1. Explain your overall project:
This explanation totally differs from fresher’s explanation about the project. Give a brief explanation about the project title and also its impact on your previous company. Talk briefly about its importance in your previous organization.
2. Talk about the technology, working, and tools used in previous company:
Try to explain about the overall technology used, working of the project and also explain about the importance of the project in the company. This will help the interviewer gain confidence on your skill set.
3. Overall months or years you worked:
Tell about the time period you worked on the project as it will talk about your commitment towards the project, and also experience you gained throughout the project.
Few points to emphasize:
Some of the points to focus while answering are
- Specify about the skills and features that needed to complete the project
- Have a positive mindset
- Discuss the goals of the project
- How interesting the project was
- What made you accept this project
Mistakes You Should Avoid
Some of the mistakes to miss are
- Be little careful
- Do not get in detailed project information
- Never criticize your previous employers
- Do not drag your answer
