First-Time Manager Interview Questions & Answers

Becoming a manager for the first time is a significant milestone in anyone's career. With this promotion comes a host of new responsibilities, from supervising a team to managing projects, all of which require a set of skills that may not necessarily align with the skills that put you in line for a promotion in the first place.

The interview process for a managerial role, especially if it's your first time stepping into such a position, can be particularly challenging. Whilst it may be impossible to predict specific questions unless you have been lucky enough to receive them in advance of the interview, questions are likely to delve deep into your time management abilities, your approach to people management, and your overall leadership style.

This article will break down some of the most likely and challenging questions you might face in a first-time manager interview, helping you to prepare answers that demonstrate your readiness and expertise.

How do management level interviews differ from single contributor role interviews?

When interviewing for a managerial role, unlike in a single contributor role interview, the interviewer is not only assessing your technical skills or industry knowledge; they're evaluating your ability to lead, to make decisions and to inspire a team.

In these interviews, your thought process, decision-making strategies and approach to real-world scenarios will be closely scrutinised.

Unlike single contributor roles, where specific skills or experience might take precedence, a management interview focuses on how well you can apply your experience to managing others.

For example, you might be asked to provide examples from your past where you demonstrated leadership skills or how you would handle hypothetical situations that require a managerial mindset.

Your answers will therefore need to reflect not only your experience but also your potential to grow into the role.

What qualities are most important for a management role?

As we will explore in more detail when we break down some of the questions you may be expected to face in an interview for a management role, management styles vary according to the context of the team you will be managing and the culture in which that team sits.

There are however some fundamental skills that can be attributed to successful people management. Below is a sample of some of the key attributes that interviewers will be looking for when assessing your suitability for the role:

• Leadership skills: The ability to inspire and lead a team.
• Time management skills: Prioritising tasks effectively to manage your workload and that of your team’s.
• People management skills: Managing different personalities and fostering teamwork.
• Emotional intelligence: Empathy and understanding when managing team members.
• Conflict management: Resolving disputes and maintaining a harmonious workplace.
• Problem-solving skills: The ability to think clearly, see the bigger picture and proactively solve issues.
• Communication skills: Clear and effective communication with your team and other stakeholders.
• Proactive approach: Taking initiative and being forward-thinking in planning and execution.
• Delegation: Assigning tasks effectively to ensure productivity and team growth, while enabling others to take on some of your ‘business-as-usual’ tasks to avoid you getting stuck in the weeds.

Top tips to remember as you prepare for your interview

Many interviews are based around so-called ‘competencies’. In other words, the interviewer will be looking for you to demonstrate what you ‘have done’ as opposed to what you ‘would do’ in any given scenario. They will be asking you to share examples of when you have demonstrated certain skills that are relevant to the role of a manager, as described above.

In order to help you prepare for this approach, it is important to have a structure to your answers. This will enable your response to be relevant to the question asked, prevent you from going off track and anticipate any follow up questions that will most likely be asked.

The SOAR technique is perfect for this scenario and it should be pointed out, will be familiar to many hiring managers so it is worth looking out for this as you are asked some questions.

• Situation – Describe a time when you…
• Objective – What was the context and/or what were you looking to achieve?
• Action – What did YOU do, try to remember to give specific examples and avoid using the word WE.
• Result – What was the outcome, what did you learn and what may you do differently?

In order for the conversation to flow naturally, avoid trying to answer the first question by applying the SOAR model in its entirety. This will sound scripted and if there is such a thing, you will come across as over prepared. It may also be worth considering a minimum of two examples for each competency as some hiring managers like to ask for a follow up example.

Other than this, all of the other best practice tips apply when it comes to preparing for an interview:

• Research the Organisation if you are applying for an external role and if it’s an internal role, use this to your advantage and do your due diligence when it comes to finding out as much as possible about the team, your predecessor etc…

• Take your time when it comes to answering questions and if the question is unclear, ask for the question to be rephrased. It is worth remembering that many hiring managers are outside of their comfort zone when interviewing so nerves can apply on both sides.

• Prepare some questions that you would like to ask the interviewer at an appropriate time. For example, ‘90 days into the role, what does success look like from your perspective?’

• Be punctual, dress appropriately and take something to write on in case you need to take any notes.

10 First-Time Manager Interview Questions & Answers

Below are 10 common questions you might face in a first-time manager interview, along with suggested answers that you can tailor to your own experiences and approach to management.

What do you think is the most critical role of a manager?

It would be tempting to focus on yourself and your skills when responding to this question, so it is worth remembering that people management is all about bringing out the best in others, as opposed to being the centre of attention and shining yourself.

Some of the following themes may feature in your response:

• Fostering strong relationships
• Feeding back regularly
• Getting myself organised and the team around me
• Setting clear goals to support those of the wider organisation
• Being a bridge between senior management and your team
• Proactively resolving conflict.

If there are any examples where you can describe how you have played a role in helping a team to be successful in the past, this will typically land well. Consider hobbies such as sport or volunteering here, or any other transferable scenarios.

Thinking of specific examples will also enable you to think of outcomes. This is particularly helpful as it will help you to avoid reeling off a list of tasks that you believe a people manager is responsible for.

How would you describe your management style?

If you are asked a question along these lines, try to avoid listing management topics and instead share where you have demonstrated your management skills. This may be an expansion on the previous question so be careful not to use all of your examples when answering the first question.

Many of us struggle to talk in glowing terms about ourselves and the positive impact we have on others so you may briefly choose to mention a manger who has inspired you in the past to behave in a particular way. Then move on to talk about yourself positively by explaining what you have done, as nobody else will be doing this for you.

Quantifiable achievement will always beat self-serving rhetoric so try to be specific with your achievements.

For example, you may say that strong people managers who have inspired you in the past offered consistent and clear direction, were there to provide help and advice when required but allowed room for working things out for yourself.

Therefore, that’s how I strive to act. I have facilitated regular project team meetings at the beginning of the week to discuss progress and next steps. Occasionally I discovered that the priorities were not as clear as I had assumed they were, so it was an opportunity to reset, provide direction and get the project back in the right direction, whilst inviting colleague input, reducing mistakes and saving time in the long run.

Describe a time when you led by example

People management is not just about telling others what to do. There are occasions when it is necessary to stand up and lead from the front, albeit it is essential to create a balance between doing and stepping back to let others perform. You are being asked here to demonstrate how your ability to lead by example had a positive effect on your team members’ performance.

This question therefore provides you with an opportunity to share some examples of where you have demonstrated your leadership skills. It is worth remembering the SOAR model described earlier – what did you do and what was the outcome of what you did?

Leading by example does not require you to be a people manager, so try to focus on the behaviours of leading by example. For example,

Our regional director tasked us with raising our profile in the local community. A team meeting was held where I discussed the possibility of inviting pupils from a SEN school for a work experience day.

I took ownership for contacting the school, liaising with our people and culture team around health and safety and arranging an agenda for the day. A number of my colleagues stepped up to help out, the day went incredibly well and best of all, one of the pupils shone so much that they are beginning an apprenticeship with us later this year.

I felt comfortable putting an idea forward and following through on it as I am passionate about developing others. I was pleasantly surprised at how many others were willing to offer their time and expertise in response to my suggestion. We also received a lot of social media coverage which pleased our regional director.

How would you handle a situation where a team member isn’t performing?

It is worth noting here that this differs from the other questions asked so far. Notice that this is a so-called ‘hypothetical’ question, in other words, how would you handle a situation where a colleague is not performing, as opposed to how have you.

This is not uncommon where the interviewer is aware that a candidate has little or no hands-on experience. However, even when a question is asking how you would approach a challenge, wherever possible try to respond with something that you have done, focusing on transferable skills as it is these competencies that will be assessed.

The typical competencies in question here relate to empathetically analysing the root cause of a problem by asking appropriate questions without making assumptions, seeking a solution that will resolve the problem and setting actionable steps that encourage ownership and accountability.

For example, you may refer to a product or service that was not performing to expected standards, or a customer or client relationship that was far from perfect.

What was the key challenge and root cause, what questions did you ask, what did you do and what was the outcome?

Can you give an example when you had to present complex information to a team?

A lot of people management revolves around communicating information, often at short notice and in busy times. The temptation for many is to go for a knowledge dump, downloading information in one go.

It is worth remembering though that people prefer to receive information in different ways and this should form the basis of your answer. How do you take this into consideration and what are the different methods you can use in a timely and user-friendly manner?

For example, you may talk about being involved in a project where you needed to explain something to a client or team who did not have the technical knowledge that you have.

What was the context or situation? Which methods did you use, such as visual aids, diagram, videos or breaking information down into bite size chunks? Which questions did you use to encourage participation and how did you follow up to ensure that the information had been received and acted on in the way you intended?

What is your greatest work-related accomplishment to date?

The first thing to notice about this question is that it relates to a personal achievement, but it is always important to remember that the context of this interview is that you are applying for a managerial position. This question is therefore a great opportunity for you to focus on your core values and what is important to you, before linking it back to what this would say about you as a manager.

For example, you may wish to focus on an example where you saved the Organisation some time and/or money through an initiative or by going the extra mile to help resolve an issue.

One of our clients recently took a flight at very short notice over the weekend to hand deliver a part to a customer in Asia. It would have been easy to courier the part but the context behind this scenario meant the client truly appreciated the gesture and effort to hand deliver the part, resulting in a continuation of the relationship.

Some of the core values that are associated with our client include integrity, authenticity and being customer focused. As you might expect, these values are also prevalent in the team that they manage.

Tell me about a decision that was difficult to make

One of the trickiest parts of being a manager is having to make decisions that may not be universally popular. This may revolve around assigning tasks, restricting budgets, managing performance, choosing who to promote, refusing a request for a salary increase or even letting an underperforming team member go.

It is likely that if you are asked this question, the interviewer will want to assess your thought process behind the decision and the extent to which you include other stakeholders in your decision-making, rather than trying to make all of the decisions by yourself without seeking appropriate advice.

It is perfectly acceptable for you to use a personal example here, so long as you clearly articulate the thinking behind the process.

For example, you may use an example where you were offered a 12-month secondment in a previous role by somebody you admired and respected. The offer was flattering and would offer you variety on your CV, but on reflection after speaking in confidence with several people you respected, the decision was made to turn down the offer, owing to the fact you had unfinished business in your current role and you may end up in a career cul-de-sac once your secondment had been completed.

This type of response would suggest that you didn’t rush into a decision, you didn’t concede to flattery, you sought the views of others, you demonstrated loyalty and an eye on the bigger picture. All of these are traits which will serve you well as a manager.

Describe a challenging issue you faced in your previous role that you struggled to resolve

This question brings a slightly different dynamic to the interview and is one to look out for. It is common to be asked about a time when you were great at something and added value, but we learn most about ourselves and others in times of adversity. It is therefore common for a hiring manager to ask a question that relates to when you struggled with something.

None of us are perfect, no matter how much we like to think we are, so this is an opportunity to demonstrate some humility, the fact that we are open to learning and how we ultimately learned from the experience to arrive in a better place.

For example, you may wish to begin by detailing the issue and what made it such a challenge. Perhaps it was a breakdown in communication with somebody you didn’t know very well or see eye to eye with.

Then discuss the strategy you undertook to try to resolve the challenge. What mistakes did you make and how did you overcome them? Again, for example, you may have initiated contact via email and then realised that as uncomfortable as this might be, the situation really called for a face-to-face conversation.

Finally, as always, describe the final outcome and what you would, on reflection, do differently in the future.

Why do you want to be a manager?

This question is either likely to feature very early on in the interview or towards the end so how you answer this will largely depend on what you have said before or are likely to want to say.

For example, if it comes towards the beginning of an interview, you may something along the lines of:

“I want to be a manager because I thrive on challenges, I want to be able to bring out the best in people and of myself during this process. I am also attracted to the variety that the role will offer and this feels like the next natural step for me as I look to continue my career and develop further with this Organisation.”

“I also want to be a manager because I am attracted to the coaching and mentoring side of the role.
I believe I have what it takes to motivate a team and get the best out of individuals so they can achieve their full potential.”

As the interview unfolds, it is worth taking note of what you said and linking this into some of your future answers, so it is recommended that you give this question some considerable thought before the interview. Another tip is to speak with people you know who are already in a managerial role and reference what they told you about the role of a manager in your response.

If the question features towards the end of the interview, take the opportunity to reflect back on some of the examples you have shared in your responses to demonstrate that you not only want to be a manager but that you feel with the correct support structure in place, you have the traits and skills to be successful in the role.

If you were offered the job, what’s the first thing you would change?

The first thing to mention about this question is that if you are asked it, however well the interview has progressed, this is not necessarily a sign that you will be offered the role so avoid the temptation to switch off and become complacent.

The second thing to mention before you answer is to consider the context of the role you are applying for. If for example you are going to be inheriting a team that is well established and successful, you may wish to put the brakes on describing the complete overhaul you have planned for the first week!

That said, if you are aware that some changes will be required, don’t be shy of putting forward a few suggestions along with the outcomes you would expect as a result of these changes.

Caution is required with this question as nobody is a fan of a so-called know-it-all, or someone who will come in and ignore the views of their new team members. Express the need for consultation and fact finding before making any drastic decisions around change.

Words like evolve, examine, contribute and develop can be more effective than change, overhaul, transform or fix.

But do so in a way that doesn’t look like you’re trying to reinvent the wheel on day one.

Need Help Developing Your First-Time Manager Skills?

If you are considering progressing your career and taking on your first managerial role, you may wish to take advantage of some management training and/or coaching.

Requesting some structured support should not be seen as a sign of weakness when applying for your first managerial role. Rather, this can help you excel in your new position faster, reducing the need for trial-and-error learning. By enhancing your skills early on, you can boost team morale, increase productivity, and contribute to the company’s success from day one.

At Donovan Training, we specialise in helping first-time managers develop the skills they need to lead effectively. We are committed to providing relevant and practical training to improve your people management skills. Our online leadership management courses serve as a great additional tool that is easily accessible; contact us today for more information and a friendly, no obligation consultation.