Interview prep

IT Manager interview questions

13 questions it managers get asked, grouped by type. Under each one are the skills it is really testing, so you can pick a story from your own work that shows them.

Technical

  1. How do you evaluate and select a vendor for a new IT system?
    Tests: vendor management, decision making
  2. Walk me through how you build an IT budget for the year ahead.
    Tests: budgeting, planning
  3. How do you set up an incident response process for your team before something goes wrong?
    Tests: incident response, process design
  4. How do you assess whether your team's current security posture is adequate?
    Tests: security, risk assessment

Situational

  1. Your team is short-staffed and support requests are backing up. How do you handle it?
    Tests: prioritisation, people management
  2. An IT project you're accountable for is falling behind schedule. What do you do?
    Tests: project management, communication
  3. A member of your team is consistently underperforming. How do you address it?
    Tests: people management, communication
  4. The organization is using several overlapping tools for the same purpose. How do you approach consolidating them?
    Tests: vendor management, change management

Behavioral

  1. Tell me about a time you disagreed with a coworker and how you handled it.
    Tests: conflict resolution, communication
  2. Describe a project or task that did not go well and what you did about it.
    Tests: ownership, reflection
  3. Give an example of persuading someone to adopt an idea they initially resisted.
    Tests: influence, communication
  4. Walk me through how you decided what to work on when you had more requests than time.
    Tests: prioritisation, judgment
  5. Tell me about a time you had to learn something new quickly to get a job done.
    Tests: learning agility, ownership
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IT Manager interview questions — Gurus Consulting