Below is a sample of the ridiculous essay questions I’ve been asked to provide answers to as part of my program/project management applications (all 100% real!):

• How do you balance Agile principles with the need to meet business deadlines and stakeholder expectations?
• What Agile metrics do you find most valuable for tracking delivery performance, and how do you use them to drive improvements?
• How to you handle cross functional dependencies and coordination in an agile environment?
• What does a healthy Agile culture look like to you?
• Please briefly describe how you keep projects on track?
• What is the most significant challenge to scaling a business, and how did you overcome this challenge in your prior position(s)?
• Can you provide an example of a workflow automation or API integration project you have led?
• How have you handled risk mitigation and problem-solving in past projects, particularly in data conversion or integration scenarios?
• How has good project governance helped you to ensure a project stays on track?
• Describe your approach to leadership
• Describe your approach to clearing blockers for technical personnel on your agile team.
• Can you provide a specific example of how you implemented service management discipline within a project or organization? What were the measurable results?
• Provide a detailed overview of your experience managing B2B commerce projects. Please include the platforms used, the types of customers (industry/business), the total project scope, and your role as PM.
• How do you ensure stakeholders are engaged and supportive of new processes and tools? Can you share a successful change management strategy you implemented.
• How would you approach understanding the current project landscape and identifying the most pressing needs?

The TA process is broken, but expecting applicants to provide you written answers to make “the job easier,” isn’t going to bring talent into your organization.

Applicants: Take a hard pass on anyone asking you for free work. Your intelligence and experience is what you sell. If you are foolish enough to answer questions like this, be assured that every answer, every insight will be stolen, re-used, and shared with another candidate. One who is cheaper, or off-shore, or a nephew of the hiring manager. After that, it will be processed by a LLM. The payout for for all your work: Zero.

Employers: This isn’t Costco. Stop asking for free samples.

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