How to Hire Great Project Managers Part 3

Mr Smith walks to the counter and says “No I got a rewards number, but thank you”

Now that you’ve paid let’s go back to your house and make your peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Now that you’re home, I want you to grab a plate out of your cupboard. Do you see any clean plates?

Great so grab it and lay it on your kitchen counter just like you normally do when you’re going to eat.

Let me know when that is done.

So where did you put the bag of groceries that we just bought with the bread, peanut butter, and jelly?

Ok so take each item out of the bag and place it next to where the plate is.

Then I want you to find a knife. It doesn’t have to be a super sharp knife. Grab a butter knife or something that you would use to spread something like mayonaise. We’re going to use that for the peanut butter.

Ok. So on the kitchen counter, you should be looking at your plate, the bread, the jar of peanut butter, the jelly, and the knife.

Do you have all of those items in front of you?

Ok great. So now I want you to open up the bag of bread. Be careful not to rip the plastic bag.

Discard the first piece of bread. We all that the “butt” end of the bread. It’s not that tasty. Grab the next TWO slices and put them on your plate.

Great. So I want you to screw off the lid to the peanut butter. There is probably a piece of paper that covers the jar after you unscrew the lid. Remove that.

Let me know when you’ve done that.

Now, grab your knife. Dip it into the peanut butter. You’ll feel a little tension on the knife. Kind of angle the knife into the peanut butter and when you do this, there should be a glob of peanut butter on the knife. You don’t need a huge glob. Maybe just enough where it is about an inch off the knife.

Let me know when you have it on the knife.

Now I want you to take that glob of peanut butter and I want you to gently spread it on one piece of the bread. Don’t be too rough. You don’t want to rip the bread. But don’t be too soft because you want the peanut butter to go onto the bread. You should be able to evenly distribute the peanut butter on that one piece of bread. Kind of like you’re painting a wall.

Does that make sense?

Let me know when you’re done with spreading the peanut butter.

Does it look even? The bread didn’t break?

Ok great. Next we’re going to do the same thing with the jelly.

But first, take the knife, go to the sink and wash it off and dry it. Is the sink near to you?

Ok. Let me know when that is done.

So now, open the jelly jar. You should help a little “pop” when you open the jelly jar because you’re breaking the air tight seal. That means the jelly is fresh.

Let me know when you open the jelly jar.

Now just like you did with the peanut butter, I want you to put the knife inside the jar and get a similar sized glob of jelly on the knife.

Let me know when you have it.

Ok so now, I want you to take that glob, and place it on the other piece of bread. The piece of bread that does not have the peanut butter.

Evenly spread it on the entire piece. Like you did with the peanut butter.

Ok let me know when that’s done.

We’re so close to being finished.

so now, we’re going to complete the sandwich. I want you to pick up the bottom piece of the bread with the jelly. Don’t touch the jelly side. Touch the other side that is touching the plate.

Now I want you to put your fingers under the bread and then attach the jelly side of the bread to the peanut butter side of the other piece of bread.

So the jelly should touch the peanut butter.

Do you understand what I mean?

Great. So go ahead and do that now. I’ll stand by.

Ok so you have officially made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

I have one more question for you. Do you want to cut the bread in half so it’s easier to pick up?

Ok so then you can cut it from one corner diagonally to the other so you have two little triangles. Take your knife and do that now.

Alright. Now let’s taste your sandwich.

Pick up one of the triangles, put a small bit into your mouth and start to chew.

How does it taste?

Well we are officially done!!! Congrats again for making your peanut butter and jelly sandwich!!

Do you have any questions for me?

Ok well I’ll let you know. If you think of anything else feel free to let me know.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, that was way too much detail. But a great project manager doesn’t leave out any details.

They are great communicators. They are super empathetic. And they are very organized and think in a very methodical and sequential order.

This is what you’re looking for in the candidate.
And this is exactly how we evaluate our project managers and this is why we have such amazing people who help our digital agency owner clients.
Well I hope you learned a lot from this and feel free to drop us a message and let us know what you think!