I’ve never officially had the title “manager,” but I’ve often had to act as manager when my boss was out of the office. He’s always been very pleased with the job I’ve done. This candidate doesn’t let the fact that she’s never actually had the title of manager stop her from explaining why she can do the job. She found some managerial experience from which she was able to draw. Even supervising a small project would have sufficed.
Never Say: “Well, since I’ve never been a manager, I don’t know.” If you’ve had some managerial experience, even if it was just supervising a single project, you should talk about that. If you’ve had no managerial experience, then you can talk about it hypothetically.