Wednesday, March 20, 2024

How To Prepare A Presentation For An Interview

Don't Miss

Examples Of Topics For An Interview Presentation

HOW TO GIVE A JOB INTERVIEW PRESENTATION! (Job Interview Presentation TIPS!)

A presentation topic is typically a subject of interest to your potential employer. Hiring teams often assign these topics to assess what you can contribute and how you can help the company achieve its objectives. Common presentation topics include:

  • innovative technology developments in your field

  • cutting-edge trends in your industry

  • sales pitch that incorporates effective persuasion techniques

  • pitch of your background and why you’re the best fit for the role

  • project you completed

  • initiatives and how to implement them

  • a job related-task or project

Also Keep It Simplestupid

As you progress through your Ph.D. you will hopefully amass more interesting data on a broad, comprehensive scale. In early lab meetings and committee meetings you probably presented detailed materials and methods, small findings, and incremental progress.

This talk is about the big picture. Its about the story. Im not saying you should leave out all the experimental details, but chances are the lab you are interviewing for is not as interested in the specific methods you employed. Unless its, of course, a methods-centric project, then move along and get to the who cares of the project.

Step back and ask yourself: what do I really want to say about this? What would these people think is cool? What do I think it cool?

My first interview presentation as a postdoc candidate felt very long and I felt fatigued midway through. But after assessing and revising it for my second interview, I realized I was just bored. Being bored with your own talk is NOT a good place to be.

Use The Case Presentation Interview Structure To Your Advantage

One of the biggest advantages you have is that the data you need is all right in front of you. Unlike most traditional case interviews where you have to mine for relevant data, the packet of information will have everything you need. After forming your hypotheses, you can instantly start testing to see which direction you should be headed.

Also Check: System Design Interview Prep

When Youre Building Slides Think Simplicity

You only have to look at Apple to see that true simplicity comes from real intelligence. It takes a lot of work to craft a simple idea a lot of time thinking about what to leave out, and how to distil everything down to one great point or example rather than an under-confident handful. Use your imagination – no one wants to see another light bulb representing creative thinking!

How Long Should An Interview Presentation Be

How to prepare for an interview presentation

An interview presentation should be short and to the point but long enough to provide all the required information. Luckily, most hiring managers will tell you how long to make the presentation when they request one. If they dont, be sure to ask how much time youll be allotted. If you dont get an answer as to how long your interview presentation should be, aim for ten minutes.

Recommended Reading: Questions To Ask Cfo During Interview

Follow A Clear Structure

Your presentation should follow a clear structure, with a strong opening, main body and ending, remaining focused on one clear message throughout with facts and evidence to support it. Your opening should clearly communicate your key message and should be kept succinct and to the point with short sentences. The main body should be limited to three main sections. This will enable you to stay strongly focused on your core message and ensure people remember the three main points. The ending should be memorable and reemphasize your key message.

When Presenting Maintain Eye Contact And Be Prepared To Adjust Based On How The Interviewers React

Keep an Eye on the TimeIf you can see a clock, keep an eye on how long your presentation is taking. If its getting close to the allotted time and you still have a lot to cover, try to speed up a little bit and make points briefer. If you have a lot of time left, but your content is coming to an end, attempt to stretch out the presentation.If your presentation has been interrupted frequently, try your best to keep track of how long its taking you to present the prepared content.

Read Also: Interview Attire Women

How To Prepare For Your Interview Presentation

  • Careers

There are job interviews that include a second round where you are asked to make a presentation. This gives an opportunity for the employer to assess the abilities and skills of a candidate. Conducting a presentation, on the other hand, reflects on your knowledge, articulation, confidence, and public speaking skills. It also shows if you can remain calm under pressure.

A well-structured and delivered presentation can help you shine in an interview and secure that dream job.

Read on to learn these important interview presentation tips.

Start With A Structure

How to Give a Presentation in a Job Interview

Once youve identified the purpose and key message of your presentation, you can start to structure it. Developing a clear structure will help you stay on point and help your audience follow you.

Of course, youll want to make sure you have the basic components of a well-structured presentation, including a captivating introduction, a compelling argument in the body, and a memorable conclusion. But this is an interview, and you want to impress your audience. No matter what youre talking about, weave in examples of your skills and abilities, recommendations of how you would tackle a project for the company, or some other way of connecting your experience with what the employer needs.

One of the best presentations Ive seen tied all the above together. The candidates presentation was so well-organized that it felt like a story, and the hiring committee was along for the ride. The story included how she got started in her line of work and what her interest in the company was. It ended with the candidate sharing her vision for the department she was hoping to lead, complete with ideas for new programs and innovative ways to reach new clients.

Also Check: Best Interview Attire For A Woman

Remain Positive And End Strongly

Be positive throughout your presentation. When discussing difficult points or past challenges, turn them into opportunities to show your resilience. As you conclude your presentation, consider using a memorable ending, such as using a relevant quote or asking an open-ended question referencing your presentation. Close by inviting questions or feedback from your audience.

Set The Context Of Your Research

In academia, we tend to become hyper-focused on our specific area of expertise.

When giving your interview presentation, you need to realize that your audience does not have the same background as you.

They need you to provide context for your research.

Ask yourself, Why should these people care about my project? and then use that to set the stage.

Also Check: Top 10 Behavioral Questions

How To Prepare A Powerpoint Presentation For A Job Interview

Related

Unless a PowerPoint presentation is requested as a portion of your job interview, it can be a double-edged sword. A well-conceived, succinct presentation may help a hiring manager remember you, while also putting your skills on full display. A botched presentation, however, will make you memorable for all the wrong reasons. To leave a good impression, your talents need to be well-honed and on display, from the first slide to the last.

Backup Your Statements With Facts

How do I prepare an interview presentation?  Liberty ...

To deliver a presentation with a bang, you can make use of pre analyzed facts to support your hypothesis. Make sure to do your homework, study the company and their competitive landscape and do a professional work you would have done as a member of the company crew. At some point of your interview presentation, you go off the script, pull out a bunch of documents, supporting your statements.

Source: StockSnap

For example, you can give away a quick plan indicating a number of things the employer could do today to save money, even if they dont hire you. Make sure to be meticulous, your work will speak for you. But giving away this work will show the employer your commitment, skills and focus.

And thats exactly how to make your interview presentation stand out. Most candidates just ramble about their skills and past career moves. You bring specificity and proof to the platter, showing exactly what makes you a great hire fair and square.

Read Also: Questions To Ask A Cfo

What Is The Case Presentation Interview

The case presentation interview comes in various forms, but youll almost always encounter it during your final round interviews.

There are two kinds of case presentation interviews: solo and group.

Whether you have to face down a case presentation interview alone or with others, the process looks similar across formats:

  • Candidate is given a packet of information that includes the case prompt and data
  • The candidate is given time either at home or on-site to review the information and create a presentation candidates typically get anywhere between 1-48 hours to complete this process
  • Then, the candidate presents insights and recommendations to one or a panel of interviewers
  • Interviewers ask questions during and after the presentation

As a consultant, youll need to analyze information quickly and present actionable recommendations to clients. The case presentation interview is how firms test your ability to identify good data from bad, extract insights, turn them into actionable recommendations, and present these recommendations in a persuasive way. As a bonus, the firm also gets a firsthand look at the strength of your PowerPoint skills and teamwork ability.

Structure The Presentation Well

A poorly structured presentation is a bad projection of your skills. A presentation lacking structure indicates you may not know how to format your ideas in terms of coherence and importance. To keep things clear, it’s always a good idea to start your presentation with a brief introduction to impart what the presentation’s aims and objectives are. Then, divide the presentation into clear sections to display a succession of ideas. Ensure logical structuring of your arguments.

Towards the end, give a summary of your arguments to encapsulate the main ideas of your presentation. Finish with a brief conclusion that gives recommendations or suggestions, if applicable to the topic at hand.

Recommended Reading: Interview With Cfo

Don’t Start Until You Are Ready

If you’re nervous, your body will scream at you to begin and get it over with. What tends to happen next is that you start when neither you nor the audience is ready. Take your time. Before you say anything, pause, take a couple of calm, deep breaths and look around the audience . When they are settled and ready, you can begin.

Tips For Preparing A Presentation For An Interview

How To Make an Interview Presentation

Some job interviews require additional steps beyond the traditional conversation with a hiring manager. Particularly for occupations like teaching and research, you may need to provide a presentation during your interview. Knowing how to prepare effectively for this portion of the interview can help you make an excellent impression on the hiring manager. In this article, we provide a list of interview presentation tips, offer strategies to avoid and list the primary criteria used during a presentation for an interview.

Related:How To Improve Your Communication Skills

Read Also: What To Ask A Cfo In An Interview

Good Reasons To Ask Candidates To Make An Interview Presentation

This article includes an editable Interview Presentation template and an accompanying instructions document for your managers.

Don’t want to read the entire article? Fair enough. We’ve highlighted the template in yellow so you can find and access it quickly.

Bob is a senior candidate for a VP, Sales position and has been invited back to ABC company for his last meeting with an interview panel. Fantastic. Next step? Get out that Q& A interview questionnaire and ask him a series of standard questions. Or is there a better way?

There is. Ask Bob to come prepared to make an interview presentation.

How To Prepare A Presentation

From a software point of view, you will find good tutorials on YouTube, and learn how to prepare a great-looking PowerPoint presentation with ease. From the content point of view, check our interview portfolio article to understand what you should include on your presentation, and what you should rather avoid.

Read Also: Questions To Ask A Cfo In An Interview

Know The One Thing You Want Them To Remember From Your Presentation

Most people will only remember one thing from a presentation.

Just one.

So, think about what this should be.

Do you want them to remember a particular result you had in your research?

Do you want them to remember that you are really awesome at a particular skill?

Or, something else?

Once you figure this out, make sure that it is clearly communicated.

Eight Tips On How To Make Your Interview Presentation Shine

50 best Example Interview Presentations images on ...

Excellent communication is a key skill in any role. To find the best candidates, employers may ask you to present your ideas

Today, 89% of global professionals believe that communicating with clarity directly impacts their career and income, so with the high number of candidates vying for jobs, it is more important than ever to feel confident about sharing or pitching ideas particularly in pressurised interview scenarios.

As you face the interview stage, its increasingly likely that an employer will ask you to visualise your achievements and skill set in the form of a live presentation. Sales, marketing, public relations and teaching are just some of the careers which often request that candidates prepare a presentation to deliver live during the job interview. While you should not expect to give a presentation for entry-level jobs, they are becoming a staple in more senior roles across industries. If presenting and clear communication are part of the job role, there is a strong chance that you may be asked to provide a flavour of what you can do.

Here are eight expert tips on how to make your ideas shine through preparing and delivering a world class presentation:

Recommended Reading: Design Interview Preparation

How To Come Up With 15

Typically, a talent acquisition team will suggest some broad interview presentation topics for you. For example, if you are applying for a sales position, they may ask you to develop a sales presentation for some product .

Some employers will request a short presentation about you or your hobbies to understand whether you are a good fit for the team and share the companys values. No matter which topic you were given remember this: your audience will be assessing your aptitude for the role.

In fact, the interviewers at this point dont care that much about your experience and skills. They want to know how you can apply those to solve the companys pressing problems meet sales targets, improve ROI from social media marketing or help them earn more revenue.

Your job is to make an educated guessand predict what problem is the most wrenching one, and pitch your magic pill during your interview presentation.

I know what you are thinking but how I find the right opportunity/problem to tackle?

Businesses across different industries pretty much struggle with the same generic challenges related to either of the following:

Your topic should clearly address one of these areas and offer a potential roadmap for solving some specific problem within it.

Lets say that you are applying for a sales role. Clearly, you will want to tackle the customer audience set of problems. To refine your idea, ask yourself the following questions:

Questions To Prepare For

There is no standard script, but you should prepare to answer questions like:

  • What part of this project was the most challenging/hard/interesting?
  • If you were going to do this project again, what would you do differently?
  • Is this project the kind you would like to work on in the future?
  • Do you have any experience with X?
  • Tell us more about your experience with X?
  • Why did you choose ? Ex: Why did you use multiple t-tests in the analysis ? Why did you make this as a web/phone application? Why did you choose to focus on revolutions in the 15th century? etc
  • If you had your choice to work on any type of project in your first semester in the program here, what would you work on?
  • Do you have any questions for us?

They will not necessarily ask any/all of these questions – but I would expect you to be able to answer any of them on the spot reasonably well in such an interview.

Also Check: Interview Attire Womens

Presentation For An Interview Tips To Follow

To impress during a job interview presentation, you need to be fully prepared and deliver your very best work. Since the presentation is usually the last step in the hiring process, it’s all the more important to create a good impression on the interview panel to encourage them to hire you based on your skills and presentation calibre. Here are some of the main interview presentation tips to help you prepare:

How To Start A Presentation For An Interview

How to Do a Presentation (or Panel Interview)

Interviews can be really tense situations. Throwing a presentation into the mix only adds to that pressure. What can you do to ease those nerves and start your presentation in a calm and confident manner? How can you captivate your audience and help assure them that youre the right candidate for the job? This article outlines a number of useful tips to guide your interview preparation and address these important questions.

Recommended Reading: Mailscoop Io

Benefits Of Delivering An Interview Presentation

Delivering a presentation as part of the interview process allows you to emphasize your passion and skill set as well as show your potential employers your thought process and creativity. Other benefits of an interview presentation are:

  • Proving you can do the job

  • Demonstrating your verbal communication and public speaking skills

  • Highlighting your written communication skills

  • Showing professionalism and diligence

More articles

Popular Articles