Compiling a Presentation At Interview

[montyzummer]

Ok so i have been sort of head hunted for a Management position and got through to the second stage , whereby the prospective employer wants the candidates to create and deliver a 15min Power point presentation based on a provided brief , one stipulation is only 5-6 slides and the other HIGH level.

So i am totally comfortable with the brief content wise , what i would like is some opinions on the delivery method of the content , as they want HIGH level.

I was thinking lets say 4 main subject areas as an overview/concept on slide 1 , then concentrate the following 4 slides around the structure and delivery on each of the individual main subject areas , then finish on a summary slide.

I don`t want to go too deep into explaining the concepts as there will be a Q & A session after the presentation , this will be my opportunity to talk about things on a granular level.

Any advice and or ideas relating to my proposed delivery method would be much appreciated.



APSS (SME)
ACSS (SME)
ACIS (UC)

 

[mattKnight]

If I may offer some advice...

Death by powerpoint is not a good way to go. Use it as a tool, not your presentation!

Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[ncotton]

@Ekster - Devious indeed. I had an interview for an engineering position where I started with a one hour exam that was IQ style, maths, physics, general knowledge, chemistry (everything other than IT). When the interviewer came back in the room... he flicked through, and said "not bad... but did you not notice that all the answers were printed on the back page?" He professed this to be to see if people read through everything and take into account all scenarios before spending time working on something...I argued that his point was null and void that the environment of a exam/quiz with unrelated content would never hold any pertinence from one question to the next, so reading through it all (there was about 40 pages of questions) would be counter productive, and liked it to, looking for an address on a street and and answering the question, what colour door does the house four houses up have, and then suggesting that you would need to look at every house on the street to answer that question. I don't think he liked my point of view

In regard to powerpoint slides, I agree that what is on your power point is worth hardly anything in comparison to how you present the topic yourself. I've been in a situation where by after day 1 of a 2 day assessment process, we were asked to create a 10 presentation for delivery on day 2, however out of the 21 candidates, I was the only one that wasn't from the area, and was staying in a hotel. I had no computer and no way of creating a presentation, so I just got up and talked about the material, no visual aids, I received some great questions and comments from both the panel and the audience of candidates, and at the end, was offered my choice of two positions. The key, know your material, and deliver it with confidence, and personality, not just a robot fact/numeric/statistic spewing machine. If you can, video or at least practice yourself giving the presentation, if you can, to real people, sat in front of you in a line, or around a table, like a panel would, and practice giving your attention to each of your audience. It's really easy to focus on one person of a panel (normally the one you have had the most contact with), but don't forget that quite chap on the far left (he could be the ultimate decision maker).

Watching yourself back you will see things that you never even were aware of, for example, you keep opening and pressing your hands together, or fiddling with your presenter (clicker), or you have a default link phrase that you repeat over and over again, and to a third party might sound annoying or hesitant, or a lack of better expression/vocabulary.

Good luck.


Neil J Cotton

 

[IPGuru]

Did the exam paper start by telling you to read all questions before starting?
if so then you failed to follow instructions
( I saw an example of that once where one of the questions asked you to poke a hole in the page, at the very bottom of the paper it said "Now you have finished reading do nothing")

if it did not say read all questions first then it is a bit open to interpretation, personally I always read all question on an exam paper so I can pick of the "low Hanging fruit" before getting stuck on the difficult questions & running out of time


A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[yelworcm]

It's a bit off topic, but this has to be my favorite powerpoint presentation, just because it does just about everything so wrong.

http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm

Enjoy.