Job interviews can be a scary environment, especially if you’re a recent graduate without a lot of experience! You only have a short window to knock their socks off and one way to impress is with a killer presentation! Don’t know where to start? Here are 10 tips for a standout presentation!
Get the content right
You can have the best design and delivery in the world but if the content of your presentation isn’t there you will fall flat in the interview! Make sure you research the job role, company website, company social media, projects they are involved with, company culture, industry news and their main competitors so you have plenty of information to include. Think about what you are trying to say in the presentation and make sure the information and order of slides will make sense as you deliver the presentation.
Give it an eye catching design
Forget the usual PowerPoint templates, make your presentation standout with graphics and custom colours to match the company you’re interviewing for! You can use free online design tools such as Canva to create graphics and pages to use for your slide show! Make sure you keep a level of consistency throughout so that it maintains a professional look.
Try something different
Depending on the job role you could include videos or even create something Social Media based like a Snapchat story to add a fun element to the presentation! You could bring along something tangible for the hiring managers such as a 3D CV printed onto a take-out coffee cup! It’s not about bribery, but something extra will help them remember you!
Practice!
You need to practice delivering your presentation a few times to make sure you know the order of your slides as well as the content. The idea is that you know it well enough that you aren’t staring at the screen but not too well that you sound over-rehearsed!
Be prepared
Technology can fail us from time to time so make sure you have your presentation saved on a USB, as well as in a dropbox / zip file on your email as you may encounter a problem when trying to load it on a foreign computer! A print out / PDF on an iPad is essential in case of any technical mishaps on the day!
Give hand-outs
It can be useful to bring along a hand-out for your interviewers with the key information from your presentation as well as a copy of your CV attached. Always bring a few extra copies in case there are more people interviewing than expected!
Be confident
You want the interviewer to feel comfortable watching your presentation so make sure you are relaxed, smiling and speaking clearly / confidently throughout. Practicing before and doing plenty of research will help to give you that added confidence on the day!
Be concise
If you can try and find out the normal interview duration before you make your presentation so you can make sure it is long enough / not too long! Try and get to the point quickly and don’t repeat yourself too much. Those helpful hand-outs mean that you can leave key information behind if you’re worried your presentation is too brief!
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)