Top 10 Tips for Interview Presentations

Top 10 Tips for Preparing & Delivering Interview Presentations Almost all marketing candidates are asked to put together a piece of work for the 2nd stage of an interview process. It gives the employer a chance to see how candidates put content together, what their thought process is and how they deliver it. Over the last 4 years working as a Recruitment Consultant in this market I have seen hundreds of presentations; good ones, bad ones and the downright ugly ones. As an ex marketer, I’ve even done a few myself so I thought I’d put a small guide together for preparing and delivering a successful, job-securing presentation.

PREPARATION

1)      Make it on brand. Use their logo, their colours and even font. If you can’t find them – ask!
2)      Like any good story, there should be a beginning, middle and an end.
3)      Don’t be afraid to show some personality in your slides.
4)      Know your audience. Tailor the presentation to the people you’re presenting to.
5)      If you work on presenting 2 minutes per slide, you will fit your time limit.
6)      Death by wordiness! Use a variety of content – copy, graphs, images, diagrams etc.
7)      Don’t over complicate it – death by PowerPoint isn’t a nice way to go.
8)      Make sure you answer everything on the brief.
9)      Print out the presentation so you can leave copies behind afterwards.
10)    Practise, practise, practise!

DELIVERY

1)      If you feel nervous, slow down. Don’t rush through it! You’ll make mistakes if you rush.
2)      Stick to the plan.
3)      Maintain good eye contact. Make them believe what you’re saying.
4)      Don’t read off the slides – they can do that. Bring the presentation to life.
5)      Project your voice.
6)      Have fun with it – entertain them. It will relax you and the audience.
7)      Be a story teller! Everyone loves a story & involve personal experiences.
8)      Speak English! Don’t overuse jargon, acronyms, complicated analogies
9)      Loosen up, walk around and be articulate. Don’t stand so still you start putting down roots!
10)    Leave time for questions at the end.

(By Guy Walker, Senior Consultant at Forward Role Recruitment)