Top Tips on How to Ace Your Interview Presentation
“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
– Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s words couldn’t be more fitting when it comes to interview presentations. Even the most natural and effortless presentations often come from meticulous preparation.
Many candidates focus heavily on crafting the perfect slide deck, forgetting that employers aren’t just evaluating their technical skills, but are also looking at how well they communicate, engage the audience and manage the overall flow of the presentation. These skills are also critical for many roles, so preparation is key.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you shine in your next interview presentation.
1. Understand the Brief
Before you even start creating your presentation, it’s important to take a moment to fully understand the brief you have been given.
- Clarify expectations. What specific insights or solutions are you expected to present? Ensure you know what your audience wants to hear
- Consider the purpose. Are you presenting to showcase your problem-solving abilities, your creativity, or your leadership skills? Tailor your presentation to highlight these.
- Ask questions. If anything is unclear, don’t hesitate to seek clarification. This shows attention to detail and ensures you deliver exactly what is expected.
Understanding the brief will guide the content, structure and focus of your presentation.
2. Prepare your slides thoughtfully
Your slides are an important visual aid, but they shouldn’t overwhelm your message. When preparing your slides, try to:
- Keep it simple and clear – Use bullet points and visuals to support your talking points without cluttering the slides.
- Be consistent – Make sure fonts, font sizes, and text alignment are the same across all slides. This shows attention to detail and professionalism.
- Avoid information overload – Keep your points concise and focused. You want the audience to absorb your message, not get lost in a sea of text.
- Use visuals wisely – If you are incorporating colours in graphs, process flows, or flow charts, always include a key to explain the colour coding. This ensures your audience can easily interpret the visuals. Similarly, if you are using acronyms or complex terms, include footnotes with brief clarifications to avoid confusion.
Your slides are a tool to help you communicate, they shouldn’t overshadow the message you are hoping to deliver.
3. Create an Agenda and Executive Summary
At the start of your presentation, set clear expectations for your audience. Begin with an agenda outlining what you will cover, how the presentation is structured and whether there will be time for questions at the end.
After the agenda, introduce an executive summary. This should serve as a brief overview of your key insights or conclusions before diving into the details. It will help the audience understand the overall narrative of your presentation and prepares them for what’s coming.
4. Rehearse—as much time as you spend on creating slides
Professional presentation coach Janice Tomich emphasises that practicing a presentation is just as crucial as creating the content itself. She suggests that the time you invest in rehearsal should match the time spent developing your slides.
Your delivery matters just as much as the content. Find below a few tips on how to rehearse effectively.
- Practice out loud – Run through your presentation, first alone and then in front of a friend, partner, or colleague. This will help you identify areas where the flow is smooth or needs improvement and allow others to give you feedback.
- Check transitions – Pay attention to how you move from one slide to the next. Are your transitions natural? Does the story flow?
- Time yourself – Make sure you are managing your time well, allowing room for questions at the end, at least 5-10 min.
By practising thoroughly, you’ll feel more confident and be better equipped to handle any nerves that come on the day, and ace your interview presentation!
5. Maintain a steady pace
When nerves kick in, many candidates may make the mistake of speaking too quickly. This makes it difficult for the audience to follow along and absorb your points. To avoid this, you can try to follow some of the tips below.
- Pause between key points – Give your audience time to process what you are saying.
- Take a breath – Slowing down your pace allows you to think more clearly and collect your thoughts.
- Trust your preparation – You’ve done the hard work and now it’s about delivering it calmly and clearly.
6. Allow time for questions
Always plan for a Q&A at the end of your presentation. This shows that you’re open to feedback and confident in your material. It also allows you to engage more deeply with your audience.
Make sure you leave 5-10 minutes for questions, so the presentation can end with an interactive discussion.
7. Don’t forget about your audience
While it’s easy to focus on perfecting your message, don’t lose sight of the fact that your presentation is for the audience. You need to guide them through your content:
- Use an agenda and executive summary – This will help you map out where you’re taking the audience.
- Make your story clear – It’s not just about delivering information, it is also about telling a story that resonates.
8. Pay attention to your slide design
Professionalism shines through the small details. Here are some tips to ensure your slides look polished.
- Consistent formatting – Make sure fonts, bullet points and text boxes are uniform across all slides.
- Alignment – Keep text, images and graphs aligned neatly for a clean look.
- Clear and concise content – Avoid overcrowding slides with too much information. Stick to key points.
Final thought, relax, you’ve got this!
Interview presentations can be stressful, but you have been invited to share your ideas, not to deliver a flawless performance. Think of it as more of a conversation where you are sharing something exciting with others.
Take a breath, slow down, and enjoy the moment. The more comfortable you are, the more confident and engaging your presentation will be.
You have put in the preparation, and you are ready to let your story shine. Good luck!
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