How to Sell Yourself in an Interview Presentation
It’s second interview time and they’ve asked you to present – but where do you start!?
Depending on the role that you’re applying for, the more senior it is, the more likely you’ll be asked to give a presentation as part of the interview process. A presentation allows the interviewer to access your public speaking abilities, your knowledge of a specific topic and your ability to stay calm under pressure.
Heres our top tips on how to sell yourself in an interview presentation:
Understand the brief
This is, in a way, your first test. The interviewer wants to know that you can take in a brief and roll with it, so it’s important for you to understand exactly what is required.
Don’t be afraid to ask the hiring manager for clarification if the brief is well, brief. It’s particularly important to ask who you will be presenting to, so you know your audience. Questions such as the length of the presentation and what technology will be available are the basics which you need to know from the start.
Keep it concise
If you’ve followed our advice so far, you should now know the length of the presentation that you are required to deliver. In order to keep your audience engaged, we would always recommend you keep it as concise as possible.
Remember, don’t overcrowd your slides. Keep it simple and verbally expand on any points that need a little extra explanation. Think of it as a road sign; provide enough information to be useful but not too much so that it becomes distracting. We find that ensuring slides are visually pleasing with diagrams, images and colours keeping the audience interested but ideally, the slides should only be there to back up the argument that you are communicating verbally.
TOP TIP | If you have long sections of text or graphs that you need to share, how about putting them onto a handout instead?
Structure is key
Make sure that your story is easy-to-follow and your key message is easy to digest, remember and pass on. To efficiently do this you need to ensure your presentation has structure.
We like to use the ‘Why, How, What’ method and the below helpful ‘STAR’ acronym, depending on the situation, to stay on track.
STAR METHOD
S - Situation
T - Task
A - Action
R – Results
Practice, and practice again!
The biggest and best tip we can share is to practice! You could either practice running through your presentation to a friend or family member or you could practice in front of a mirror. When you practice it’s a good idea to time yourself to minimise the chances of you running overtime on the day.
We’d also advise you to not read from a script. There’s nothing worse than having someone present to you who’s constantly looking down at a piece of paper. Instead, we’d recommend you write short bullet points on some small cue cards.
Along with this, we would recommend you double-check all of your spelling and grammar and if possible, ask a friend to proof it too.
All of the above should stand you in good stead for smashing your interview presentation. Now all that’s left is to be creative, be professional and most of all be yourself!
