WU Plan to Improve on Future Interviews Presentation

Some job interviews require additional steps beyond the traditional conversation with a hiring manager. Particularly for occupations like teaching and research, you may need to provide a presentation during your interview. Knowing how to prepare effectively for this portion of the interview can help you make an excellent impression on the hiring manager. In this article, we provide a list of interview presentation tips, offer strategies to avoid and list the primary criteria used during a presentation for an interview.

Presentation for an interview tips to follow

To impress during a job interview presentation, you need to be fully prepared and deliver your very best work. Since the presentation is usually the last step in the hiring process, it’s all the more important to create a good impression on the interview panel to encourage them to hire you based on your skills and presentation calibre. Here are some of the main interview presentation tips to help you prepare:

Clearly convey ideas

Be sure about what you’re planning to convey through your presentation for the interview. If there are any key concepts that you want to touch upon, make sure you understand them fully and that you can convey them succinctly. To substantiate your perspective, give convincing arguments and share relevant examples. A clear, cohesive and well-managed presentation is your best endorsement.

Structure the presentation well

A poorly structured presentation is a bad projection of your skills. A presentation lacking structure indicates you may not know how to format your ideas in terms of coherence and importance. To keep things clear, it’s always a good idea to start your presentation with a brief introduction to impart what the presentation’s aims and objectives are. Then, divide the presentation into clear sections to display a succession of ideas. Ensure logical structuring of your arguments.

Towards the end, give a summary of your arguments to encapsulate the main ideas of your presentation. Finish with a brief conclusion that gives recommendations or suggestions, if applicable to the topic at hand.

Manage your time

Time management is extremely important for your job interview presentation. Before your interview, ask the hiring manager or interview panel how long you’ll have to present. This way, you can effectively create a tailored presentation that meets the company’s expectations. It’s suggested that you practise timing your presentation before your job interview presentation. The time practising will help you see where and when you lose the most time and how you can work on this for better deliverability of your ideas.

Engage in thorough research

Engage in good research and look for credible resources to back up the claims you make in your presentation. You should look for fact-checked, authentic and valid resources. The interview presentation panel might be curious to understand the sources you utilised to back up your research, so it’s important that you only provide facts and figures that are obtained from credible sources for your presentation.

Understand your audience

You must understand the audience or interview panel you’ll be presenting to. Get to know the panel members by studying their research areas, experiences and specialities. Knowing who you’ll be facing can help you feel confident and prepared. It can also allow you to use research that’s relevant to the panel members’ interests in addition to your presentation.

Know that less can be more

Often, the best presentations are those that are succinct and impactful. Rather than including every word you plan to say on your slides or providing a transcript of your presentation, use multimedia and handouts as supports to your message. Keep your language clear and use simple but effective imagery.

Practise ahead of time

It’s always a good idea to practise your job interview presentation ahead of time. You can do so in front of a group of friends, asking them to time you and to ask relevant follow-up questions. This will help you gauge how well you perform and guide any changes you need to make. If necessary, you can have several practise sessions to perfect your presentation.

Anticipate follow-up questions

As an interviewee, anticipate follow-up questions that the panel may ask when you’ve completed your presentation. These questions could be about something you referred to, an argument that needs more explanation or an insight into your perspective regarding some research you shared. It’s best to be prepared and think about what sorts of questions the panel may ask well before the interview.

Review your presentation from the perspective of the audience and develop a set of questions you feel they’re likely to ask. Anticipating and preparing for the panel’s responses will help you feel more confident and allow you to make an excellent impression .

Prepare a back-up plan

As a good interviewee, consider having a contingency plan in case the technology or equipment you’re using fails during the presentation. If you’re delivering a multimedia presentation, it’s a wise idea to email a copy of the presentation to yourself so that if your computer or external drive suffers a technical glitch, you have a copy that you can access via the Internet. It’s also advisable to print off hard copies of your presentation to share with the panel if needed.

Understand what the panel wants to see

To meet the panel’s expectations, it’s important to understand what they want to see. An interview panel of prospective employees is usually interested to see how well you deliver your ideas before an audience. They want to analyse your skills of communication, creativity, time management and research. They want to assess your expertise in the field relevant to your application and determine if you’ll be a good fit for the team or not.

What to avoid in a job interview presentation

To fare well in your job interview presentation, it’s important that you learn what to avoid when you’re presenting to ensure you deliver an excellent and appropriate demonstration:

Not following the instructions

Prior to your job interview presentation, the hiring manager or panel will give you instructions or a brief which you’ll use for your demonstration. It’s important that you keep the instructions at the forefront of your mind as you prepare every aspect of the presentation. This will help you focus on the key requirements that the panellists want from you.

Not researching well enough

A presentation that lacks thorough research is unlikely to impress a panel. If you attempt to prove something without evidence like statistics or case studies, you’re essentially just presenting an opinion and not an argument. It helps to research thoroughly to not only demonstrate your aptitude and understanding in the field but to also show your skills of research and reasoning. You can also convey your ideas more confidently when you know you have support for your points. The panel will appreciate a well-researched presentation, and this increases your chances of being hired.

Not presenting confidently

A little nervousness before appearing in front of an interview panel is normal. However, when presenting, it’s important to maintain a composed presence. It helps to acknowledge in advance that you may experience anxiety on the day of the presentation and practise effective coping mechanisms like taking deep calming breaths and actively relaxing your shoulders and face.

One of the best ways to avoid anxiety is by knowing that you’re well prepared on the day of the presentation. The more you practise, the more confident you’ll be in your skills and abilities. On interview presentation day, you’ll already know your presentation so well that the actual demonstration may just feel like another practise session. This can help you feel and appear calm and composed during your interview.