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Help! Presentation for second stage interview

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Calvin1979
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Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Calvin1979 »

I've applied for a job and have made it to the second stage interview. In the upcoming interview I have to give a 10 minute presentation on any subject I like. Now, I don't mind doing presentations, I'm generally confident and I'm decent with PowerPoint. However, I have absolutely no idea what to do the presentation on.

I initially thought I'd do something relating to the business but realised that the people I am presenting to are far more the expert than me. I then thought I'd go completely outside my comfort zone and talk about 'Polar Ice Melt' or something that I know little about, proving that I can pick something up quickly and talk comfortably about within a short space of time - they will expect this from me if I get the job. Now I'm having doubts and have no idea what to talk on. At the moment I commute four hours a day and have two young boys which means my current hobbies equate to zero and aside from watching and following sport I've got few interests I can talk passionately about.

Any ideas or advice? The company is quite large so I won't post specifics about the role or company on the off-chance that an employee reads these boards. Let's just say the role will involve selling/demo'ing/training people on an industry specific product/solution.

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murf
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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by murf »

The complexities of fantasy football

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Calvin1979
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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Calvin1979 »

murf wrote:The complexities of fantasy football
:lol: That presentation could go on for a few days :lol:

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Dennisthemenace »

The chances are that on the 'panel' there will be a HR person, your new boss and A.N other(s) who will be looking to see whether you can communicate effectively by being passionate, informative and making it enjoyable.

Keep it simple and something you know backwards, so that it flows naturally and there won't be any surprises for you if there's any 'question time'. In fact you could almost set it up so that the questions play to your advantage i.e if you leave something obvious out then one of the smart arses amongst them could ask the question to which your reply could be something like...I hadn't really thought of that but the Richards report of...stated that....so therefore it seems likely that....

Interesting subjects are possibly to do with the future? What is likely to happen in this industry over the next 20 years or so?

http://www.icpd.org/employment/Empltrends21century.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by unc.si. »

Agree about sticking to something you know well.

A project that you've done in the past at your current job? Future trends idea sounds interesting as well.
If you don't want work related then maybe selling the benefits of a favourite holiday destination to demonstrate that you can sell a solution / product.

I'd avoid or minimise powerpoint though. You want the people your presenting to engaging with you, not a screen. If you have to use it to illustrate something then show the slide and then get rid of it, rather than having powerpoint constantly there in the background. Don't use fancy animations either. I've seen far too many people use Powerpoint as a crutch, or try to be clever with fancy graphics, but forgetting to actually present and engage with the audience.

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Jagduracell »

I agree with the previous posters. I don't enjoy presentations but I find it easier if I am presenting something I am passionate about or believe in. Could there be any ideas based on what the company does. For instance presenting a new innovation or solution to an issue that may be trending in the industry sector? Could be a good way to sell your presenting skills as well as be able to sell yourself as a bit of an ideas man?

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Tricky Tree »

Agree with all comments on presenting on something you are passionate about as it will be better. Doing something you have no knowledge on puts you on the back foot and there is no evidence that they would even believe or care you deliberately made it tough for yourself.

Also, as mentioned, use PP only as header info and drive the presentation with your words and passion, not fancy slides.

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Patrician »

What is the job, and what does the company do? The style you go for and choice of topic depend a lot on both. If you use slides, my advice would be to use only pictures. Leave all the words for what you say. This will help you avoid all of the worst habits of power point (too much to read, reciting what is on the slide, being boring, poor grammar, spelling, punctuation etc).

If you want to be really slick and unusual, don't use any slides. Do something different, take a number of relevant objects (a presentation on disruptive technology could have a candle and a light bulb for example), or if you are good illustrator, create something like this...

http://www.scriberia.co.uk/scribing/gre ... onomy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regardless of the media you use to present with, some of the things they will be looking for (the relative importance of the list will change depending on the qualities required of the job - a useful exercise would be for you to prioritise this list based on the qualities of the job)

Passion
Creativity
Intellectual rigor
How well you structured your presentation
How well you argued/evidenced your case
Were you crisp, concise and compelling
Did they feel engaged and interested
Was it memorable
Did the presentation realise its purpose
Did they learn something new

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Striker »

murf's idea although lighthearted shouldn't be dismissed as long as you really understand fantasy football. A presentation on the merits of fantasy football would be difficult to summarise in 10 minutes but could be worthwhile. My limited involvement in hiring personnel suggests that those who present themselves differently from the rest of the field can easily come across as the best or the worst. 50% odds in a field of more than two is reasonable odds.

Inter alia you could cover the analytical aspects of the game, discuss that the selection of a starting XI is effectively a linear programming exercise, the approach to transfers etc (use something like TFF not FPL for illustrative purposes), fantasy's merits as a educational tool (geography, maths, planning etc), etc etc. I'd have thought that you could make it interesting even for those who've never dabbled, and demonstrate your own ability to think. As mentioned above the biggest problem would be to determine which aspects to cover properly after a one minute general introduction as nine minutes ain't enough for a comprehensive discussion of all analytical aspects of the game, let alone the non analytical.

Be brave. When as part of my masters many moons ago I decided to base my dissertation on simulating rainfall in different locations in rural Africa to determine the efficacy of roof collection in different environments involving a dozen variables, the head of the faculty poured cold water on the idea. But I ignored him and subsequently got the highest mark of our year. If you're interested in something, simplicity backed by clarity can transfer your enthusiasm to others. Inter alia you are being yourself, which is less likely if you talk about global warming or something which you feel others feel you should be talking about.

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Calvin1979
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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by Calvin1979 »

Some great advice here, thank you. I have two weeks to prepare so can have a good think before settling on a topic.

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Re: Help! Presentation for second stage interview

Post by murf »

My idea wasn't meant to be light hearted except in that it was stating the bleeding obvious.

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