Job Interview Presentation

If you have to give a presentation for your next interview and you have hit this site then you are in luck.

The difference between one candidate and another is often very small.

Sometimes a 5% difference between you and the next candidate may secure the job. And a job presentation may be that difference..

In the past months we have helped a number of people to get a new job. We haven’t always been successful, but in most cases they were highly commended for their interview.

We often get asked for advice what to do for an interview presentation. We always suggest the following three steps.

Use a visual presentation and not bullet points

If there is only one technique that you could use to get a new job this would be it. According to research a visual presentation is five times more likely to be remembered after three days and is twice as likely to achieve your objectives than if you use bullet points. With an advantage like this you are already on the home run!

A good example of this when we helped someone secure a prestigious job as the Vice Chancellor of a leading University. We wanted to demonstrate his leadership technique style – open handed management. We went outside and took this picture of his hands.

We knew that the image had a significant impact. When he was being offered the job they jokingly told him “before we can give you the job, you know that we will have to check your hands to see if they really are yours”. – Proof that a picture really is worth a thousand words

The rule of three

In the average interview presentation you will only have around ten minutes to get your message across. In most cases “less really is more”. Humans tend to be able to easily remember three things – it is known as the rule of three. If they are told more then they generally tend to forget them. Lists of three have been used for years, a good example would be in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar “Friends, Romans Countrymen”.
For your interview work out the three things that you would like the interview panel to take away and plan the delivery around illustrating these key points.

Rehearsal

This is the most easily missed. Your presentation will get better the more that you can practice it. I see so many people who spend hours refining their messages and honing their bullet points – making changes at the very last minute – only to completely fail to spend the time rehearsing their presentation.

You should read the presentation out loud at least four times and memorize it if you can. The 24 hours before the interview should be spent in rehearsing and fine tuning the deliver – not in putting together the slides. There are some good hints on the section on rehearsing.