Job interview 'presentation' assistance?
Discussion
Currently a basic IT Technician, and I've applied for an internal job as an ICT Project Lead. Although I have no direct project management experience, I still managed an interview, but I'll be up against people with project management experience, so I really need to push my personal skills....
Anyway, I have to do a 5min presentation, as well as an interview. I had the presentation subject through the post, which states:
"Your first project is to manage the rollout of training for Information Security guidance for all our staff. What would you need to ensure this project is successful?"
I feel a bit of a dunce TBH, as its thrown me a bit - but I was just after some advice on the interpretation of the question? What do I *need*? I read it as being resources, ie, colloating information about how Information Security is currently dealt with within the company in terms of both physical and electronic, which would then form the base for how it could be improved through the project.
Am I on the right tack here? Or am I looking at it wrong? Never done presentations in an interview before, but I do run training courses so I'm confident with presentations...although being interviewed by your current boss and two good friends makes it a little more difficult!
Thanks!
Anyway, I have to do a 5min presentation, as well as an interview. I had the presentation subject through the post, which states:
"Your first project is to manage the rollout of training for Information Security guidance for all our staff. What would you need to ensure this project is successful?"
I feel a bit of a dunce TBH, as its thrown me a bit - but I was just after some advice on the interpretation of the question? What do I *need*? I read it as being resources, ie, colloating information about how Information Security is currently dealt with within the company in terms of both physical and electronic, which would then form the base for how it could be improved through the project.
Am I on the right tack here? Or am I looking at it wrong? Never done presentations in an interview before, but I do run training courses so I'm confident with presentations...although being interviewed by your current boss and two good friends makes it a little more difficult!
Thanks!
Well by my reading, the project isn't to develop a security policy, it is to train all the company's staff on some new procedures, the content of which is not relevant to the question. So you need a place to conduct the training, timetabling so all staff can attend, documentation/materials for delivering the training, and staff to actually deliver it. But it could just be a question that is basically asking "how would you do it" (i.e. what steps might be involved in the project, not what is the content of the training). Given that possibility I would ask a quick question to clarify if the question is supposed to be "what would you need to do to ensure...".
MattyB_ said:
Thanks - thats the assumption I made too, and it makes sense given that's what the job is about. Now I just need to get it planned...!
And then practice practice practice!! If you're not used to this sort of thing it would be to easy to get in a fluster and rush through it in 2 minutes! Maybe do the presentation to family / friends or record yourself.Also make sure you actually KNOW what your talking about in your presentation. They WILL ask questions and you will be fecked if you just copied some text off the net and don't actually know what it meant!!
I'm sure I'm telling you to suck eggs now but don't have the presentation written down word for word otherwise you will just stare at the paper and rush through reading it. Just use bullet points.
Tell them what you are going to tell them about (one intro slide).
Tell them about it.
Tell them what you just told them (wrap up slide)
So slowly.
Use a maximum of 4 lines per slide, keep each line short and to the point. Expand around each line (this is where the practising comes in!)
Good luck!
Tell them about it.
Tell them what you just told them (wrap up slide)
So slowly.
Use a maximum of 4 lines per slide, keep each line short and to the point. Expand around each line (this is where the practising comes in!)
Good luck!
Do not read out your slides.
Do not read out your slides.
And if you weren't paying attention the first two times, do not read out your slides.
Good presentations aren't about the slides, they're about the presenter. Know the content of your presentation inside out, and talk about it. I like presentations when the slides are be there to give the audience a little visual context, and something else to look at when they're sick of looking at you. I've seen truly great presentations with just one or two words per slide, just to keep the audience oriented. And just a handful of slides, come to that.
The best presentation I ever saw was a chemical engineer who had just one slide - a graph illustrating the technical thing he was talking about - and because he could speak well, and knew his subject, he just talked for 20 minutes to a rapt audience.
Don't be seduced by PowerPunt.
Do not read out your slides.
And if you weren't paying attention the first two times, do not read out your slides.
Good presentations aren't about the slides, they're about the presenter. Know the content of your presentation inside out, and talk about it. I like presentations when the slides are be there to give the audience a little visual context, and something else to look at when they're sick of looking at you. I've seen truly great presentations with just one or two words per slide, just to keep the audience oriented. And just a handful of slides, come to that.
The best presentation I ever saw was a chemical engineer who had just one slide - a graph illustrating the technical thing he was talking about - and because he could speak well, and knew his subject, he just talked for 20 minutes to a rapt audience.
Don't be seduced by PowerPunt.
I'm not suggesting you do this for your interview unless you give a lot of presentations and want to make it memorable, but... A fun exercise is to give a presentation with only one word per slide. As Jameson says, the slides should be there purely to give the audience something to look at, or maybe for information that is far easier to communicate in pictorial form, like a graph or flow diagram.
If you are going down the route of using a projector and some sort of presentation software I can not emphasise enough the need to make sure your laptop looks clean and professional...I.E. Clear your desktop of icons and files with 'hilarious' names, make absolutely sure there is no risk of an 'arty' image popping up or messages popping up from mates.
bogwoppit said:
I'm not suggesting you do this for your interview unless you give a lot of presentations and want to make it memorable, but... A fun exercise is to give a presentation with only one word per slide. As Jameson says, the slides should be there purely to give the audience something to look at, or maybe for information that is far easier to communicate in pictorial form, like a graph or flow diagram.
I quite agree. We have a 20 page pitch presentation and it is just 20 images which we talk around. It contains virtually no text whatsoever. I'm actually pretty comfortable with the presentation aspect, I run training courses so I have to stand up and waffle to a bunch of ICT Co-ordinators for two whole days at a time
But the advice is always appriciated. I've got the presentation limited to 3 slides and about 2 dozen words. I tried to get a clear answer regarding the "vagueness" of the question from one of the interviewers - is it "What do you NEED" or "What to you NEED TO DO" but was told that any information would be unfair to the other candidates :/
So I'm assuming they meant "What do you need TO DO to ensure its successful" - ie, how would you plan it.
I've just been enlightened with another angle to view this question at.
"What would you need to ensure this project is successful?"
Someone's suggested that they're looking for what I'd need in terms of personal skills? It seems to make more sense. So I was thinking of covering two topics in the presentation - both in terms of what personal skills I think I'd need, and how I would approach the project in terms of planning.
It'll be a struggle to get it all covered in 5 minutes, but it only needs to be brief anyway. Covers all bases?
I dunno to be honest, I suppose the interpretation of the question could be a test in itself (seems unlikely?). Given the ambiguity of the question, I would probably highlight the ambiguity at the very beginning, as three separate questions. Then either answer them all, or choose one and answer that in detail.
Gassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff