Job Hunting - how to give a great presentation

Get That Job Career Development Fact Sheet 7

Written by Malcolm Hornby Chartered FCIPD MCMI career coach and author of Get That Job, Published Pearson ISBN 0-273-70212-2 © Malcolm Hornby www.hornby.org

Develop and deliver a persuasive presentation

Get That Job Career Development

Fact Sheet 7

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Get That Job Career Development Fact Sheet 7 Develop and deliver a persuasive presentation


Many organistions ask candidates to give a presentation as an additional ‘interview’ method. This is also the most common assessment centre exercise. The recruiters / assessors will be looking for you to communicate your message effectively, for you to project yourself confidently, and for you to know what you are talking about. They’ll also be trying to gauge how much work you have put into the exercise and how seriously you took it. Sometimes you will present to a panel of recruiters alone, but some companies include other candidates in the audience. If you are asked to sit in on other peoples’ presentations, try to think of a couple of searching (but not intimidating) questions. Also take some notes on how you objectively rate the performance of the other candidates.

A recipe for success Most people find knowing where to begin is the most difficult step. PLEASE, for the moment, resist any temptation to switch on your PC! This structured method for designing a presentation is a guaranteed recipe for success. First ask yourself – ‘What do I want the audience to learn or do as a result of my presentation?’ Write this objective in the middle of a blank page. Now let your mind ‘freewheel’ to produce a mind-map or spider diagram of ideas. You’ll find that you have far too many things to say, so the next step is to edit and give the presentation some structure. Use the headings in the Presentation Planner to help you to structure your talk. Look at your mind-map and choose the most important point which you want to communicate. Write it in on the presentation planner as Key point 1. Now add the other key points in descending order of priority. Key points 2 – 5. The natural tendency may be to save the best to last, but remember that people are most attentive at the start.



P R E S E N T A T I O N P L A N N E R

Introduction

(Develop this section second)

Main body

(Develop this section first)

Conclusion

(Develop this section last)

Rapport statement Key point 1 Remind them of the problem/ opportunity

Presentation subject Bridge

Your credentials Key point 2 Restate the key points and crystallise the message

Agenda Bridge

Question request Key point 3

Bridge

Action request Key point 4 Request action

Bridge

Bridge Key point 5

Bridge

Now develop your content by putting other information from your mind-map into your key points. Only information which is relevant to achieving your objectives is allowed. Limit your key points to a maximum of five. Three is even better. You have now developed the main body of your presentation. But before we move on, decide how you will link or Bridge from one point to the next. A phrase like, ‘Now let us look at the introduction’ lets the listeners know you’ve finished one topic and gives a signpost of what’s next. Other useful bridges are: enumerating – ‘first …, second …, etc.’ when you’ve stated that you have a specific number of points to cover; ‘On the contrary’ or ‘On the other hand’ when you’re weighing pros and cons; or simply, ‘Next …’. To avoid sounding hackneyed, use a different bridge to move from each of your key points. Now write them on your presentation planner.



Your introduction Now use the headings from the presentation planner to help you to develop a short introduction. You get one opportunity to make a first impression. So how do you create that positive impression from the start? The first step is to establish empathy by building a bridge to as many audience members as you can. If you can do, speak informally to each person before you begin. When you stand to address the group, reinforce the bridge by saying how much you’ve been looking forward to meeting them … and pay some compliment to their office, factory, etc. (Rapport statement) Don’t start with a joke. You never know whom you may offend and alienate. Now say what you’re going to talk about, seen from their viewpoint. (Presentation subject) But why should they listen to you? You should say a few words here about why you are qualified to speak on this topic, what you have done to research the subject, what is your background in this field, etc. Two or three sentences establish your credibility. (Your credentials) Now for the agenda. Give the audience a ‘map’ of what you’ll be talking about. The agenda is simply a list of the key points which make up the body of the presentation. (Agenda) ‘As we go through the presentation please feel free to ask questions, if I haven’t explained anything clearly; although we do have a few moments at the end for questions.’ Telling people to save their questions until the end rarely works. So why not prepare for it? Doing it this way also signals to the audience that you’re confident of what you are talking about. (Question request) Next, state quite clearly what you want them to do as a result of listening to you; the action request. ‘When I’ve finished speaking I hope you will see that the strategy I am advocating will help to re-position (product) in the market-place.’ (Action request) And finally your bridge. How do you link to the first key point in the body?

In conclusion Your conclusion should be short and to the point, but not rushed. You want to encapsulate your presentation into a package that they can take away with them. Remind them of the problem or opportunity. Restate your key points and crystalise the message – this is really a re-iteration of the agenda. Request action – what you want them to do? ‘I hope you now agree that the strategy I am advocating will help to successfully re-position (product) in the market-place.’ This structure for your presentation ensures that your key points are repeated at least three times and repetition is a very powerful persuader. Now you have developed the content and structure of your talk you can decide how you can re-inforce your message with visual aids.



MAKING YOUR POINT WITH POWERPOINT

PowerPoint is a tremendous tool in helping to create persuasive presentations. With a few clicks of a mouse you can bring a car, a caribou or even Concorde into the room! However, we’ve all heard the expression ‘Death by PowerPoint’ – too many people confuse the medium with the message, and use all the whistles and bells of PowerPoint to create boring screen shows or confusing circus acts, with fade-ins and outs and all the other trickery! Here are my top ten tips for getting the best out of PowerPoint

1. Use a consistent slide design with an uncluttered background for all your pages. (Menu Bar/View/Master/Slide Master). The layout will then be consistent for all the new pages you create.

2. Use a consistent colour palette – don’t start to fiddle around with the colours that are recommended in the font or text palette – they are there because they complement each other and don’t clash.

3. Avoid page after page of bullet points and subheadings – words on a screen are not visual aids! Use short stab points. Don’t put your script on the screen!

4. Use visual images every time you can! BUT avoid using the Microsoft clipart or sound files that came with your PC – they’ve seen it all before.

5. Include diagrams, graphs and flow charts – a picture is worth a thousand words! Better still a 10 or 15 second clip of video (if you’re using someone else’s PC remember you’ll also need to copy the video file onto their hard drive and re-establish the link into your presentation).

6. When you’ve created the presentation ask ‘What can I edit out and still keep the meaning? Be ruthless - cut out everything that is not absolutely necessary.

7. Use only one sans-serif font throughout, like Arial or Helvetica. If you want to emphasise a word, use font size, bold, italic oorr ccoolloouurr, but don’t underline.

8. When people look at a new slide, their eyes will move form the top left to the bottom right of the screen. Artists will tell you of the two thirds / one-third rule for creating balance in a picture. In a nutshell put your visual ‘bottom right’ two thirds down and one-third from the right.

9. If you use transitions, use the same simple one throughout until you want to highlight a change of subject or really emphasise a point.

10. Remember that each slide is part of a process. So when you’ve finished, run the slideshow to make sure that the sequence flows comfortably, and fits in with the ‘story’ which you developed using the Presentation Planner.



Remember if you emphasise everything, you emphasise nothing. KISS – keep it short & simple. Whichever visual aids you use, follow the basic principles of keeping them as simple as possible. Use large letters and single words as stab points so that they can be read easily. Do not write complete sentences. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words. As a general rule allow 45 seconds to 1 minute per slide. Rehearse your presentation once or twice so that you know what you are going to say and how you are going to say it – say the words out loud. Use a friend as a timekeeper and to give you constructive feedback. Please see below for information about my books and other factsheets. Good luck Malcolm Hornby



A few words from the author My Books

These tips are from my books for career planners and job hunters. I wrote the first book in ’93, since then thousands of people have used the tips to plan their lives and get new jobs

There’s more good advice in my other slideshows and at my website, visit

www.hornby.org A couple of words about copyright If I have used your material Much of the material that I use in my writing and my presentations is obtained from my research, surfing the Web. It is not my intention to rip anyone off and so if I have used your material without your permission, please let me know and I’ll sort it. Want to use my material? I’m flattered and am happy for you to use my slides and factsheets at work, at college or in your job hunt, etc provided it’s ‘not for profit’. If you want to use my material in a commercial situation please get in touch as I’m happy to write for websites journals, newspapers etc or to licence my material.

Job Hunting - how to give a great presentation

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