Second interview - 5 min presentation - any tips?

[achooachooachoo]

I have a second-round interview next week for a job I'm very well qualified and experienced for. I need to do a 5 min presentation about how I would go about a specific task. The task is worded ambiguously, so, if performing the task, the first thing I would need to do is resolve the ambiguity. Should I do that before the interview, or just mention it as step 1 in my presentation? The answer would certainly help to clarify what the next steps should be.

Also, I've googled "how many slides for a 5 minute presentation" and the answer varies between 5 and 20. If you have been on the other side of the interview table in these circumstances, what do you think works best? Any other tips, bearing in mind it's a Teams meeting, not in person?

Definitely the fewer slides the better. Keep to time. Talk about the ambiguity at the start.

Good luck!

I had to do a 10 minute one - they restricted it to 2 pages

Yes... few slides less than 5.
Stick to time. Under better than over.
Mention ambiguity in first slide and say how you have dealt with it for purposes of this presentation.
You got this! Be confident and concise.

I would address the ambiguity in the presentation, unless it is majorly unclear in your industry, eg a reference to 'agile' and you want to clarify whether that's generic 'agile' or 'Agile methodology'.

Rehearse and keep it under 5 minutes. Some interviewers will time it (easy with modern tech) and mark you down if you go a lot over, or even tell you to stop.

Practice, practice, practice. Time yourself. Learn your script.

Don’t just repeat what’s on your slides - they should merely add to the verbal presentation. Reading them out seems lazy to the viewer.

Slide wise, I think it depends on the topic so I would be trusting myself on that over and above the internet.

Do you have multiple screens? If you do, I find teams presentations are way easier than in person.

Screen 1: slides (sharing this screen)
Screen 2: notes on this screen (for me, this is the screen with the camera in)
Screen 3: everyone's faces.

I do it this way because I don't need to have my eyes on everyone's faces all the time - I can keep an eye out without looking, but that way I can have notes directly in front of me.

I'm a quick and confident reader so that means I can have a sort of autocue set up where I am reading (with emphasis and tone etc) so I can make sure I am e.g. using power of three, other persuasive techniques to maximise the impact of my presentation without having had to learn it off by heart.

This is what works for me, if you will get stressed moving everyone round etc (I have the interviewers in front of me for questions and answers but move to the side etc for presentation) or tend to monotone if you read then it would be the opposite of helpful!

But for me it works really well - I can see the time, I can make sure I get the exact phrases I liked across. I got the top marks for presentation in a scored one I had to do recently, and then for complicated reasons had to do the presentation again but this time via teams - the feedback I got from people who had seen both was that that version was even better.

Don't just read the slides out
Maybe just have an image or few words on each slide and talk round them .