Job interview- partner says my presentation is shit

[Greenginghamdress]

I need mumsnet wisdom.
I have a job interview on Friday. I would like the job but not desperately as I like my current job but it would be a payrise and I like the look of the company.
I had to create a presentation of my skills prior to the interview. I spent a good deal of time on it. I have not done this for an interview before. I rehersed it in front of my partner tonight. He said it was shit and awful! That theres no theme or anything that stands out about it! Having looked again, he's probably right. PowerPoint isn't my strong point. Theres plenty of information and supporting data but it may not look the part.
The problem is, I've already emailed it to the recruiter as we were instructed to do in advance.
I'm gutted and thinking of pulling out of the interview as I wont be able to stop thinking my presentation 'Is shit'.
Should I pull out or go ahead?
YABU - Go to interview
YANBU- Do not go

Please be honest but not brutally so as I'm in tears at the moment.

Is your partner usually so spiteful and unsupportive?

I interview a lot of people with presentations as part of the interview. Some people are great at PowerPoint design, some are not - it doesn't matter as long as the content is carefully thought out and communicated clearly. Unless you're apply for a role as a designer, of course.

Of course go - you'll still get the practice which is more valuable than doing it in front of your unhelpful partner!

Jeepers don’t go explaining to the recruiter etc - just send a professional email saying apologies for emailing late, you’ve updated the deck which is now attached and would like to use it in your interview.

i wouldn’t do a load of apologising and explaining.

Like someone said above, when I interview, the style and clarity of slides is only worth a couple of points. Don't let it put you off.

Do the interview!
I do recruitment as part of my team, we always ask candidates to prepare a presentation, mainly because only people who really want the job will prepare one, so it cuts down the shortlist.

Present around your slides and let your passion and personality shine honestly you'll be fine. We have never recruited on how good the presentation was alone, in my field its literally one interview question out of maybe 10 that are scored (ie how good was the presentation out of 5).

DP could possibly have kept opinion to themselves until after the interview, is my honest feedback.
Good luck.

Exactly this. They’ve only got the PowerPoint.
Go to the interview, and pull it together with what you say.
really think about this, think about what you want them to remember about you, what makes you stand out.

Oh God, I bet he wants you to do a PowerPoint that uses every tool in the box and is completely naff.
Last thing any interviewer wants to see is words dancing in from the right. Simple is good.

I once turned up to an interview with only cue cards for my presentation, it was NHS 5 years ago and other interviews had all been verbal presentations with no PowerPoint so I prepared the same. They asked me for my PowerPoint and I explained I didn’t have one, did my presentation from my cue cards/memory. Got offered the job and praised for the best presentation they had seen in a long while. Basically it doesn’t mean anything, just go and see how it goes. Good luck!

Where I work we send our important slides to a specific team to be worked up into a deck (which I actually hate because I love PowerPoint). It’s not always necessary to be good at ppt

Your partner has really not helped at all here by being so utterly negative right before an interview. He needs a PowerPoint presentation on how to give constructive feedback. Your slideshow doesn’t need to be a technical masterpiece which uses every function going. It’s there to cue you about key things and present core facts to the audience. As long as it’s clear and there are no errors, it is doing its job. I just don’t get the point of him telling you it’s absolute shit when it’s only going to add to your worry. Why not suggest specific things to improve and if he’s so fantastic, show you how?

Good luck! Go and smash it.

create another presentation with better slides, and send it to the recruiter as an update. If you cannot do that, go to the interview and try to sell your skills to them without looking much at the slides. What was exactly "shit" about it?

I genuinely can't decide whether to send another copy. I'm giving myself until the end of day to decide.
Partner has been vile about it, saying it is so poor they will laugh me out of the room.
Its plain with no colour theme etc, I'm in science so some text with some data I have done.
I think it looks so unprofessional sending an update though. I need to decide the lesser of two evils. Feel sick. I know this sounds very extreme.

Mate, your 'partner' sounds like a nasty little prick enjoying making you feel shit.

There are ways of giving constructive criticism to someone you care about without being a cunt.

Regardless of the interview, that's something I think you should have a think about once it's done.

Your partner sounds awful. Your job I'm sure will not be preparing presentations. And most companies have their own template, so you don't need to think about design even if you do have to create them for work.

Ignore your awful partner. I'm sure the content of the slides and what you say is what is important here.

Tell your partner to fuck off. If the recruiters will laugh at your presentation for being 'plain' then are they the right employer for you? Don't diminish yourself by sending a replacement file.

On that note, consider whether your partner is worth listening to, if he reduces you to tears and undermines your confidence?!

@wellhelloitsme I know. He is being very nasty.
I wish it was so simple. We have a child together (not relevant to this thread but true)

Send the new slides - highly unlikely anyone will have looked at them yet.

Your partner is behaving like an absolute penis. Does he have form for this kind of shitty behaviour? You say he's in IT sales - is this him?

Feels like a 50 50 split on whether to send new slides ...I keep changing my mind myself 🙈

Even more reason to reconsider the relationship tbh - otherwise your child is going to grow up thinking it's normal for partners to be mean to and belittle each other. It's not normal and shouldn't be acceptable.

You don't have to put up with someone bullying you just because you have a child with them.

Give your little one the best chance for healthy relationships in their own adulthood by not making them grow up witnessing an unhealthy, toxic dynamic.

Your partner is a twat of the highest order. I do presentations for a living (main part of my job). Ugly slides are irrelevant: it’s what you say and how you convey it that matters. Having said that confidence is the name of the game and if better looking slides will make you feel better, then send in new version. At worst they will say “ah, no, sorry” but I bet they won’t. And if they do say that you won’t spend loads of time thinking about what ifs. Honestly wishing you all the best; spend some time with person/ people who remind you of all the amazing things you are and can do.

@Bollockstothat Who's that? Genuine question...I don't watch much tv 🤣

If you got an interview, then they see you have potential. You could have a great PowerPoint but a poor worker. Go for your interview, do your best and be yourself. Never mind your fella

Can you call the person you've sent the slides to and just say "While running through the presentation at home, I've made some tweaks that I think make the slides easier to digest. Would it be ok to share the latest version with you or is it easier to stick to the original now?"

I think you're massively overthinking this. If I was the interviewer, I wouldn't be massively arsed either way as I would just delete the previous presentation and use your latest one, if you'd flagged to me that you'd updated it.

I can't imagine an interview in which a change like this from a candidate would have bothered me unless they sent multiple revisions over one at a time.

Remember, while you're stressing over it (understandably!) they've got a million things on and will very likely just use the updated version if you send it.

I also work in a scientific field and the majority of presentations I've seen are not 'all singing, all dancing'. The slides should really just be a prompt - the bulk of the presentation should be you.

Go in, be confident and try to enjoy it. If you get the job, great, if you don't, oh well - it's all good practise.

I can't call as I only have an email address.