Help - need to do a presentation for job interview

[movemamamove]

I've got a job interview next week and I've been asked to prepare a short presentation and don't know where to start or what would be expected of me. This is my first interview after nearly a decade out of work so the prospect of an interview is quite daunting anyway but the idea of a presentation is almost putting me off the whole application .

It's for a role as a community support worker within a charity and they want to know how I would approach my first month in the job given the tight deadlines for a new initiative they are launching in January. The role covers quite a large geographical area (county wide) and whilst I have some experience of the charity through volunteer work, it's definitely out of my comfort zone professionally. Should I be mocking up visuals such as flyers/social media promotion, giving them my ideas for launching the campaign or what?!

Prepare as much as possible.

Have they not given you a topic for the presentation? If not then it's a valid question to ask.

How long does the presentation need to be and what's the subject?

Sorry I just saw it's about the first month in the job. Are you supposed to be launching the initiative or just slotting into a team? A month isn't really very long to get settled in so you need to cover things like
Focus on understanding scope & objectives of new initiative. Define key performance indicators and what does "success" look like?

Something about understanding the needs of their service users would probably be viewed positively

Yes thank you the question is what are your priorities in the first month Which I would see as research in the market, looking at the current offering, understanding what the service users want, see what campaigns other areas of the country are running etc hence a bit confused about their expectations in a presentation. The campaign is nationwide and has been running since September and goes until the end of the year so I'm not sure whether they are expecting me to run local events so soon or just take over existing campaigns. It's all a bit vague to be honest

Are you launching a campaign in your county in January that has already been running elsewhere?

@Sauvignonblanket no that would be far more straightforward - The campaign has been running since September and continues until the end of the year & looking at their website there is very limited offering in my county hence the need for the role. There is new campaign that launches in spring that I would presumably be working on but they specifically asked how I would prioritise my first month given the tight deadlines for the current campaign.

@Auntycorruption's advice is very sound. Focus on that.

Understanding scope and objectives.
Agreeing KPIs.
Understanding the needs of service users.
Identifying stakeholders and building relationships.
Developing an action plan.
Thinking about how the project will be evaluated and how learning will be documented.

Think of it like telling a story, so map out a start, beginning and end. This is what I tell all my students (I'm a STEM Ambassador) when it comes to putting presentations together. It helps to break it down into something meaningful rather than just have slides full of facts and figures.

For something like this, assuming you have 20 minutes, I'd do 10 slides - 2 minutes per slide. Don't put too much info on the slides themselves, just a few bullet points and illustrations (graphs/charts/photos). Pad the presentation out with WHAT YOU SAY, i.e. don't just read out what's on the slide, have a bullet point and speak around that point for say 20 seconds. It won't seem as daunting if you have a plan!

This is without experience of the charity sector or specifics of your role so sorry if it's way off beam but maybe something to take from this? I like the point above about storytelling too.

If the campaign is part of your responsibility, I'd include creating a campaign plan as your main priority with key areas covering a) objectives, audiences (not just end users, maybe funders and other important stakeholders too?), key messages, calls to action, what does success look like for the organisation, any targets to hit and budget? b) how the campaign will be communicated externally: launch, events, advertising, media outreach and planning in what's needed - eg advert creative development and booking deadlines, invitations being issued for stakeholder events 3) what needs to happen internally to make it happen including management reporting, sign off for materials, liaising with head office 4) close out, thanks to those that took part, evaluation and anything to carry through to next time.

Your month might then look like: Weeks 1/2 meetings with key people to help develop points 1 and 3. Weeks 2/3 might be developing external campaign to achieve the aims (what happens when not the actual design mock ups). Weeks/3/4 might be circulating the draft plan for input and sign off.

That feels like a tough pace for a new role btw but this structure could show the interviewers you're thinking about everything, are focussed on deadlines and outputs and want to work collaboratively. Good luck!

Ah sorry re-reading your last reply maybe my ideas don't work so well, but maybe something you can take from them?

I always appreciate a candidate making effort with the visuals, match their company colours if you can and add their logo to every page, it really looks good.
Agree with pp not too much text, your notes and delivery will give the information they need.
If you have time (and appreciate you might not!!) add a page for 60 and 90 day targets as well.
Don't forget to add a final page inviting questions, signifying the end. Good luck OP!

Just wanted to update those of you who kindly advised me on interview prep - I only went and got the bloody job .

In the end I didn't do a big fancy PowerPoint interactive glossy presentation - I kept it real, I kept it realistic & told them I'd my research and find out what the target audience actually want from the charity, got to know the company before jumping in and promising new events within the first week. I definitely wasn't the most qualified for the job but they obviously liked what I said and I start in 2 weeks .

Thanks again.

Thats amazing news. Well done!

Congratulations! Great to hear 👏🏼

Fantastic- well done!

There is some really good advice on this thread.