Interview Presentation -Greatest Achievement

[JumpyCotton]

Hi, I need some help
I've been invited to a final interview next week in which I have to give a 10 minute presentation on 'What is your proudest achievement to date'.

I've never had to do a presentation for an interview before and I don't know what to expect. I'm absolutely dreading it to be honest. I get so anxious talking in front of people.

I also haven't a clue what to talk about. It's an apprenticeship type job so I have no relevant work experience.
My mind has gone completely blank. The only 2 things I can think of are my children, and overcoming an 8 year long eating disorder. Neither of which I think are appropriate for this presentation.

Can anyone offer any advice on what on earth I can talk about?! 😫

Do you have any work experience, even if it's not relevant?
I think you could break it down as

1. what the achievement was
2. how you achieved it / what obstacles or challenges there were in place
3. why it makes you proud

You could maybe do something about making the decision to return to work after children? Though, without knowing more about the apprenticeship I'm not sure that would be appropriate.

But equally, it could be about honing your customer service skills in a retail job or something about a non-related work field.

maybe a good starting point would be to review what they are looking for in the person spec for the role and think about what you've done that demonstrates you have those qualities and build on that?

Do you drive? I honestly think passing my driving test was way up there in my achievements. You are showing ability to learn, ability to process multiple ongoing events with split second timing, coordinating hands, feet and brain. It also gives you freedom to go to places at your own pace and leave when you want. I've been driving now for over 40 years and thank my mum frequently for pushing me to learn.

Have you got any qualifications? If you've never worked at all I'd probably go for something around school/college/uni work (maybe a group project, coursework or passing a difficult exam?) as the best way to demonstrate the kind of skills they're likely after, which will probably be around working with others, problem solving, learning something new etc? A lot of people applying for thier first ever job also use examples from hobbies or any voluntary work they've done or things like Duke of Edinburgh if you did that at school?

Really as it's an apprenticeship job they won't be expecting anything amazing from your work history and the way you structure and explain what you did/learnt is probably more important than the example you choose, IYSWIM? Lay it out logically using a STARR format, so one slide or section of your presentation is briefly explaining the situation/context (e.g. I was at college studying for a BTECH in whatever), one for the task (I had an assignment to research X thing), one for the action you took, one for the result (explain why you were proud) and one for your reflection and learning e.g. what skills you developed/showed, what you'd do differently next time. Good luck!

They won't care about what your achievement is. They will be interested in depending on what the apprenticeship is:

• your PowerPoint/slides skills
• how you structure the presentation,
• and how you present (ie tell the story)

As @Whentwobecomesthree says, they are looking more to see how you perform presenting and to find out what type of person you are. So you don't actually need to pick your actual proudest achievement (because how would they know??) but pick something that fits the presentation the best. You want to tell a story - what did you do, why was it important, what barriers did you have to overcome to achieve it, how will you use what you learned in future.

As an example, you could say my biggest achievement is running a 10k, the reason it is is because I'd never done running before (identifying the problem) but I was inspired by a friend to take it up. I used couch to 5k (creating a plan) and it was really hard - a lot of the time I felt like giving up (barrier to overcome). I signed up to a 10k run to inspire me (setting goals) and that drove me to keep training. On the day, lots of people were faster than me but I just set my own pace (sticking to objectives) and I did it (achieved the goal). From this I learned that I was more resilient than I thought and realised I could achieve what I set my mind to, if I make a plan and stick to it (applying my learning)

Obviously it has to be something you've actually done though, don't make it up!

I agree that they aren't interested in the topic as such, but rather, your presentation skills.

I once had to do something similar and I talked about a really good apple tart I'd made recently.

On another occasion, where I was in the audience, someone talked about passing a first aid course and told us all about different types of slings.

I love that!

Yes, don’t worry about the achievement so much, they’re not overly interested in what you have achieved, rather in how you present. So think of something you’ve managed at any point - a course, cooking, a house renovation, anything really
that you can talk about.

I’d structure the presentation as an introduction, an explanation, and then something you learnt from it. Presentations are hard if you haven’t done them before but remember that the people listening to you want you to do well. Learn what you want to say, talk slowly and clearly, and have a nice but basic presentation on screen behind you.

If your greatest achievement is your children, then talk about that. They are looking at your ability to stand up and convey information to people, rather than a relevant topic imho.

If you make a mistake, just correct yourself and carry on. If you are nervous, that just means you are normal. If you are using PowerPoint, then bullet points are your friend.

GL

Have you done anything creatively - art, photography, writing, crafting? DIY? Done up a house? Got your garden under control? Completed a fitness/sports challenge? Or supported your DC in any of their achievements? As pps have said, you just need something you can build a good story around and make an engaging presentation.

People get annoyed with me for saying this and think it's anti-feminist or anti-parent or whatever but I really wouldn't choose 'having my children' or 'bringing up my children' as an answer to this question (and that goes for whether you are male or female BTW!). The problem talking your children as your greatest achievement as an interview question or presentation topic, even if most people would truthfully say that they are, is that it's quite hard to structure a presentation or answer about child-rearing logically without too much emotion and isolate/evidence from it what your actual skills are and how the 'success' relates to those.

Child rearing isn't a finite 'project' with a beginning middle and end you can talk through logically nor is it necessarily something you can objectively measure personal success in (e.g. even if through your drive/motivational/organisational skills your child is now a famous musician/tennis player/chess grandmaster how much of that can you really attribute to your 'achievement' as opposed to the child's talent or whatever else?)

Honestly I think this question is just a case of play the game and pick something that is a smaller achievement but you can talk about in their format more easily. If you do really want to do something to do with your children can you pick a more specific example. E.g. perhaps if you have a child prodigy perhaps talk about the process of preparing them for a particular event or exam, how you had to organise XYZ or raise funds or teach and motivate them or help them overcome nerves or whatever challenges. Or if you have a child with special needs, the process of securing them the help and support they need, coordinating inputs from multiple professionals, being resilient etc could be a good answer. Or just organizing a cake sale for the PTA or nursery or whatever is fine so long as you structure your answer logically. Just please don't waffle on about how great your kids are, how cute/funny/smart they are - I'm sure they are but I'm hiring you for the job not them

BTW for this reason when interviewing I now never ever phrase the question 'Tell me about your greatest achievement' or 'Tell me the thing you are most proud of', because so many people feel compelled to be strictly honest and spend 10 mins telling me all about their kids' achievements (whether they're 2 and just learnt to use the potty or 32 and a brain surgeon!)

Now I say tell me about one of your achievements or a thing that you are proud of, specifying 'at work' or 'in your professional career' if it's for a position where I'd reasonably expect them to have a good work history, but even for new graduates/apprentices I try and steer them towards something more 'work-esque' as I don't really need or want to hear anything too personal TBH, it's not that I object to people having lives outside work but more that they find it easier to give a clear answer that hits the points I'm trying to score them against if it's actual something smaller and less emotive (one big burly tough ex-police guy who I was interviewing for a Head of Security post broke down into floods of tears talking all about supporting his daughter through anxiety difficulties, wonderful to hear and very touching of course but we had to let him take 10 mins to calm down before we could continue the interview, I'd really probably have rather he told us about installing a new CCTV system or something equally dull and then he could have told me all about his DD over a cup of tea after starting the job TBH!).