Asked to prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation for interview

[PBicecream]

I’ve been happily employed for many years but decided to see what else was out there and applied for a few roles. I applied for an admin role at a government agency and have been invited to interview…great! However I have been asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on why I think I would be suitable for the role, which must be sent ahead of the interview to the panel. I will then need to present this to the panel at interview. Is this now standard practice? It seems a bit much for a very junior role that, according to the job description, doesn't require any presentation work. It’s put me off taking the process any further as I am terrified of public speaking.

Ive not interviewed in a very long time and just wondered if this was normal?

Just remember to keep your power point simple- don't worry about all the fancy page and picture changes etc, use a pre set background if one looks suitable.
Keep the text on the page simple - this is for highlighting your points. I really like the layout with a title and three columns as it means I can give a headline, and identify three concepts to talk about it in more detail. I also often find online a little image that represents that point. (I.e. "transport" could be the headline then the three columns each have a title of 'bus', 'car', 'bicycle' and a small image of each, with perhaps 2/3 bullet points - short sentence or a word -about each one underneath)
Don't be afraid to bring notes to refer to. Have they given you a time limit? I had one for my most recent interview (successful) which was only 5 minutes and a huge topic so I scripted and had queue cards because if I went even slightly off piste I would get my times wrong. If the timing is a bit more relaxed I used notes rather than a script.
This is your 10minutes etc to control the interview process - you can plan in advance what to say and how to say it. Remember it's no more public speaking than the rest of the interview - same number of people watching you, you talking to them the same as if you were answering a question. You simply have a backdrop to support you rather than having to wing it!

This video helped me land jobs. Well worth your time.

No I've never had to do this, it would completely put me off especially for a junior / admin role