Interview presentation

[Query12]

I have been invited to an interview where I have been asked to give a 10minute presentation on something like 'how will you support our company to achieve our targets".

How do you approach these questions? Is it a... I will do/prioritise a, b and c or
Do you bring your previous experience into it e.g. I will do a. For example in my current role I have done something similar and these were the outcomes. I will do b, and then again say more about my experience related to that?

Any guidance would be helpful.

Thanks

Oh that’s awful of them to not give you any guidance. I’d go for:

How I analyse problems

How I make decision

My strategies for achieving goals

Some examples of how I’ve done this in the past (actual successes, not just’ or done X job’

My analysis of your business environment

Steer clear from specifics about their business unless you’re really sure what they are after. You don’t want to give them a great plan for doing something that they all think is a horrible idea.

Thank you. This is helpful. I like the steer clear from specifics as I've been struggling with that as I don't have access to their data which I would need

This is where you get to shine, so try and think of it as a positive thing.

I often set these type presentations in interviews. It gives the candidate open licence to tell me about themselves.

I know the candidate won't know about our organisation, so what I am looking for is how will they go about the problem? What experience do they have already that they can use? So definitely use previous experience.

Keep in mind that it is a ten minute presentation, so you want maybe 3 slides, possibly 4. Avoid war and peace, definitely do not exceed your time. Shoot for 8 minutes to leave time for questions. I would do something like:

1. How I would find out key areas of focus. Identify stakeholders, peers, key customers, suppliers, obvious pinch points. You can identify analysis of their data as part of this step.
2. From experience... this is where you can bring in all the things you've done before. E.g. in the past, I have seen this type of issue so I would start there and see if there are similarities etc etc. Find your own words, but keep in mind that most organisations have the same problems. Disengaged people, lack of leadership / direction (or at least lack if clarity), supply issues, and customer dissatisfaction.
3. How you would monitor progress. Identify measurable milestones, regular reviews etc. Keep in mind that (in private industry), all employees think that their primary job is to create the best widget possible. It isn't. Creating a widget that is fit for purpose and profitable that provides a return on shareholder investment is the primary purpose.

Don't waffle, don't be afraid of silence, speak slowly, and the best tip I ever had to avoid saying err and um was to close my mouth when I have finished speaking. Subconsciously, if we leave our mouths open, an err or an um creeps out.

ETA - keep the slides as bullet point memory joggers. Busy slides are awful.

This is bad advice : they are asking about their company goals and how you would achieve them. They want to know that you have researched their company so yes you need to be company specific and specific about your own experience.

Ask Chat GPT to help. Then meticulously double check any fact it gives you, remove effusive guff, and rewrite anything else which obviously sounds like it's been written by Chat GPT. Make sure your presentation doesn't use any obvious Chat GPT formatting either as it's very distinctive.
I have used Chat GPT to help me with job applications recently and it's been invaluable. Not least to boost my confidence when I felt like I wasn't qualified for a role - in fact I was overqualified and worth top end of the salary.

Such useful feedback - I currently have a version that is around 9 minutes long, so that is good - I was hoping to aim for less, so good to get that feedback. I will definitely need to get my mouth shut and will practice that.

Regarding the presentation - do you think they will be OK with me taking notes in with me to give it? Would help in case of getting lost, but hoping I won't need to use it much.

Great advice from @HappiestSleeping. You could take in a couple of cards with headline notes?

No reason not to take notes in, although you can also use presentation mode on PowerPoint for this if you have two screens. One has the presentation on it, and the other has your notes.

I would also run the presentation out loud in advance as many times as you need to in order to get really fluent with it. To the mirror, your partner, the cat, anyone who will listen. This will get you comfortable with speaking out loud, and familiar with the points you want to make.

If you take notes in, hit it head on at the beginning of the presentation and just say something like "I have a few really key points that I don't want to miss, so I have some notes to make sure I cover them".

The aim of an interview is not to catch you out, it is to make sure you are the right person for the job. Taking in notes enables them to see you are thorough, especially if they are positioned as suggested. There is a reason the military use checklists despite often having decades of experience. People make mistakes. Checklists help prevent that. So do notes. Nothing wrong with them at all.

I second the plan to practice your presentation to anyone who’ll listen, to get used to the sound of your own voice talking outside your comfort zone.

I did a promotion board just with power point, no notes, 4 slides, and practicing out loud a few times in advance, was invaluable.

I got the promotion.

There's some great advice on this thread! You could also break it down into 'first 3 weeks', 'first 3 months' and 'beyond' to show how you build up into delivering their goals. It would show that you do things in a sensible order, like understanding the needs of all the stakeholders before making a plan.

Research the company, and copy the job description into Chat GBT - it will give you a presentation that you can then tailor. Do it for inspiration and to give you a blueprint to work with, do not just use the one that results as they will know…

Thank you all. I think I will take notes on. I usually try to deliver presentations without notes but I simply don't have enough time to prep as much as I want, as got under 1 week notice and life is busy. So notes it is

I wouldn't do this to be honest as it doesn't feature anything about the candidate. The presentation is about the candidate, not the job or the company. It is designed to see how the candidate approaches a problem. Could just as easily be "how do you decide where to go on holiday".

Got the job. Thank you for all your tips. I referenced my previous experience and took my notes in and it was fine.

Excellent news, well done 👍