nibnob21
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Registered: 16th May 10
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Got to give a presentation for a job interview, but no computer resources are allowed. Other material that I bring along is ok; so props and handouts etc are fine.
Just wondering if anyone has any tips for how I can make it stand out...in a good way, not a CS kind of way 
It's only got to be 10 minutes and is basically on what's good about me that means they should give me the job.
Thanks 
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Balling
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What kind of job?
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nibnob21
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Component design engineering graduate job for Rolls-Royce.
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LeeM
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smoke machines and shit
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nibnob21
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And so it begins
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Balling
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Just keep it cool and use your own words. Don't try to sound different than you are.
Talk like you would in any other conversation.
Don't hand anything out unless there's a perfectly good reason to.
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nibnob21
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Yeah I know what to say, I've had to give presentations before so that's fine. It's more ideas of how I can jazz it up a bit to stand out, as opposed to just standing there talking to them, as that could get a bit boring.
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spencer88
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Make it different to the norm.
If you have 50 presentations, that are all the same, except one, which one will stand out?
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nibnob21
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quote:
Originally posted by spencer88
Make it different to the norm.
If you have 50 presentations, that are all the same, except one, which one will stand out?
That's what I'm trying to say. I'm asking how can I make it stand out lol.
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spencer88
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Interaction.
How about you have it in categories.
Liek Strengths/ Weaknesses/ Previous experience etc etc.
But give them a britains Got Talent 'X' Buzzer.
If they get bored or such, they buzz, all of them buzz and you have to move on!
I don't know, just something that is a bit funny and different.
Get them all to stand up and sing Mr Brightside.
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nibnob21
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Or just say, "You don't want to hear me babble on, let's do the hokey cokey instead!".
Sure that'll go down well lol.
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Root
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quote:
Originally posted by spencer88
Interaction.
How about you have it in categories.
Liek Strengths/ Weaknesses/ Previous experience etc etc.
But give them a britains Got Talent 'X' Buzzer.
If they get bored or such, they buzz, all of them buzz and you have to move on!
I don't know, just something that is a bit funny and different.
Get them all to stand up and sing Mr Brightside.
At least then if they buzz you, you can egg them 
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spencer88
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quote:
Originally posted by nibnob21
Or just say, "You don't want to hear me babble on, let's do the hokey cokey instead!".
Sure that'll go down well lol.
Chances are, they will not buzz. But by giving them the buzzers, shows a bit of a sense of humour.
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Ian
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Registered: 28th Aug 99
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You've no idea what they're looking for so gimmicks like that might be a complete waste of time.
I'd be favouring someone who was confident and knowledgeable over someone who was merely memorable.
Not even sure I'd try for interaction, its a skill to obtain it and an even bigger skill to deal with not getting it.
My one single largest piece of advice for a strong delivery is to know what you're talking about.
So a few key good reasons why they should employ you, substantiated by lots of real evidence.
If you've done enough interesting stuff at uni and you have enough interesting ideas about how you can contribute to their company, they'll remember that right enough.
[Edited on 12-06-2013 by Ian]
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nibnob21
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Cheers Ian. I've got a Masters so I've had to do 2 dissertations, meaning I've got a good amount of interesting engineering based projects I can talk about. I've also been heavily involved with one of the sports clubs and have played at an international level whilst being on the exec committee for the University club. This has lead to a couple of awards from the University too, so I've got plenty of evidence of useful skills I can bring to the company.
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GB123
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Use clipart
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Ian
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The next problem is if you have a lot of content you might discard potentially good material.
Pitching at a higher level is normally a good way of upping the pace a bit. Assume (not a poor assumption in this case) that the audience has a high level of technical exposure to the subject and you don't need to introduce things in quite so much detail.
That should also evidence your depth of knowledge. If you get a question or some interaction at that point and you can carry on being knowledgeable that will be a complete gift in terms of coming across well. Not saying you should actively seek it as per my other post, but you'll need to see how you handle it and whether they want to interject. If you're right in the middle of some technical blah blah and one of them asks you something to check you're not blagging it, you could use that to your advantage if you smash the answer.
Or they might have decided to not interact at all and you'll get the entire 10 minutes uninterrupted. I would think be thinking this has more merit tbh.
10 minutes is probably 3-5 main themes, list them if you are happy to go public.
[Edited on 12-06-2013 by Ian]
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nibnob21
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Yeah not a bad point actually. But then I don't want to run the risk of losing them by chatting about a load of stuff they don't understand lol. I suppose if they don't understand something they can just ask about it, as you say.
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Ian
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There are a few risks with going too technical.
Getting it wrong is more of a problem than losing the audience. I would think in that setting, there will be at least one of the panel who can verify every single engineering thing that you say so even if you lose a few of them, they'll be asking that guy later if you were actually talking bollocks or making sense.
Win him and that's that dealt with.
The other problem is it shows a bit of a lack of prep as you've not understood the audience but you can always wing downwards if you get there and they're not engineers. Going having prepped lower and they're wanting some juicy stuff you'll have a harder time.
[Edited on 12-06-2013 by Ian]
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nibnob21
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So basically instead of risking doing something outlandish or different to get noticed, your advice would be to just go in knowing my shit and play the safe game by demonstrating I have the relevant skills and knowledge suitable for the job, as that will speak loud enough.
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Tom
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I would struggle without any visual prompts personally, but I agree with Ian in that the most important thing is knowing the subject.
I recently had a job interview where I had to analyse a data set and report back with 'something interesting' (I was allowed to present some content which I did using prezi). If I were you I'd build a presentation in powerpoint or something and use some prompts to remember what you wanted to cover on each slide, but just spend time refining and thinking about examples you can use and spend as much time as you can reading and refining it as the prompts will become second nature. I'm not suggesting you try to memorise a set of slides at all btw, more just build yourself a set of prompts all with examples/experiences to back up what you're saying. Good luck...
[Edited on 12-06-2013 by Tom]
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nibnob21
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I can't use computer resources for the presentation, otherwise I'd deliver a Prezi presentation.
Or are you suggesting I make a presentation just so I can have a visual cue in my head when I'm delivering it orally on the day?
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Ian
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quote:
Originally posted by nibnob21
So basically instead of risking doing something outlandish or different to get noticed, your advice would be to just go in knowing my shit and play the safe game by demonstrating I have the relevant skills and knowledge suitable for the job, as that will speak loud enough.
Its not the safe game, you need to know your shit
But yeah, if someone came in and smashed the blah blah while still looking like I could sit next to him on a coach, I'd give it to that guy.
Slides that you're not going to use will work for the prep but make sure all the detail is in your own notes, wondering if you've said everything from notes you don't have on you is not good.
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Tom
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quote:
Originally posted by nibnob21
I can't use computer resources for the presentation, otherwise I'd deliver a Prezi presentation.
Or are you suggesting I make a presentation just so I can have a visual cue in my head when I'm delivering it orally on the day?
Yes, the latter. I'm quite a visual person so would find it easier to have some visual prompt in my head that helped me to remember and order what I wanted to say.
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Ian
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You can have your own notes?
And handouts?
No doubt there will be some people going in and handing some nice colour printed thing to everyone and talking through that but its only 10 minutes. I personally wouldn't have anything except for your own piece of paper and even that would be better remembered. Just don't risk that if you can't.
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