Four Tips for Job Interview Presentations 

If your upcoming job interview requires you to give an interview presentation, preparation is key. After practising how to answer common interview questions, it’s time to think about how you present to give yourself the best chance of impressing your audience. 

Interview presentations will become more of a regular occurrence as you progress into more senior roles. Recruiters are now using interview presentations for a number of roles at entry level upwards. For the sake of your current and future interview success, it is important that you tackle this skill sooner rather than later. 

Why do you have to give an interview presentation?

Potential employers increasingly focus on skills-based hiring. Rather than focusing solely on the education on your application form, employers want to see how you perform.

By asking candidates to deliver an interview presentation, the interviewer is looking for proof that you: 

1. Can do the job
2. Have strong communication skills
3. Have good organisational skills
4. Are diligent

If you take the time to prepare a presentation that shows all of the above, you will also demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role. With this in mind, how can you deliver the best interview presentation possible? 

How to present in an interview 

1. Prove to your potential employer that you can do the job 

By asking for a presentation, a potential employer wants to see how you work. You need to step beyond answering questions and the STAR method – it’s time to demonstrate how you would work day to day.

• Understand the task: Before you do anything else, make sure you are absolutely clear on what you need to do. Re-read the brief, double check with the recruiter that you have interpreted it correctly and don’t hesitate to ask them any questions. The recruiter will be in touch with your interviewer and can help clarify anything. Better to check now than not check at all. 

• Demonstrate your skills: As I mentioned before, this presentation is testing for key competencies. Which competencies are these? Read the job description again. Highlight the required skills for the role you’re applying for and incorporate these into your presentation. 
• Research the company: Now look at the business objectives of the company, and if possible what has worked/hasn’t worked before. Are there any major industry or company changes that would affect how somebody would usually approach this assignment? Take a look at their social media platforms too.

Take the time to understand this task and tailor your approach according to the skills required. This approach will prove that you are right for both the role and the organisation.

2. Demonstrate your written communication skills

Now you know what you want to say during your interview presentation, think about how you are going to say it. Written communication skills will prove important to many day to day tasks.

• Structure your presentation: The first slide should give an overview of the contents of your presentation. Your introduction following this could contain an interesting fact, quote or statistic relating to your presentation topic. Each slide following that should provide a headline of what that slide is about. Additionally there should be either a great visual or bullet points which you can elaborate on. 
• Keep it concise: Include just one to two sentences per slide and no more. Someone once told me that presentation slides should be like road signs. They should contain enough information to get people’s attention, but not so much that it is distracting. 
• Know your audience: You may be presenting to an interview panel with different areas of expertise. Research what these areas are, and make sure what you have written is relevant and engaging for all. For this purpose, keep the language simple and avoid using too much jargon. 
• Double check the contents: Always ask somebody else to check over what you have written and make sure each slide is clear.

By following these tips, you can make sure the contents of your presentation reflect your strong written communication skills. 

3. Showcase your verbal communication skills 

It’s one thing having good written communication skills, but it will all go to waste without a strong delivery. Being able to communicate clearly and in an engaging way verbally is important to all of us. Your interviewer will be assessing your face to face communication skills throughout your interview presentation.

• Don’t read from a script:  Instead, reiterate the key points from each slide, and then talk around them in more detail. If you practise what you are going to say beforehand, this should become ingrained. It’s a  good idea to bring verbal prompts in the form of cue cards just in case.

By avoiding spending the whole presentation reading from a piece of paper or slide, you will allow yourself to make eye contact and gesture. In turn, you will engage the interviewers and further build rapport. At the end of the presentation, reiterate and sum up the key messages you want the interviewer to remember.

• Practise your delivery: I would recommend practising your presentation in front of someone who can give you feedback. Or you could try recording yourself speaking or even delivering it to yourself in front of a mirror. Critically assess the indicators of confident communication; for example speaking pace, tone and body language.

Time how long it takes you to deliver. You should have a reference for where you should be at which points in your presentation so that you don’t over-run. If you do, you may lose the full impact of your presentation and thus affect your overall performance in the interview.

• Calm your nerves: Take steps to calm your nerves both when practising and on the day of the interview. Take deep breaths, don’t rush your sentences, and remind yourself that the interviewers are just people who have been in your shoes before.

What’s more, they’re not trying to trip you up. They want you to succeed, not least because sitting through a bad presentation is awkward and a waste of time! But also because they have faith in you and your strengths as a successful candidate. Why else would they invite you in for an interview?  

Learn more about managing your interview nerves from our experts.

In practising and getting into the right mind-set before your presentation, you can engage the people in front of you.

4. Show your diligent attention to detail 

During your interview, show that you are hardworking, organised, and careful in how you do your work. 

• Plan for the technology: Will you be using their devices or one of your own? Make sure you ascertain this beforehand, and know how to use this device. Ask someone to have checked your slide deck (if using one) beforehand to ensure everything works. 
• Stay conscious of time: Find out how long the presentation needs to be and make sure you don’t run over. When practising your presentation, remember to time it and leave room for questions at the end. 
• Try to be on brand: Look at the fonts and colours on the company website. Try to use these in your presentation to show you’re a good fit. You could also try to find existing presentations and webinars on their website and match the format. 
• Double check everything: Check your formatting, layout, as well as spelling and grammar. Get somebody else to proof your presentation for you too. 

These tips depend on giving yourself enough time to prepare for an interview presentation, get feedback, and ask questions. By planning an interview presentation, you demonstrate to the hiring manager just how passionate you are about this role. Moreover, you show your interviewer why they should be just as passionate about you too.

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