h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have an academic interview soon, part of which is a 10 minute presentation, "without electronic facilities", to 4 people, 3 of them who will also do my panel interview later in the day.

I'd like to have your tips. I'm fine with the content, and the act of presenting doesn't faze me. I don't even mind not using Power Point. I'm also aware that a 10 minute presentation is likely to take 10 hours to prepare.

What I'd like is any practical tips such as:
If I can't use electronic facilities would I be expected to produce a handout?
Should I use props, or is this too cheesy?
Should I make it an interactive presentation and ask questions to the audience, or get them involved in any way?
Am I likely to get stopped exactly on the 10 minute mark? Or if I'm mid way through my concluding sentence will I be allowed to finish?

The presentation is the very first part of the day, and I know that first impressions count, so any other tips will be helpful. Thanks!

Hi Coely,

I am used to this kind of thing when being interviewed for teaching posts.

When electronic facilities ARE available, I've moved away from powerpoint in favour of Interactive Whiteboard/Active Studio programme. (Students these days are bored by Powerpoint, and I had a colleague once who used PP during an OFSTED inspection. The inspector referred to his lesson as 'Death by PP')

I generally always use handouts, especially of the 'gapped' variety, so that students can be 'active' recording key details etc.

Being a science (chemistry) teacher, I often get the students to do a mini-practical during my 20 minute presentation, and so, in this context, I have props.

I also teach EFL now and again, and they're keen on using 'realia' to reinforce the message(i.e 'props') so, no, I don't think props are cheesy.


'Should I make it an interactive presentation and ask questions to the audience, or get them involved in any way?' Yes

'Am I likely to get stopped exactly on the 10 minute mark?'

wELL, I once lost a job and one of the cited reasons was that I went over my 20 minutes allocated time and therefore there were 'question marks over my lesson pacing'

'Or if I'm mid way through my concluding sentence will I be allowed to finish?' Yes.

I won't be teaching a lesson, which I could probably do in my sleep by now! This is a presentation for a management type of job in an academic establishment, and I'll be presenting to 4 senior managers.

In that case I would probably still issue a handout summarising the key points.

I still think that some kind of prop/realia would come amiss.

Probably I would aim to get the 'audience' involved.

'I don't think you're likely to get stopped mid-sentence at the 10 minute mark, but I still think it would be good form to practice and therefore time your presentation so that it doesn't go over.

I meant 'wouldn't aim to get audience participation'.

Well, I might as well turn this into the 'Teachers Thread'

Any guidelines as to the content of the presentation? If you give us a clue as to what you're doing, it might be easier to offer advice.

My gut reaction on handouts is no - you're presenting information that is possibly(?) know to these people, rather than educating, so repeating it is superfluous.

Having said this, I might not be the best possible person to offer advice - I do tend to 'wing' this sort of thing. I managed a pretty good 10-minute wedding reception speech without the benefit of having thought about it beforehand.

B

It's about the 14-19 stuff, diplomas, six into four, etc.

As I said I'm not worried about the content, that's not really the important bit. I just want tips on how to impress the people who will later interview me.

If the people concerned are olderish and of a accademia backgorund then doing the presentation with no notes can look good (though for non accademia or younger people they often seem to think this means lack of preparation )
'd certainly produce a single sheet 'handout' with whatever arguement/case your putting accross in the presentation in well written summary form ; At least if they've got that, then they might* look at it later on in the day, and remind themselves how good your presentation was... A lot will depend though on what exactly teh presentation is on...

IMO you need to have a 'focal point' - perhaps a pre-prepared flip chart

I was going to aim for no notes, but have record cards in case I needed a prompt. As I said, I'm not worried about standing in front of people and talking. It's more about knowing what "extras" are needed.

Your advice is useful 2legs, so a handout it is.

I'm going to assume that a flip chart it out too, Big Al. I want to be able to make as much direct contact with the panel as possible and this is probably why they specify no facilities.

I know exactly what I want to say and the content isn't my worry. All I'm asking for is advice on what "extras" would be expected, or perhaps unexpected but would be in my favour.

I think, given that they will ultimately assess you on your knowledge of the topic, that relying too much on gimmickry would be unwise.

On the flip-side, watching someone talk for ten minutes is very boring.

My initial idea would be to start with something anecdotal and only vaguely related, but assuming that you've got your timing down pat, and it sounds like you have, this would be impractical.

I'll have a think and get back to you tomorrow.

B

I did wonder about the start. People I've asked seem to think that a quote is a good thing to begin with, but an anecdote might be something different.

To put this in context, I've had 2 unsuccessful interviews recently with a presentation as part of it.
In the first I began with an anecdote and didn't use Power Point. In the feedback was told that I was the only candidate who didn't use PP and that this was my weakness as they had expected it to be used.
In the other I was using PP, began (and ended) with a quote and was told I didn't get the job because the person they appointed had more experience, but my presentation was strong.

Never done this sort of presentation for a job interview, but have done plenty of professional or commercial presentations...

First point that springs to mind is, yes, by all means give them handouts, but keep them to an absolute minimum during the presentation itself... There's nothing worse than trying to give a presentation to the tops of peoples' heads as they're all reading through what you've given them instead of listening to you - If they've got all the information they actually need at the beginning of the session they'll be looking through their paperwork to find the answers to any questions they might have rather than listening to you.

Give them the full set of docs at the end of the presentation, till them, keep their attention on you.

I can't offer any practical help, but good luck!

i agree with mu beta, they are looking for deep knowledge without recourse to distractions or aids. i also agree with other posts suggesting that, to a traditional mind, aids and such are extremely irritating.

conveying the necessary information in 10 minutes is an exercise in intellectual discipline and rigour.

in preparation, start from understanding what the intended goal is and what information needs to have been received by the listeners to achieve it. build backwards through what steps need to be taken for its successor to be logically derived and interesting.

if desperate, modelling a presentation on borrowed classical forms such as the sonnet, or rondo form can save time and is preferable to most of the iteration and elaboration models one is likely to find in contemporary stuff written about public speaking.

I've no experience of this sort of thing, but as an audience member of all sorts of presentations, my thoughts are:

If issuing a handout, tell them at the start there will be one given out at the end.
If using a flipchart or similar, avoid writing more than headings or illustrative figures.
Anecdotes or examples are good.

My hubby had to do a few talks & bought a small magic trick piece of equipment to use as a visual aid, to demonstrate a particular point. Generally went down well - but needs plenty of practice.

Lots of useful advice here. I'm definitely going for the idea of preparing a summary handout, telling them there will be one before I start and giving it out at the end. Thank you everyone for that!

I do have a small demonstration that I'll probably use as by the sounds of it you all think that's not too cheesy. If I do I'll need to make a prop. It's not magic, but it will make my point well and it's something I use in lessons so I know it works.

And good luck wishes are welcome too.

First off, very good luck!

I've been on both sides of the desk on this one - both presenting as part of an interview, and seeing other people present.

I can't remember anyone giving out handouts (but often the presentation is unseen, i.e you get to know what it is about half an hour before the interview)

Props (limit to one or two!) can be useful, but don't necessairly add that je ne sais quoi.

Most panels will let you know when your time is running out ("that's 9 minutes gone" as a polite intrusion)so you really shouldn't be stopped mid sentence.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that the small details about an interview or presentation are very unlikely to make a major difference to the outcome of the interview. No-one is going to make a decision on the job over who had a handout and who didn't, or whether the presentation was interactive or not. By all means think about these things but don't fall into the trap of getting fixated on them.

Interview decisions are mostly based on previous experience, current knowledge, and potential. I've interviewed people where my feedback has included saying 'there was nothing that you could have done or said differently that would have made any difference'. I've also appointed people who would have had to have worked quite hard not to get appointed.

But, for what it's worth, I'd suggest the following:

Produce a handout, but don't call it that. Tell them that you have it at the start, give it out at the end and describe it as a 'summary for reference' or something like that. 'Handout' has a very particular usage that can be misinterpreted.

If you only have ten minutes, my advice would be not to involve the audience, but promise to answer questions at the end. Ten minutes isn't really long enough to be interactive, unless the topic or scenario you've been given lends itself to that.

My experience is that the 10 minutes is usually approximate, but obviously try to make it 10 minutes and no more.