Many job interviews involve giving a presentation, usually to a number of people from the organisation. Occasionally, you may be asked to give a presentation if you have applied for a PhD or a vocational postgraduate taught course such as teaching.
Presentations show your ability to research and communicate information in an appropriate way to an audience. You may get advance warning of the subject matter or be asked to choose your own presentation topic; conversely you may get little notice and have limited time to prepare. If you are applying for a postgraduate course or PhD, it is likely that you will be asked to give a presentation related to the subject or the area of research that you are interested in.
Whether you are applying for a job or postgraduate study, the principles are the same, so it is worth revising the basics of making effective presentations before the interview.
- Prepare and rehearse your presentation beforehand. It’s worth speaking it out loud to check that you run to time.You could even try it out on sympathetic members of your family or friends.
- Make use of short notes to act as prompts. Don’t read your presentation from a script.
- Look at your audience, try to smile and engage with them.
- Speak clearly and don’t rush your presentation. Use language appropriate to your audience.
- Stand up if you feel confident enough and try to appear comfortable and natural, even if you don’t feel it.
You will probably feel relieved when it is all over and have a good idea of how the presentation went. Take time to reflect on what went well and areas where you feel you could improve. If you can, ask for feedback. It may be that you just need to feel slightly more confident or spend a bit more time preparing. Keep practising, as the more presentations you do, the better you will feel.
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