Got an interview on Tuesday and just been told i have to do a 20minute presentation. Never had to do one before, so best way to prepare this.

I guess Intro, evidence, conclusion, any questions, as a basic structure. That about it?

How many slides would be a sensible number etc.

get their attention
deal with their doubts/desires
demonstrate credibility
ask for what you want
questions
close it

as a handy guide, the 10-20-30 rule

10 slides, 20 minutes, 30pt font minimum

or, have the first slide disappear into a black dot and talk to them with no slides

or, have the first slide disappear into a black dot and talk to them with no slides

like it, will try that at work.

Tell them what you are going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you've told them

Keep your slides simple, use images and graphics, don't read what is written on the slides.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

IS it on a specific subject? Target whatever you are saying to be relevant and interesting to your audience. Try and think about what they know so you don't bore them or lose them by being too simplistic or complicated respectively.

Don't read your slides, keep them to bullet points and pad it out with what you are saying.

Try and put relevant pictures, graphs, diagrams in. 20 minutes of text is dull and pictures and graphs can give a lot of information.

Just tell them about the Grand Raid and you will be sorted

DO NOT use any sound effects or fancy animations on your slides. 👿
Keep it simple, bullet points and aim for clean and professional.

It's there as a backup to your narrative, not for you to read from.

Practice.

I think geoffj did the same course as me! Good advice 🙂

I worked at one slide per minute, which seemed to be about right. For an interview, pass round printed copies of the notes at the end. This way there's a chance one of the recruiters will find your slides on their desk and remember you.

Have you been told what to give the talk on? If not, I wouldn't be afraid to branch out – if I was a recruiter, I'd be looking to see someone get a difficult and complex bit of information across in the easiest way. "Wot I Do On My Weekend" is probably not this.

This is just a personal opinion, btw – but if I worked all day in, say, toilet roll manufacture, the last thing I'd want to see is a chart showing the growth in toilet roll sales over the last 50 years…

It's the eye contact thing that makes people remember a presentation. No eye contact and people switch off pretty quickly.

Tell them Powerpoint is the Devils work and do it off a flip chart 😆

Keep slides to a minimum and have the bottle to talk to very simple bullet points, keep to something that you know, dont BS, be relaxed, look them in the eye, better to be concise than waffle on, gauge how your audience is reacting, if lots of nodding and smiles expand that section, if they are falling asleep move on.

Use pictures and diagrams if appropriate – a picture is worth a thousand words as they say.

Don't bother with anything too complex, instead have some more detailed slides prepared and put them after your final slide. You can then skip to them if the questions after the main presentation get more in-depth and you need to give further explaination. You could have hyperlinks to the in-depth slides in case you want to jump to them during your main presentation. But only go to the in-depth slides if you think you need them to answers any of their questions that arise during the main body of presentations.

Have a final line prepared something like, 'that is all I have prepared and I will now take any questions you have', rather than just running out of things to say.

You might also want to say something at the start about questions. Say you'll take questions at the end unless there is something they don't understand or needs extra explaination.

Remember you are in charge for these 20mins so don't be afraid to move on the discussions if it's getting bogged down in over something minor.

I could have a look at your slides if you like once you've prepared them.

You should always finish by inviting questions, and I've heard people say it's good to have prepared a brief point to add at the end in case nobody asks anything.

This is one of the best presentations I've seen: http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

You will have to practice evry waking minute to get your presentation up to that standard, saw something similar myself a while ago – very good

Also, I think both Keynote and PowerPoint have a feature that lets you practice a presentation with a timer. You need to run through it at least twice beforehand, and try it on someone. If you do have a chance to visit the venue beforehand you can make sure your computer works with their projector.

The slides need to support your talk, not be its focus; YOU ARE THE FOCUS.

What Goan said about eye contact is exactly right. You are trying to keep them looking at you as much as possible. So move about and catch their eyes, every one of them, but definitely the key person who will decide if you get the job.

Personally, I thrive on interaction so I ask them about their opinion on what I'm lecturing. In this respect, I really like hecklers because they are keen to interact, they do the hard work of keeping everyone awake for you!

In terms of nerves, I always get nervous with strangers. But being nervous makes you look attentive which is good. Just keep casually smiling and do your thing instead of worrying.

One tip. if you use props, pointers etc, make a concious effort to put them down after you've used them to avoid waving them about in a distracting manner.

It isn't that hard, can be learned and you get better with practice I promise. Best of luck to you and here's hoping you get the job.

I do a lot of presentations – but in the academic world. Generally, for a 20 minute talk, I would have around 20 slides (some of which I will go through faster than others). At the top of each slide, I put the main point, and then underneath I will either have pictures or diagrams or a set of sub-points. For the sub-points, I only put in a short bit of text and talk to it (i.e. DO NOT simply read out the slide).

Also, I put on the first slide (after a title slide) my aim – straightaway. I.e. The aim is to show you my great skills, and underneath I would then outline the structure of the talk. I.e. I will show you 1) what my skills are 2) what I use them to do, 3) some key achievements, 4) discussion of particular points and 5) summary/conclusions.

Have the talk ready several days before. Then practice it (i.e. actually lock yourself in an empty room and say the whole thing out loud whilst timing with a stopwatch. That way you figure out if you're on time, and you learn it. DO NOT stop the talk if you make a wee hiccup – just keep going through. Then go through the whole thing again afterwards. It is difficult.

Often, I will sit and give my talk to a colleague too. It is good for discipline, and for checking you are getting the correct points across.

Finally, leave a few minutes at the end for questions. I.e. – if you have a 20 minute talk, actually talk for 18 minutes. No-one will mind if you finish early, but they will mind if you go over (and may cut you off if you do so).

Final tip is to relax and BREATHE DEEPLY for SEVERAL MINUTES before giving the talk – that helps a lot…

Good luck – enjoy.