Have you had any experience of delivering presentations at interviews? How do you prepare? How do you engage your audience?
Presentations are a common part of the recruitment process for graduate, research, teaching, consulting and other professional roles across a range of sectors.
Whether you have had a lot or limited experience in delivering presentations through university or work, you might find the tips below useful when preparing for the next steps in your career.

Purpose of having presentations at interview
The employer wants to see evidence that you can do the job and evidence of your written and verbal communication skills. This is covered in detail in the points below.

Notice of presentation at interview
Candidates are usually told 3 – 5 days’ in advance what they will be required to present on which is usually in the format of an email or a notification on the recruitment portal. You will either be given a set date or be able to choose from several dates and times. For some roles which require an assessment centre, candidates might be told on the day that they are required to present and given the brief. Presentations usually last 5 - 15 minutes and are often the first part of the interview process i.e. before a one-on-one or panel interview.

Understanding the brief
It is imperative that you are clear on what you have been asked to do. Always revisit the task and contact the employer if you have any questions. Sometimes you may be expected to present to the interview panel as if they were clients / students / colleagues etc. Examples of presentation tasks can include addressing how you would carry out one or more aspect of the role; a timeline of how you would spend your first few weeks or months in relation to a project; a strategy for engaging with multiple stakeholders, managing a budget or building a brand.

Think carefully about the task and how it relates to the job description and person specification. This is another opportunity for you to demonstrate you are a suitable match for role. Consider the questions below:
What do you need to address?
How long have you got to present?
Who is your audience?
What do you need to focus on?
What research is involved?
What is important to the employer e.g. skills and strategy?

Verbal communication – tone and speed of voice
Be aware of how you come across when you present. Do you use different tones when speaking? Consider what you are presenting on and how your voice can convey the correct message. If you have practiced your presentation, you are more likely to come across as confident in the delivery. Avoid relying on cue cards or simply reading text off a document or screen. It is normal to have speech anxiety in this situation. Usually, most of what we feel during this period is not visible to the audience. Examples of nerves include shaking, a dry mouth and an increase in body temperature. We can often speed up the pace we are presenting at as a coping mechanism i.e. rushing through the content for it to be over. However, we must recognise if we are speaking too fast or our words are mumbled. Pauses during the presentation can be a great way to gather our thoughts and give a moment for everyone in the room to process what has been said.

Time management
Your ability to deliver your presentation within the allocated time limit says a lot about you. This shows you are organised and can complete tasks in a timely manner. The planning and preparation you put in beforehand will be helpful here.

Non-verbal communication – connecting with the audience
Whether you are presenting to two people or a larger audience, you need to find ways to connect with them. How many people are expected to be present and who are they? Think about your facial expressions, gestures and posture. Looking at individuals in the eye, smiling and having open body language can help to make the audience feel relaxed and you come across as more approachable.

Written communication – visual aids
Be mindful of the type of organisation you are applying to when preparing your resources – colours, logo, values and strategy. Ensure that if you are creating a PowerPoint presentation, the colours do not clash and that you do not include too much text on your slides. Think about the use of suitable images or charts.

Be confident when using this Microsoft Office application and save several versions of it on a USB and email it to yourself in case technology fails you when in the interview room. Remember that the audience can read everything on the slides very quickly. Use the slides for key points and keywords as prompts to lead you.
Handouts can also be useful as the interviewers will refer to this for more detail on the task.

Ensure your spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct. Avoid the use of Americanisms for non-US companies. Think about the language used and the role you are going for. Visit the organisation’s website to gain a further understanding of what type of employee they are looking for.

Referee Selection
Most academic job applications will ask you to list the name and contact information for 3 to 4 referees (aka reviewers). These names must be selected with care. The screening committee will expect to see the name of your doctoral supervisor as a referee. Sometimes this is not possible due to personal conflicts or other matters, but its absence may be a red flag. If you supervisor is not available due to death, illness or some other situation beyond your control, you should note this in your cover letter. The screening will want to see the names of senior faculty members at institutions at least as prestigious as the one to which you are applying. This means they do not want industrial referees (unless you are coming from an industrial research position where you were working under someone with a doctoral degree). This also means that non-tenured faculty members or other junior staff members should be referees unless she or he is your supervisor. Ideally your references would come from Full Professors at internationally respected universities (top 20). Finally, your referees must know you and know your work. Also, it is highly advisable to ask before putting someone’s name on your reference list.

Personalize Your Motivation
When writing your cover letter try to include some type of personal connection to either the institution or at least to the locale. For example, writing things like “I was inspired to apply for this position after meeting Dr. Smith at the recent conference on twirlygigs. I believe that my expertise in “x” could be highly synergistic with her recent efforts in “y”.” Other ways to bolster your motivation is to write about specific pieces of institutional equipment you would use or particular nearby industrial contacts. Institutions want to think that your motivation for applying is not simply that they have an open position.

Do Not End the Process Before It Begins
No job is a panacea. Every institution and locale has its good things and its bad things. The job searching and interviewing process is much like dating. So try to have an open mind and appear highly agreeable, at least until a job offer is made. While you may have deep seated (and highly legitimate) reservations about a possible job (e.g. too rural, too urban, too focused on teaching, too small, too big, etc.), the cover letter is not the place to express them. You are selling and they are buying. At this very initial stage you need to spend all of your words describing how valuable you can be to them. The other critical thing to remember is that it is always easier to get a job from a job. Meaning that even if the application is not for your dream post, finding the dream post is will be easier to achieve once you are “in the club” of having an academic post. The academic world is small (even in the biggest disciplines) and people know each other. They meet at conferences and through other professional opportunities. You will be much better suited to gain the needed professional reputation and skills for your dream job once you have landed any academic post.