Having to prepare for an interview presentation is nerve-wracking for all candidates, no matter what their position or experience. However, giving a presentation at a job interview is a great way to show your personality and effectively promote why you’re the best fit for the role.

When preparing for and giving an interview presentation, keep in mind what was requested to be covered and what you can add to make yourself stand out. You also want to use the presentation to emphasize why you want the job and why you’re the ideal candidate.

If you’re still unsure of how best to prepare for this hiring tactic, read on for tips on how to create a presentation for a job interview and how to deliver the presentation effectively.

Why Do a Job Interview Presentation?

Asking candidates to give a presentation as part of the interview process is a common scenario. By presenting to the hiring board, whether about yourself as a candidate or a given topic, the interviewers get a better overview of your knowledge, aptitude, and experience.

Many presentations will be on your background, why you want the role, and why you’re the best fit. However, you may also be asked to give a presentation on industry trends or to give a mock sales pitch or similar client presentation.

Being asked to give an interview presentation will often happen when applying for high-level positions, but you could be requested to provide a presentation for any level of role. Presentations could be requested for a first interview or as part of a second or third interview to use as a final deciding factor between candidates. An interview presentation will be combined with, not in place of, traditional Q&A/discussion-style interviews.

Check out this helpful article for some top interview tips for candidates.

Giving an interview presentation helps show the hiring board your knowledge, aptitude, and experience.

How to Make a Presentation for a Job Interview

Once a presentation is requested, you must ensure you know how to prepare a presentation for a job interview successfully. Creating an interview presentation requires knowing what to include, how to structure the presentation, and how to present in an engaging way.

Use the following steps when creating your interview presentation.

1. Request Additional Information

To prepare for an interview presentation, the first step is to ensure you have all the necessary information. If you feel you’re missing any information, don’t be afraid to ask a few questions after you’re asked to present. Make a list of what you may need to know and ask the hiring manager or whoever requested a presentation.

Factors you’ll need information on include:

How much time you’ll have to present
Who you’re presenting to
If there’s anything specific that must be covered/what the presentation topic is
What technology you’ll have access to

2. Create an Interview Presentation Structure

Once you have all the information you need, you must know how to structure a presentation for a job interview. What is included in the presentation depends on what is asked for! So, look carefully at what is requested.

If nothing in particular needs to be discussed, use a structure that incorporates the following points/sections:

An intro that discusses who you are, how you got into the industry/role, and where you are currently
Your interest in the company and position (why you want the role)
Why you’re the best fit for this position, backed up with facts based on experience, achievements, and personal traits
Where you see yourself taking the role and how you can help the company grow
An impactful conclusion that summarizes and re-emphasizes the points above

Depending on how much there is to discuss, you may want to split these points over multiple slides.

Ultimately, you want to create a presentation that reflects why you’re perfect for the role and leaves the interviewers wanting to ask questions to expand on what was discussed. The best presentations will cement the idea that you’re the one to hire for the role.

3. Make Use of Presentation Aids

While you can do presentations completely verbally, presentation aids are highly useful and will most likely be expected. The most popular presentation aid is still slideshows.

Slideshow platforms to choose from include:

PowerPoint
Prezi
Google Slides
Keynote

When using slideshows, printing out a set of slides for each interviewer is a great idea. By having their own set of slides, they can make notes and will remember what your presentation content more easily.

When you prepare for an interview presentation, make sure you know what points and topics you must cover.

4. Don’t Forget Formatting

If using slides, keep in mind how important formatting is. Firstly, keep slides short, with a good amount of white space and short to the point sentences. The idea is that you quickly cover each point on the slide, and then discuss it in more depth verbally.

Each slide should cover just one point. For example, the following three points should each get covered on a separate slide:

Who you are
Why you’re interested in the role
What you can bring to the position

Viewers of the interview presentation should understand what is on each slide at a glance. To achieve this, always organize your content in an easy to consume format, for example, by using:?

Bulleted or numbered lists
Graphs
Diagrams
Stats
Infographics
Video

Using the company’s brand in your presentation is a great idea too. Make use of their company logo, brand colors and fonts, and the like. Lastly, thoroughly check spelling and grammar. As with your resume, one spelling or grammar mistake could be the difference between getting the job or not.

Not sure your resume is up to scratch? Try these 20 tips to greatly improve your resume.

5. Think of Follow-Up Questions

You’re almost guaranteed to be asked questions at the end of your presentation. To improve your responses, try to think of what questions may be asked based on your presentation content. Once you have a list of potential questions, think about how you’ll respond to each one in a way that doesn’t simply repeat what you’ve already said.

6. Practice!

Once your presentation is ready to go, practice before you present to the actual hiring board. Ask a friend or family member to watch and/or record yourself presenting. Practicing in front of a mirror can also help because you can see how much you look back at your screen (don’t do this too much) and how engaging you appear to be.

When practicing, also ensure your presentation isn’t over or under the allotted time. Additionally, be as comfortable as you can be working with all the equipment you need.

How Long Should an Interview Presentation Be?

An interview presentation should be short and to the point but long enough to provide all the required information. Luckily, most hiring managers will tell you how long to make the presentation when they request one. If they don’t, be sure to ask how much time you’ll be allotted.

If you don’t get an answer as to how long your interview presentation should be, aim for ten minutes.

Adding graphs, stats, and diagrams to your presentation make it easier to understand.

How to Give a Good Interview Presentation

Now you know how to prepare for an interview presentation, the following tips will help you deliver the presentation successfully.

How Do You Start an Interview Presentation?

As soon as you enter the meeting (and the building), be confident, enthusiastic, and engaging. Also, remember to smile. Keep this personality from the start of the presentation through to the end. Make sure you stand as soon as the presentation begins (unless specifically asked to stay seated.)

No matter what the topic you cover, use the start of the interview presentation to give a quick (one minute or less) overview of who you are and what you’ll be discussing.

During the Interview Presentation

Once you begin giving a presentation at a job interview, keep the following in mind.

Maintain Eye Contact

While presenting, don’t look back at the screen too much or at notes if you have them. You must predominantly look at those you’re speaking to and maintain eye contact, motioning to things on slides briefly or quickly checking notes.

Be Aware of Your Tone

As you present, speak clearly and at a steady pace (not too slow or too quickly.) In addition, use an enthusiastic and upbeat yet still professional tone.

Prepare to Adapt

You never know what might happen during the presentation. For example, you may be allowed to get through the entire presentation, and then have questions at the end (probably what you practiced.) However, interviewers may stop and ask questions as you go or divert the subject for a while. You need to be adaptable to this and work with what comes at you.

When presenting, maintain eye contact and be prepared to adjust based on how the interviewers react.

Keep an Eye on the Time

If you can see a clock, keep an eye on how long your presentation is taking. If it’s getting close to the allotted time and you still have a lot to cover, try to speed up a little bit and make points briefer. If you have a lot of time left, but your content is coming to an end, attempt to stretch out the presentation.

If your presentation has been interrupted frequently, try your best to keep track of how long it’s taking you to present the prepared content.

How Do You End an Interview Presentation?

The last slide/point of your presentation should be memorable and impactful. Sum up what you have discussed and why you’re the ideal candidate for the role.

Once you end the presentation, thank the interviewers for listening and ask if they have any questions for you. When answering questions, refer back to your slides, or other presentation aids, as needed.

In Conclusion

Having to prepare for an interview presentation and then present in front of a hiring board can be daunting. But, it doesn’t have to be! By following the above advice and using your presentation to offer a more in-depth look at you as a person and an employee, you’re guaranteed to succeed in delivering a high-level job interview presentation.

If you need some assistance preparing for a job interview or finding your new dream job, contact the team at Lynne Palmer Executive Recruitment. We have over 60 years of experience connecting talented candidates with a variety of amazing roles in publishing and medical communications, and would love to help you with your career growth.

How to Prepare for an Interview Presentation