The interview process can be a nerve-wracking time, especially if you’re asked to do a presentation. Many presentations at an interview for a recruitment role will involve the presentation topic to be about yourself. At this point you will either be excited about the fact you get to talk endlessly about yourself with someone’s undivided attention for 10 minutes, or you will be full of dread. Either way, don’t wing it!
There are ways to prepare so that you come across as the best version of yourself and not the most nervous or cocky version of yourself. The presentation is there for the employer to get to know you better and to see how you will work with candidates and clients. It is also a good opportunity to showcase your communication style and how you handle pressure. So we’ve included our top tips below about how you can best prepare your presentation for an interview.
Ensure to answer the question
If the brief was to give a presentation about yourself or why the company should hire you – make sure you are clear, concise, and confident in your answer. If you usually don’t feel comfortable talking about yourself, now is not the time to be shy. Now is the time to ‘fake it until you make it’ and execute this presentation with confidence!
Less is more
When creating your presentation, remember that less is more. You don’t want slides full of long sentences or paragraphs. The presentation is just there to support what you’re talking about, so practice what you’re going to say but don’t write a script. Just make a few notes if you need to and just practice then practice again so that you will be able to talk comfortably and confidently.
What to include
Here are some key aspects to consider for a presentation about yourself to make sure you answer the question and stand out from the crowd:
- Why you should hire me
- Use company colours
- Use personal photos (a recent one not one from 5 years ago!)
- Don’t be too corporate
- How do you think on your feet
- How you work with clients e.g. how do you get them to sign with you exclusively
- How you build trust and a relationship with candidates
- Make sure you know your sector
Reflect your own language
They don’t want to see a copy and paste from the internet, employers have seen so many presentations by this point that they will know if you have duplicated work. So don’t overcomplicate it and be authentic.
Give real life examples
The employer wants to know that you’ll be able to handle real life situations appropriately. So where possible, try to talk about some situations where you might have spoken to a client and picked up a job at a moment’s notice. Or if a candidate is having a meltdown, how you have supported them through that.
Be yourself and get your personality across
Although we think you should ‘fake it until you make it’ if that helps with your confidence, try to do this authentically. When talking about why a company should hire you, the most important piece of advice we can give you is to just be yourself. We know this is more easily said than done, so the best way to reinforce this is to make sure you use your language and that your slides reflect you. For example, don’t try to project a false narrative and be someone that you’re not. If you say you’re very professional, this might come off that you’re too corporate as opposed to being friendly and personable.
As well as checking your competent and confident to do the job you’re being interviewed to do, the interviewer will also want to understand how you’re going to work with candidates and clients as that is all part of doing the job. So try not to hide your personality and let it shine!
And whatever you do, don’t cancel!
Good luck!
