10 min presentation.. got the position!

Hi,

Thanks for some great advice, recently addended an assesment centre for the a position on our company's (GE), succesion program.
The Topic I was given was.."my life on a desert Island".
I walked into the presentation with a hessian bag which I proceeded to plonk down at the foot of the screen, and after going through my slides I stated.
"You are all probably wondering what is in the bag... I've brought you each a coconut from my time on the island (proceeded to walk round giving each person a coconut), Take these home with you, and if you are ever stuck for ideas, ponder on them, and I'm sure that they will bring you the inspiration you need"...
Well, my coconut now resides in our site managers office, pride of place sitting atop a GE values coffee mug..

Fantastic.

Mattman

Hi MAtt,
Reading what you wrote both inspires me and scares me. I just got a call for a second interview for a position that I really want. However given that I am working f/t and it is less than a week away I decided to print a power point slide presentation (illeviate any room for equipment error) and binder it together and practice delivering a speech where my audience (less than five people ) would follow me thru my presentation (10min). I am really worried I may not stand out but I feel with such a small audience I should keep the attention on me and not the pp equipment. Any thoughts?

You are quite right to print out your presentation.. This will mean that you will go straight in to making a memorable perfomance rather than fiddling with getting the projector to work.

First impressions work and your first impression will be professional. If you want a little edge, print the presentation on a high grade paper. I use 130g paper and some of my clients have commented on the quality of the paper. It's a small touch, but then the difference between candidates is often decided on small things.

Go for it!

Good luck

.... and overall I'd say it's worth going for.

But it does run the risk that the members of your audience will spend their time with their heads down, rather than looking at you: you'll need to be very, very careful in designing each sheet.

It has to contain "so little information" that you still remain the focus of their attention but at the same time contain "enough information" not to look like a powerpoint slide that's just been printed.

The other risk is that you'll just look like you can't do/are scared of doing PPT so you'll need to be very creative in what you deliver. It's a high risk strategy but if you pull it off, it's a winner.

Good luck,

Simon