Microsoft Interview - 10 minute presentation

I have been through several stages now for a job at Microsoft and my final one is this thursday.

As well as interviews I have to create a 10 minute presentation, I've not done many before the theme is this:

"If you were the General Manager of Microsoft UK what key things would you focus on to ensure Microsoft retains its position in the market place?"

The stuff I have at the moment to talk about is:[list=a][*]Customer Focus e.g. research technologies and functionality that they require (productivity)[*]Rival Companies e.g. what are they doing? what markets do they have that we don't? etc[*]Staff e.g. do our current staff keep up to date with tommorows technoilogy? are the staff we are hiring keeping up? do they know how to implement this?[*]Technologies e.g. are we researching technologies that will give out customers more freedom with the latest technologies but easier to use?[*]Marketing e.g. out we marketing our products correctly? what are we using to market them?[/list]
My key word is "Research", I was thinking of starting off with a quote like "95% of all people will choose a product where research is visible than one that is not".

I am doing a computer science degree, and I really have no idea how to cover this in 10 mins or how to really cover it in a way that will impress.

I have only flip charts to use with pens and I have 20 mins to create my presentation, 10 mins for hte presentation and 10 mins for questions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. someone told me not to do any more than 3 pages for a 10 mins presentation...can anyone help me on that?

It sounds like you've got a lot to fit into 10 minutes. So...

Ask yourself what five things (some say you should stick with three, but you've been given more than 3 areas to cover) you absolutely want to point out in your presentation?

Then focus on expanding for a minute and a half on each. So you'd have one point about research (like your quote by the way) and then one point about marketing.

If you can find other anchor quotes like you did for the research area then use them to transition from research to marketing and so on.

Good luck. I hope you get the job.

Ross Bowring

i have the exact same interview on thursday. do u think a SWOT anaylsis would be a good way to start?

Good idea. The beauty is that it keeps things tightly structured, so your audience knows where they are in the presentation all the time. Not only that, but you can keep an eye on the time, too! (Nothing is more amateur than a presentation which runs over time.)

If you're feeling brave you could get the interviewers involved in doing the SWOT!

S

I have a ten minute presntation to do second week in January but I will not known the subject until 30 minutes before presenting it. I will have only flip charts and pens. Any suggestions on ho to focus my thoughts nad structure the presentation

As soon as you get the topic, decide on what is the key message you want to get across in your presentation. Express this message in one succinct sentence.

This will provide focus to your presentation.

Then work out what three questions your audience is likely to have once you've stated the key message. Express each answer as a succinct point. These three points will provide the structure for your presentation.

Back-up each point with an example. These examples will engage your audience

Then conclude your presentation by restating your key message.

Finally decide what you'll say to introduce your presentation. It doesn't have to be clever or attention-getting. It can be as simple as "Today I'm going to be talking about..." (note: Don't plan this until you've planned the rest of your presentation - I've left it till last on purpose).

So this is how your presentation will go:

Introduction
Key message
Point 1 - example
Point 2 - example
Point 3 - example
Key message

In terms of how to use the flipchart, you could write your key message and each point on a separate piece of paper and then flip them over as you move through your presentation. Remember to write your key message again for your last piece of paper. If one of your examples lends itself to having some visual back-up that would be great eg: if you can draw a graph to show numbers or a flowchart to demonstrate a process.

Go well in your presentation.

Firstly, you could use one of the standard 'templates'......

PREP - Point, Reason, Example, Point
PPF - Past, Present, Future,
DDD - Define, Discuss, Decide

Alternatively you've got time to spend 15 minutes doing a bit of work to create a spider-gramme (or similar technique) to clear your head, get everything in place that you might want to talk about and so on. Then hold your nerve, have a cup of tea and come back to it, striking out everything except the three most important points.

Simon

I also have to do a microsoft presentation.. My question is the same but it is for MSN not Microsoft... im a bit stuck, because google own 80% of the market for search engines and yahoo is also infront of MSN... i read an article where microsoft chief exec was saying the future of MSN is marketing, so im thinking of basing it on that? any ideas guys would really appreciate!