How To Ace Your Panel Interview Presentation

It's the final interview stage and you have to present to a panel. No surprises. These days, more than ever, PowerPoint slides are making a huge impact on the way we work and the way we communicate our intentions to others. Don't be judged negatively by it.

Here's the most important thing. Your slides are a manifestation of how you think, how you are organized and your articulation of your thoughts. Think of it as an extension of the way you dress. You wouldn't dress sloppily or casually in the boardroom, would you? You would look the part. So why would your slides be any different in terms of how they look?

Let's look at 6 easy tips you can use to improve your effectiveness and improve your chances at the final interview stage.

1. Try to adopt the company’s brand guidelines 100%.

The importance of branding is outside the scope of this article, but the point is that you must respect brand guidelines and use them both internally and externally. You will be part of a tribe and this is how the tribe speaks. Not learning the tribal language is akin to being an outsider and you will be treated as such. Most companies will have brand guidelines in their websites and with all the visual cues you need to adopt them easily.

2. Spell check your text

There is no excuse for not spell checking your text. Spell checks are built into most applications, and you can always write your text in Microsoft Word and spell check them there before putting them into your PowerPoint slides. When building your slides, the last thing you should do is check for spelling errors. This is schoolboy stuff. Only schoolboys make spelling errors. Not grown professionals yearning for the boardroom.

3. Be fastidious about layout and arrangement

Managers hate to see boxes out of alignment, jumping out where they shouldn't be. It's just sloppy and distracts from your presentation. It's like having one sleeve longer than the other or your tie hanging loose. You wouldn't dress like that in front of Management so why shouldn’t you slides look likewise? Master the alignment tools in PowerPoint.

4. Present your slides professionally, don't read from them

By now you would have all heard the saying: prepare, practice, present. That's what TED speakers and senior corporate executives do. Practise religiously and commit your words to memory. You can use presentation mode on your screen but make sure you're actually presenting, not reading. Ultimately you will be doing an injustice to your wonderful slides. And remember it's not about reading your slides as it is about presenting a story and using your slides as a presentation aid.

5. Try To Tell A Story

While not always possible, storytelling is an effective way to convey information and make it more memorable. Build a narrative into your presentation, whether a single scenario that you carry through your presentation to emphasize and give context to specific points. If you can show conflict or challenges in your story, it will make the solution you’re proposing the hero. Not only will it be more memorable if you can tailor your story to an audience, it will connect more readily.

6. Rehearse and polish your presentation.

Great politicians prepare days and weeks ahead for a speech. They don't just wing it and hope that it sounds good. They have a hundred tries at it until it sounds almost perfect and committed to memory. You don't need a hundred tries but you need several to make sure that you master your presentation structure and flow. Make use of presentation versions. Make use of 'presenter view' and the notes section to prompt yourself on what you should be doing or saying. Make eye contact.

How you present your slides is just as important as how they look. Because at the end of the day your words, and how you deliver your words, complete the communication of your intended message. If you fumble for the right words or you stumble when you deliver or worse, you pre-face every sentence with fillers like ‘Ah’, you're not projecting confidence to the panel, it'll hurt your chances compared to someone more polished.

Reprinted with permission from The Boardroom