Acing assessment centres: Presentations

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

Continuing our mini-series on Acing Assessment Centres, today we look at the presentation exercise to understand what your assessors will be looking for and some quick tips to help you shine above the other candidates.

Three Things to Remember

When it comes to the presentation element of an assessment centre, the first thing to remember is that the assessors are looking to evaluate more than just your presenting skills. Overall they’ll be looking for a range of things including how well you’ve structured the presentation, the strength of your arguments, how persuasive you are, your innovative ideas and your overall personal impact.

The second key point is to think about the type of presentation you’ve been asked to do. There are typically three types –

A specific presentation with a prescribed topic and heading
A general presentation where you have been asked to decide the subject
An “off the cuff” presentation that you will be expected to write and deliver on the day.

In the first type, alongside the usual considerations there’s often a strong element of focus on the content of the presentation. In the latter two, the focus is much more about your thinking process and the quality of your ideas – content still matters, but the criteria is much more about the approach you have taken and how you have put your ideas across.

And lastly, it’s worth remembering that sometimes you’ll be asked to prepare and/or deliver your presentation with a partner or a small team. This is so the assessor can judge how you work with other people – so bear in mind that you need to show how well you can build rapport, gain support for your ideas and lead or support the others you are working alongside.

Quick tips –

Relax. Often the presentation is the scariest bit of the day and it does terrify a lot of people. If you want the job you’ve got to get through it and you’ve got to do well, but remember that it’s only one element of the whole assessment centre – so if you fail at the presentation its doesn’t mean you’ve failed everything.
Plan well. Often people overload their presentations with too much content. Avoid this trap and stick to the time that you’ve got. Also, if you can, try to find some information about the presentation beforehand – for example, how much time have you got to do it, what’s available in terms of visual aids and what type of people are in the audience (so you can pitch at right level). If you don’t get the information in advance and you’re not briefed on it, ask at the beginning of your preparation time on the day.
Take your time. A big mistake nervous people make is they dive straight into the presentation without taking the time to build rapport with the audience. Before you start, think about how you can lighten the tone of your presentation and introduce yourself to the assessors and give them a chance to introduce themselves to you. Without this, there is a danger that your presentation might seem very one-way rather than the audience feeling like it is a conversation that includes them.
Start with the end in mind. What message do you want them to take away from the presentation? If they only remember one or two key things, what do you want those to be?
Think about your structure – people will often advise you when preparing a presentation to, “Tell them what you are going to say, tell them it, then tell them what you just told them”. The adage is not bad advice. Presentations without structure are difficult to understand and create confusion. Make sure you have an introduction, that there is a good body to it, and always have a conclusion. Build the structure around a single idea or argument that is woven through everything. Or think about the often used technique of having a presentation that makes three memorable points.
Practice delivering it. If you are given the chance to write the presentation before the day, never let the assessors be the first people to hear it. Ask a friend, your partner, a manager, a family member or work colleague to listen to you deliver it and give you feedback. By practising it, you’ll see slides which don’t work and places where it sounds better in your head than out loud!
Reduce your nervous gesturing. Think about whether you want to video yourself giving a presentation first (it doesn’t have to be the same presentation). This is a great way to notice any strange arm gestures, hand chops, or whether you unknowingly jingle loose change in your pocket. By spotting these gestures in advance, you can try to eliminate them before the big day.
Consider the Q&A. When planning, spend some time thinking about the questions that may be asked in response to your presentation. You can never predict them all, but you may well be able to guess some. If you can work out which questions your presentation raises you can plan your answers in advance.
Not another Powerpoint… Think about whether you have to use Powerpoint at all – would it be better to use a flipchart, or would it wow them if instead you used alternate presenting software such as Prezi? If you are nervous, keep it simple, sometimes you will have a greater impact and be remembered by being the one who didn’t do death by Powerpoint. Finally, the assessors are rarely assessing your ability to do the whizziest slide transitions or animations. Focus more on what you are saying instead.

Take Away
Don’t assume it’s about your presentation skills – and remember its rarely about your Powerpoint skills or how many transitions and animations you squeeze in. They are trying to get a sense of who you are, how you put arguments together, whether you can make complicated things simple and how you build relationships.

Next month we take a look at the role playing assessment.