Are you one of the thousands of professionals in HR, finance, operations, or other areas who has recently been laid off or made redundant? Do you know someone who has recently lost their job due to the current economic downturn?
If you are in this situation, delivering a short virtual presentation to the recruiter and company managers could be part of the hiring process for your next job. Nailing this presentation could go a long way to convincing the hiring manager that you are the right candidate for the job.
Here are three tips that will make your virtual interview presentation better.
Use Presenter View when presenting PowerPoint slides
There are a number of ways to display PowerPoint slides when presenting virtually. My recommendation is using Presenter View. This method allows you to see your notes when presenting while the recruiter and managers just see your slides. While this method was designed assuming you have two screens, you can use it with just your laptop’s one screen. See how to do this with my videos for Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet for Windows or Mac at https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/share-full-screen-slides-see-notes-in-powerpoint-presenter-view-with-1-screen/.
Use the expert features of Presenter View to engage the audience
Presenter View offers some expert features that allow you to engage the recruiter and managers in a way that will make them remember you and your presentation. You can annotate the slides with a pen or highlighter, zoom in on a section of a slide, and jump to any slide seamlessly if the recruiter wants you to jump ahead or go back to review something you presented. You can see exactly how to use these experts features to stand out from the other candidates in the article and video at https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/expert-tips-for-using-powerpoint-presenter-view-2-screens-windows-in-zoom-or-teams/.
See exactly what the recruiter will see during your practice sessions
You should always practice your presentation so it is comfortable and flows well. You can preview what the recruiter and managers will see during your practice sessions on the same laptop you are using to present. This involves connecting to your Zoom or Teams meeting a second time from the same laptop. I have a video showing how this is done on Zoom at https://youtu.be/zwWOYn6hAqg and an article for doing this on Teams at https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/have-two-connections-to-the-same-teams-meeting-on-one-computer-so-you-can-see-what-attendees-will-see-when-sharing-content/.
On my website (https://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com) I have many articles on creating effective visual PowerPoint presentations without becoming a designer and on delivering those presentations effectively in a virtual or hybrid meeting. I also have many videos on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/thinkoutsidetheslide that cover these topics.
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.