Thoughts on preparing to give an interview presentation.

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By our Founder.

Over the years I have watched and responded to a large number of candidate presentations in an interview and here are a few thoughts from my experiences. 

Design Matters

We all make judgements based on appearance (Freeman & Johnson,  2016; Jaeger et al., 2025) and in my experiences this relates to presentations as well. The question people ask themselves – do I go bold and do something different with the potentially associated risk, or do I conform to the ‘standard’? The latter relates to the selfish herd theory (Hamilton, 1971) which basically says being in the middle of a pack of animals reduces the risk of predation. It is not my place to make this call for you, as everyone has their own appetite for risk (Hillson, 2012), but here are some things that I ponder about.

  • Big question – do you need slides? Or is it verbal only? Or an image-based presentation? It’s key to understand this!
  • Do I use the logo of the company I am interviewing for? In my view, this is a no! As a candidate you do not work or represent the interviewing company and so have no right to use the logo. Instead, either use your own personal branding or do not use anything. 
  • Think about accessibility. If you are interviewing for a teaching position or an educational developer you will be required to demonstrate excellence in inclusive practices – make sure your presentation does this. That being said, this applies to everyone and there is no excuse for poorly accessible presentations. See this guide by Microsoft [link to accessibility guide] which is rather good. Remember not to use jargon that other people will not understand.
  • Also think about colour. I have seen a lot of presentations which have really hurt my eyes. The simple colourwheel tool by adobe [link to colour wheel tool] is great at seeing which colours go together and to give a cohesive design feel. Presentations are about visual and verbal communication.
  • Perhaps include your name in each slide – you are most likely a stranger to the panel and so subtle ways to reinforce who you are can be useful. 
  • Use your qualifications and recognition status. If you are a qualified teacher or have Advance HE status, add this to your name or intro slide. If you are applying for a project management role, share that you have professional status and membership. 
  • At the end of the presentation in the interview, I always like to include a ‘take away slide’ – three things I would like you to remember from this presentation. See below. – which do you prefer, example (A) or example (B)? 

Example (A)

Slide showing a summary of points around design in the non-recommended way

Example (B)

Slide showing a summary of points around design in the recommended way

Presentation

When giving a presentation is not just about the content. A presentation is a glimpse into how you will interact and engage with others. For teaching roles, it is showing how you may teach, for non-teaching roles it is a window into how you will interact with others, build teams, trust, engagement and motivation to meet the outcomes and requirements of the role. With this this in mind:

  • Practice does make perfect and there are great resources out there to help with this – have a look at this great post by Chris Anderson (Anderson, 2013) which encompasses some great thoughts and ideas on this topic.
  • Be yourself but maintain the balance between professionalism and personability – don’t overshare!
  • Be clear about the core message and how you want to communicate this
  • If you are presenting, remember to present and not to talk as if it were a meeting
  • In your dialogue it can help to make some references to the work of the institution as well as the panel – but remember to read the room. Some panels will be very formal and dislike approaches that may seem too informal. 
  • Speed, pace, tone, language and presence are all essential. 

Responding to questions

Most likely you will be asked a couple of questions based on your presentation – these will range from the ‘standard question because the panel has to’ to ‘something in your presentation caught their interest and they want to know more’. Again, responding to a question is a glimpse into how you will work in the institution. There is also the whole discussion around institutional fit, but that is a blog post for another day. A few thoughts:

  • Be clear on your response and link back to the presentation in the interview but also it gives you the chance to expand on the content
  • If you are not clear on the question, ask. This is not a weakness – responding to an inferred question instead of the question asked is not good. 
  • Even though one person asked the question, and you are answering them, don’t forget to speak to the room. 
  • As part of your preparation for the interview, brainstorm questions and construct draft answers. AI tools are a great way to start this but they do not have all the answers!

Summary

There are some thoughts based on my experiences and it will be great to hear what you think! Good luck if you are shortly giving a presentation as part of an interview. Please contact our helpful team of experts if we can support you in the next steps in your career journey. 

References

  1. Adobe (no date) Adobe Inc. Available at: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel (Accessed: 07 June 2025). 
  2. Anderson, C. (2013). How to give a killer presentation. Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation (Accessed: 07 June 2025). 
  3. Freeman, J. B., & Johnson, K. L. (2016). More than meets the eye: Split-second social perception. Trends in cognitive sciences, 20(5), 362-374.
  4. Hamilton, W. D. (1971). Geometry for the selfish herd. Journal of theoretical Biology, 31(2), 295-311.
  5. Hillson, D. (2012). How much risk is too much risk: understanding risk appetite. Project Management Institute
  6. ​​Jaeger, B., Bucker, B., van der Meulen, J., & van Vugt, M. (2025). Face value: The effect of facial aesthetic treatment on first impressions and partner preferences. Perception, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/03010066251337353
  7. Microsoft (no date) Microsoft Support. Available at: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25 (Accessed: 07 June 2025).

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