A presentation is a short persuasive talk that must be given as part of an interview or assessment day. Employers will either ask you to prepare a presentation in advance, or more usually on the day of assessment itself. You may have to give your presentation to a single interviewer, a group of assessors, or even a room full of other candidates. Depending on your assessor(s), you should also be prepared to answer questions at the end of your presentation posed by your audience.
To give a successful presentation you need to show that you can put information across to other people clearly, confidently and consicely. You must support your ideas and themes with anecdotes, examples, statistics and facts. Aim for a conversational delivery, using brief notes or bullet points, rather than memorising and reciting, or reading from a prepared sheet. Try to establish eye contact with everyone around you. Speak clearly, take your time and don't try to rush through your delivery.
It is essential you practice your presentation before the interview. Give presentations to friends and family well in advance of your interviews, rehearse in the mirror or record yourself on camera or tape to analyse your delivery. If you give a good presentation at interview you will give interviewers a very good impression of yourself and all the practice you have put in will pay off.
Candidates should keep their presentations simple, straight-forward and easy to understand. If you try too hard (for example, to be funny or clever) you run a serious risk of embarrassing yourself.
Keep things sharp, succinct and to the point. Don't over elaborate, or waffle for the sake of using up time. It is important to be articulate, and not to use slang. Throughout your presentation you must be professional, as professional in fact as you would expect your interviewers to be.
Keeping track of time is important during your presenation. If you have been asked to prepare a presentation of five minutes, make sure you present for at least four and a half or at most five and a half. Giving a short presentation looks like a candidate is under-prepared. Giving a long presentation runs the risk of boring or agitating your assessors.
The most important part of your presentation is how you present. Interviewers are looking for candidates who are naturally professional - confident, articulate and presentable. Essentially, interviewers are looking for candidates that they would be happy about putting in front of one of their clients.
When delivering your presentation take note of the following (V.E.S.S):
At the end of your presentation, rephrase the original question (or title of your presentation) and answer it with your conclusion. Thank your audience, smile and offer a chance for questions to be asked.
Also see - this post on Giving a Presentation in the forums.