Polishing Your Presentation Techniques
Welcome to the second segment of my series on excelling in Data School interview presentations. In the previous part, we covered the preparation stage and crafting the flow of our presentation. Now, let's focus on some general presentation tips and techniques.
Rehearsing Your Presentation
I like to read my finished script and practice just talking through the presentation slowly, repeating it several times a day until I can speak freely and without any nervous pauses.
It's important to time yourself when rehearsing. We have a really skewed feel for how much time has passed in situations like this. When you time yourself, you'll see that you'll probably take much longer than you originally thought.
In the case of the data school presentations, I always tried to shorten sentences and cut my script until I could do the whole presentation in five minutes or less.
While the final presentation was sitting down, it helped me to practice my speech standing up and being able to move more freely. It also helps to imagine talking to a person and keeping eye contact.
On The Day Of The Interview
Try to be there early so you don't have to be stressed or out of breath. Taking some deep breaths is really important, especially if you tend to speak too fast. If you gasp for air, remember to slow down.
Don't forget your body language while presenting: stand or sit up straight, don't slouch.
Make an effort to speak loud and clear and with a bit more enthusiasm than your normal speaking voice. It helps the audience to stay engaged. Listening to a monotone voice tends to make us tired really quickly.
If you are nervous, imagine yourself just talking normally to your audience. Presenting is just another form of conversation. You are teaching something that the audience is hopefully interested to learn more about, so be confident in yourself. :)
If you are prepared, it will show, even if you are nervous. Remember that everybody is nervous in a high-stakes situation like this.