Context: Earlier this month I had the pleasure of taking part in the STEM Leaders Program, run by a student organisation "Real Skills Education" at UNSW. If you are a STEM-enthusiastic student I highly encourage you to apply for this program at some point in your studies. It is essentially a week-long program run during the university break periods and gives you the opportunity to gain valuable life skills and also an opportunity to undertake a practical, more real-world like project, as opposed to the mostly theoretical nature of university.
I gained a lot from undertaking this program, but I fear that it will all leave me someday. I am making this post in the hopes that when the time comes, future me will look back on it and be prepared for the real world. And of course, also to impart the knowledge. I may not even take on board everything I say, but I hope that future me will. The post is made from a STEM student's perspective, but may contain equally valuable notes for a variety of other disciplines.
Obviously, I don’t claim to be an expert at this. I’m merely sharing what I have learnt. Naturally, credits go to the Real Skills Education staff and the presenters they've invited to run the program so smoothly and effectively. 
Photography: Rowena DaiThe situation in modern society is nothing like it was even a decade or so ago. Employers are not focused exclusively on the technical skills when looking for new people to their
company team. They are looking for people who have a strong ability to adapt to new scenarios, and can convince themselves that they well work under pressure, cooperatively, confidently and also a variety of other
soft skills that can be carried over between disciplines. (And from what I've been told, yes some companies do only look for technical skills, but those companies won't offer you the environments you'd want your workspace to be in.) Long over are the days where you got a degree, got a job and were instantly set for life. You'll find yourself bouncing between lots of jobs (potentially 15 jobs) over your life and having to constantly figure out what you want to do at a certain point in time.
Showing off technical skills will be things some people find easy. Convincing the employer that you carry the now more crucial soft skills is another story. It is important for those in our generation who are lagging behind on this, including myself, to work towards achieving this goal as a priority.
This question will be answered in different forms throughout the rest of the guide. In this guide, I will talk about each section in a typical process of the job application and other life skills, as well as what you may like to consider about them.
ResumesResumes are one of the first things a recruiter will see when learning about you. They want to know what kind of a person you are, and to develop a better understanding of what you have to offer to the company. Whilst it isn't necessarily as personal as a cover letter should be, it should still be another form of convincing them to hire you, because your experiences will describe what roles you have taken on.
- Keep it SHORT!Fortunately, most people these days all know about this one. But it's still crazy as to how some people think writing 3-4 page resumes is a good idea at a young age! The employer typically needs to read
hundreds of resumes a day, and if they see something long on the list, the first thing they'll think is "I cannot be bothered".
An ideal resume at this age should pretty much be a single page, or page and a half. If you have enough to show off about, then 2 pages is still reasonable. Once you're older, three-page resumes become realistic, but employers:
a) know that you're very likely not gonna have that much recent, relevant experience to show off about, and
b) aren't looking for your biography. They're looking for a
summary.
Two to three points per entry should be sufficient.
- Use a PROFILE SUMMARYThis one gets debated on, because it probably is true that some employers just don't care. But quite frankly most of them do. After they've seen your cover letter, many of them will still want a quick, succinct refresher about what kind of person you are, and why they should hire you over someone else.
It's quite simple. Leave a small section at the top of your resume with two or three dot points that do the following. (But especially for this one, I prefer 3 because trust me, odd numbers are your friend. They're more effective.)
- Present who you are, stating where you are right now and what you would like to achieve through working for the company you're applying for.
- Demonstrate that you possess effective life skills that not only will you do, but will gladly offer to the company for their mission.
- Back up these skills through experiences to convince them that you are not a fraud or a liar.
And remember, get to the point. No fluff, ever.
- Use MEANINGFUL verbsLet's say you were an employer, and you saw their resume and it said "described how to ..." and "listed how to ..." and "did
something". Are you really convinced about what they're saying? Personally, I would not be.
How about some of these verbs for a change?
Explored. Provided. Delivered. Created. Produced. Announced. Conveyed. Monitored. Oversaw. Reported. Undertook. Instigated.Especially since verbs make for good sentence-starters in resumes, you would much prefer to use effective verbs that descriptively convey exactly what you want the employer to know about you. You don't just want to tell them you did something - by itself, they'd be like "why do I care". You want to show them what was so unique about it and give them something to look forward to when inquiring about it at the interview phase.
- ADAPT itYou may have heard that with each cover letter, you really should be tailoring it to the job you're applying for. Why should your resume not do the same thing?
Of course, not everything in your resume has to be specifically relevant to the company you're applying for, and the job description. But if I were applying to be a software designer I'm probably not gonna flood my resume with "tutoring, tutoring, tutoring, tutoring, tutoring, ...". Of course I'll put it down because regardless tutoring has offered me life skills such as communication and confidence, which I can certainly adapt to any job in question. But as if it's the only thing I'll focus on.
Basically when it comes to tailoring your resume, think about this.
The most important things should come first. What do I mean? Well, the most important ones (experiences, personal profile, extracurriculars, ...) will be the ones
most relevant to the company and the job description. Research into the company and see what kind of people they want (you can think about the company's goals. the company's vision and all sorts of stuff along those lines to get some ideas). Pinpoint any skills they are looking for in the advertisement and put the experiences you have
most relevant to it first.
For example, if I were applying to HIVERY but then put everything that would more appeal to someone at Accenture, that would not look good.
- There is NO "CORRECT" style. Only "GOOD"A typical resume could just include the following:
- Profile summary
- Education
- Experience (maybe swap the order of these two around after your first job)
- Extracurriculars (These are GOOD! They show your commitment to things outside of ordinary work and study)
- (Awards if you wanna show them off)
- Interests
But as for how you do the actual thing? There's only some benchmarks that you should consider.
- Send it as a PDF: sometimes when you send a word doc, all of your formatting goes haywire and your resume ends up not looking like what it did on your screen (uglier).
- Don't make it extravagant. A bit of formatting and styling can help, but do it in a professional manner. You're not writing birthday invite cards for someone who just turned 10.
- Don't make it too boring effort either. If I saw a resume and it was just a bunch of 10 pt Arial font, I would be adequately convinced that they are lazy and won't contribute much when given the job anyway.
- Use dot points. This was a given, surely.
- Bolding is good, but only if you do it right! It can work for things like subheadings, or to emphasise things here and there in your profile summary/experience/extracurriculars, but they might not be worth it if they detriment the formatting.
(Note: Cover letters are missing more or less because we didn't learn about those at the program. Which is fair enough - they're
way too subjective.)
NetworkingAt networking events, you get the opportunity to chat with employers about what it's like working at their company and how you can get into it, in a much more informal environment. But what people don’t realise is that
more jobs are found through networking over advertising these days. Networking can be viewed as “how to get a job”, but if you really want to make it effective, you should treat it as “GETTING the job” instead. It’s quite powerful because it has been found to get people straight into the interview stages at times.
- Don’t focus on one person. Engage with MANYOne of Real Skill Education's foundations is to "try all flavours of the ice cream". Now this is an interesting one, but what do they really mean by it? They are asking you the more important question of "how do you know you'll like something, until you've given it a go?"
When you think about it, you actually would never know until you've tried. So how do you open up room for more possibility? Meet more people! Gain more insight!
- Remember, transferring disciplines is normal. I've heard of so many instances of this; the most remarkable of the recent ones being a man who failed university at one point, turning his life around to becoming a civil engineer, and then again to be a $1M project manager.
- Chatting with more people also offers you more perspectives. You get different insights on how people applied for their first jobs, settled into the workforce and eventually found some levels of success work-wise. (Or even success in general!)
- Never view your degree as something you're forced into doing for the rest of your life. Consider questions like "could stuff I do in ____ job still somehow land me in your shoes one day?" (Well, maybe not
that straightforwardly, but the point is to not be closed-minded.)
- Prepare who YOU are and what YOU want to get outNetworking events can be confusing at the start simply because you don't know what to do in them! This is especially true for people like me who have not the slightest of clues about what to do in life nor how to get there. These are some recommendations for getting started off.
Firstly, remember that the industry representatives are still people. It's certainly not an interview where they are trying to scrutinise you or something, but you still want to demonstrate to them what kind of person you are. Have some kind of intro for yourself at the back of your mind (e.g. what are you studying right now, anything you want to do in the future, what you're strengths are and so on). I suppose you can treat it like the "tell us a bit about yourself" question in the interview, but perhaps a softened up version of it.
Then, remember that you wouldn't be there without good reason. What things did you want to ask? Some things you may want to keep in mind:
- What's a typical day like where you currently work? - This lets you get a feel for if the environment is something you'd be interested in
- What does your company value in its employees? - Suss all the details out! Learn what it is they're seeking!
- What is an example of a project you took recently that you're proud of? - The representatives who attend these events LOVE going on about what they do/did and why they love/loved it. It makes them happy, and it's also good for you because who knows, maybe you can do something like that one day!
- How did you get into your position? - Questions like these are surely on your mind. This is basically the "how did you land your job" question, and I'm sure you would love to learn their secrets to success
- (When asking industry specific) How do the concepts I learn at uni get put into practice? - Come on, surely you want to know why the stuff you do is useful.
- Can I get you on LinkedIn? - Hey, why not!
- Semi-FORMAL at START, semi-INFORMAL at ENDPrior to the speed-dating rounds I was petrified. After I got into it I actually found myself seriously enjoying it. It taught me something I feel is important to realise about networking.
Firstly, by "semi" I mean that you simply can't treat a networking session like a party, going full scale loco (and hence informal). But of course you don't want to mimic the interview too much - it's supposed to not be pressure causing!
When you first start talking to someone, you have to present yourself as well civilised and professional. If your first impression isn't convincing, they're gonna question what kind of person you are. Introduce who you are, invite them to introduce themselves and ask some of the more straightforward stuff (e.g. "so what do you do?")
Then,
ease your way in. Once you've got them going, start asking the more interesting stuff. Instead of just being happy, you should be acting (or preferably GENUINELY) interested in some of the stuff they do. Show some emotion with the curiosity. "Their most recent project" is a good thing to ask about at this stage. You may still have questions like "any tips for the interview" coming up but that's fine. The tension should've been brushed away given enough time, so these questions should start to feel more natural to ask somehow.
- Go with OTHERSSome people bring +1's to parties for comfort. Some people also happen to bring +1's to networking events. I find this is a good idea (especially when you're actually introverted like I am) because it evens out a lot of the pressure between the two of you. You might be too scared to ask things by yourself, or being alone ends up shocking all of what you want to your subconscious. As silly as this is, just having one other person can help alleviate the stress ten-fold, making it much easier for you to be more natural, confident and/or anything else.
- Start to build the PERMANENT CONNECTIONI cannot stress this one enough. Again, this is something I might not be the best at. But when you think about it, the networking session is the first chance you get to really know an industry representative well.
That is potentially the most valuable asset you can have when applying for the job. If you are thinking of going into a certain company, you want someone who will actually
trust you for who you claim to be, and someone who is genuinely willing to
vouch for your skills and benefits to the company.
But of course, that’s not gonna pop out of thin air. How can you do this? Basically, you really want to keep that strong connection between yourself and said mentor. Message them on LinkedIn or send a friendly email time and time again. Keep in contact with them. Go ahead and ask about if there’s job opportunities but before you do that, why not ask them how
their life is for a change? Not just “is work going well”, but also even if they’re enjoying their personal life or if there’s something they really want to share! And if you’ve really done a good job at it all, maybe even invite them out for coffee!
To put simply, networking does not end after the networking event; it keeps going. Remember, they’re also humans. They think like we do. Keeping the connection shows genuine appreciation for their work; not just for the sake of getting money.
(Note that I changed to the word "mentor" briefly. If you really keep that strong connection with them, that really is what they should become for you.)
LinkedInAround 80% of jobs these days are found through networking. In the 21st century, what could be better than an online one that's freely accessible to everyone? (For those of you who haven't heard of LinkedIn, you're essentially treating it as the professional version of Facebook. Basically, a professional social media platform designed more for the intention of engaging with the workforce.) It gives a platform for you to sell yourself out more freely.
Much of these come from slides originally produced by Kohl Stammers. - Setting up the PROFILEAs silly as it is to put "profile" in capitals here, it's still something quite important. Your LinkedIn is equivalent to (if not worse than) just not having a LinkedIn at all if you haven't put reasonable effort into setting it up. This takes about an hour or two-ish to do in my opinion.
- Have a
professional photo of you. You're applying for jobs, not going to parties. Use a high-quality, upper-body shot of you.
- Have a headline. If you're struggling with this you can just go for the classic "job title at company". You can also have multiple of these - just separate them with a | symbol. (Your headline is
searchable - this may be something to consider!)
- Use only 1 to 3 paragraphs for your summary. It's advisable to have one to let employers know what kind of person you are, but again, just like with resumes you gotta keep it succinct!
-
Change your privacy settings! Surely this is self explanatory - you'd have to have done the same thing for your Facebook profile.
- Keep track of your positions! You don't want to leave outdated info on there (for jobs you've quit), nor do you want to not list something new when it's a new thing for you to show off!
- Have your education there. (Obviously if you've just finished high school, that'll do. Personally, I only decided to axe it after three years of university.)
- Get endorsements and recommendations. They make you convincing!
You can think of LinkedIn as a more generic version of your resume. They shouldn't necessarily be identical (my resume is always shorter). But I have frequently visited my LinkedIn to get inspiration on what to add to a resume because I treat it a bit more like a gold mine, and then my resume as a "compacted" version of it.
- Connections are about QUALITYSo the story I was told was similar to this. Let's say you have all these connections on LinkedIn. Out of nowhere, one of the messages you this: "Hey look, you need to work with me right now. We need to get this job done before some time, and the next one done then, and etc." And you're just here thinking "uhh, who is this person?"
Having a large number of connections isn't really a bad thing per se. But it can be a bit of a redundant thing. In the most optimal scenarios, your connections involve people you actually
know and interact with reasonably frequently enough. Think about how you might have 500+ Facebook friends, but you only talk to about 10-70 of them. It's sorta the same idea here.
Whilst you may have kept in touch with colleagues/fellow students via other means (e.g. Facebook), most likely industry partners and even your lecturers at uni would not ever accept your request on those platforms just like that. So you really have no other choice but LinkedIn to keep that strong connection going in the long run. (Emails work, but bouncing back messages on social media platforms usually agitate me less than unnecessarily repetitive back-and-forth emails...) If you end up meeting someone (through whatever means) and have a genuine interest in what they do, keep in touch with them! LinkedIn is the perfect platform to actually
keep valuable connections when you just take these extra steps.
Of course, I'm not saying you must keep in touch with all 500 connections, if you have that many - that's crazy! Try aiming for an amount that's reasonable to you. If you're really stuck, one/two per company you're super interested in is a good starting guideline!
- Making social media POSTSMost likely you have made social media posts because something was on your mind, be it something to brag about, a rant, photos or anything you want. You can also do this on LinkedIn. You could be wanting to:
- Pitch something: you/your company have just designed an incentive and provided some proof of concept which you want to get out to the public now. Or you're done manufacturing something and are ready to sell it.
- Acknowledge (and maybe even celebrate) over some recent massive achievement.
- Promote something you're very passionate about (e.g. human rights)
...or many more. It's your profile so I can't tell you what to do with it, but know that posts are generally a very good thing! Posts can help industry people draw their attention to you and become more interested in what kind of a person you are, which is always something recruiters are looking out for.
When making a post, you may want to consider:
- Hashtags: Yes, even at the professional scale they are good! They certainly are not mandatory, but by just referencing some kind of concept (e.g. AI) or some kind of cause your post can potentially drag more attention from outside viewers.
- Images: Always a bonus to help illustrate your points. Choose images that are relevant and interesting.
- URLs: If you're trying to pitch or promote something, you can always consider just providing a brief summary on LinkedIn, and then linking the URL as a means of luring them to your page (should you have one). It's an effective strategy because it leaves the viewers wanting more, and then satisfies that desire (well, hopefully).
- Word choices: Be inviting and engaging in your post! Looking back at the presentation slides, words like "corporate, cold, cluttered, industrial, generic, passive" seem to be uninviting and convey some kind of a harsh message. Whereas words like "inspiring, authentic, customer-friendly, active, passionate" seem to really lure the reader into something far more vibrant.
- ENGAGE, however you want toThis point is pretty broad but it loosely encapsulates all of the above. To make LinkedIn truly effective, you gotta make a reasonably extensive use of it! You could also join groups, comment on the social media posts, share posts and anything you want to help get your name out there more. Even little things can have huge impacts once they build.
- Thinking of building a BRAND?At first glance, a "brand" might just be something that makes their business distinguishable. It appears to just be a trademark. But an effective brand does way more than this. When you first start a business you may find yourself crawling for a bit, trying to promote to just a fair amount of consumers. But if you want to keep your clients/customers, you're going to have something unique about you that draws attention to you over someone else (potential rivals). Think more of it as your company's personality, or their identity.
Three quick tips to getting started:
- Authenticity! Show that you're a human to your customer-base, not some kind of robot that just does something because it was told to.
- Focus on what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. (Useful advice for this - avoid sales pitches. That'll happen elsewhere.)
- Be prepared for negativity and possibly change. But move on from/with it.
(I can't convey this section well because at this stage I have little interest in anything related to entrepreneurship. But it was still in the presentation and I reckon it's still very valuable.)
InterviewsInterviews are the first
formal environment in which recruiters get the chance to understand what kind of person you are. They also happen to create the most anxiety for me ever. It's one thing to present yourself well on a sheet of paper, but now you're expected to do a more comprehensive version of that in person. Whilst interviews aren't usually "long", the recruiter wants to understand who you are to a far deeper extent than whatever your resume has been able to do for you.
Of course, a lot of people get nervous about this. It's just that we want to do well and succeed. The problems lie more in the how.
- The STAR approach in behavioural questionsDuring the interview you will be asked a reasonable amount of behavioural questions. More often than not these days it's your personality that gives recruiters the first sign of confidence in choosing to hire you, instead of just what you're capable of actually doing. The STAR approach happens to be one of the most effective ways in going about these problems.
1. SITUATION - Be straight to the point. Let your interviewers know exactly know what your shoes were in at the scenario you're about to explain.
2. TASK - Again, be straight to the point. What was your aim/goal?
3. ACTION - Now you start to expand, and expand on it a reasonable amount. Background context is important to allow the interviewers to understand your perspective, but they don't care about any more than that. They're trying to figure out what YOU'VE undertaken to learn how YOU handle potentially uneasy situations. Clearly outline each step you took along the way and remember to focus on YOU. They're not interested if someone in your team carried you through an entire university assignment. They want you to demonstrate how YOU played your part in the projects.
4. RESULT - This is practically the grand conclusion, and also what I seemed to need to work on. You rightfully
should feel proud of any end goal being achieved, or resolution you've found. This demonstrates to them that your hard work has actually paid off and lead to something significant, which is great because the interviewers will develop a similar appreciation to what you've been able to develop. Also even throw in some things you've learnt if you can! Obviously it isn't a brag session, but it's definitely an opportunity to revisit any sign of accomplishment you've had in the past experience.
The interviewers have their own ability to extract valuable pieces of information about who you are through you just following the STAR guideline. Depending on how well you take advantage of it, the more they get out of you, and the better positive impression you leave on them.
- Elicit EMPATHY in your responseThis is a very powerful tool to have. Make your responses authentic, honest and personal. The interviewers want you to show them what kind of person you are, but by trying to get them into
your footsteps they are able to relate to you much more easily than a few lines of forced speech. I use hand gestures in my interviews. I show low but adequate levels of emotion in my responses. I believe that to want them to see what I am like, I need them to almost "become" me and see what it's like for themselves.
Again, from there, the interviewers will have their own ability to extract the crucial pieces of information about you that they require.
- PREPAREI won't deny that I hate preparing for interviews. There are some instances where you probably don't need to prepare, but for your first industry job it becomes kinda inevitable. Preparation is viewed so highly upon by interviewers these days - it's something that they can tell if you've done at a reasonably early onset.
On a more wider note, the starting points are:
-
Research out about the company! Forget even preparing responses just yet - this is perhaps the best first option to kick start your goal of strong first impressions. The interviewers' objective is to find people valuable for their company. One of the most effective ways of doing so is to show that you're genuinely interested in the company as a whole, not just for the sake of a job. Understand and know their core values/beliefs, vision and so on. Think about how you might be able to incorporate
those at your interview. (Honestly, if I were in HR and the interviewee kept saying "I would love to help you continue its success at _________" I would be over the moon.)
- Prepare points about some classics. Trying to memorise a full response will most likely detriment you because one word wrong will send you into a panic. But develop an idea about what it is you will talk about, should some of these questions appear on the day. Here are some common ones you might want to prepare/research into.
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
- Why did you leave your last job?
- Why did you choose to study ________?
- What was a time when you had to work with a 'difficult' person and how did you go about it?
- Understand the job you're applying for. Know what skills (soft and technical) are required. Be prepared to integrate these into your responses (preferably prepare scenarios that illustrate these skills).
- Take pride in your appearance. There's been cases of people just wearing beach clothes into interviews, as crazy as it sounds. If you need to ask about the dress code, just ask it!
- If they need you to bring in other materials, have them ready.
- Prepare questions to ask them! At the end, there will always be a part where they're like "do you have any questions for us?" Having none is the worst thing you could do, because it hints that you're not interested in the company. A good starting point is one related to the job itself, and one related to the atmosphere and how the interviewers find it.
- And of course, you're going to need to be prepared physically and mentally. Calm your nerves
to the best of your ability. Focus more on what you have to offer and how you're willing to offer it as well! Remember, you were shortlisted for an interview because the recruiters want you to succeed. They know it's hard, but they want you to ease your way into it and convince them of your values naturally.
- THOUGHT PROCESS in problem solving questionsHere is an interview question for you. "How many light bulbs are there in Australia currently?"
Look. They aren't focused on your answer for
these types of problems. They probably don't know the answer themselves. What they're interested in is
how exactly do you think. How exactly do you break down the large-scale problem into small components, that can somehow be used to puzzle up an idea for a final answer?
If by some luck (or misfortune) you end up with that question, here's an idea for how you could approach it. You could start by considering how many lightbulbs there are per building? And then consider the population of Australia and how many people would most likely be in a certain building at some point in time, to determine how many buildings there are in Australia? What about light bulbs still being manufactured/sold? In fact, even ask the interviewer "am I allowed to assume blah" if you want! Who said they had to do all the questioning until the very end?
Of course, whilst you're not expected to hit the mark, getting exceptionally close to it is both satisfying for you
and the interviewer, because it shows that you were able to break things down by miles. If you want to truly ace your interview, even preparing for the problem solving questions is looked highly upon, because it shows you're willing to discover new ways of thought. I know for one if I really want to go into computer science I will need to prepare for a lot of programming interview questions to really open up my mind (especially given that I'm quite rubbish at it all right now).
- Any DON'T-do's?Let's start with the obvious.
- Be late.
- Swear.
- Dress inappropriately and/or put your legs on the table.
- Be overly conversational/comfortable and not treat them with respect. Don't slouch.
- Be monotonous.
- Overdo the um's and er's. (Just one unintentionally shouldn't detriment much, but if you're doing it continuously it just makes you boring.)
Okay, so you already knew that. I just had it there for completeness. Here's some more valuable ones.
- Be too early! Interviewers schedule your interview nicely so that it doesn't have to clash with the other stuff they have on their minds. You coming early actually inflicts the duress of attending to you right here and right now, instead of the vibe of punctuality you may have intended! 15 minutes before your interview is great, but if you're gonna arrive earlier, go walk around for a bit, have a drink of water and use the bathroom instead.
- Focusing on one person! More often than not I've used 'interviewers' in the plural sense, and you may have noticed that at interviews, there's usually
two (or even three) of them there. Just because there's one person asking you the questions doesn't mean you're supposed to direct your attention at only him. Imagine that the second person there was going to be your manager or training officer and you just blatantly ignored them...
- Contradict your resume! Regardless of if they want you to bring in a hard copy of your resume, or if they'll print it themselves, you should still know it well! Refer back to it if necessary, and don't say something that starts to imply the opposite of what you've written down. It tells them that you may be a liar.
- Overhype yourself! You're allowed to feel good about yourself, but if it isn't natural it most likely would be another lie.
- Being excessively formal! The environment is mostly formal, but that's still not gonna change the fact that they are humans. Putting a smile (or even laughter) on their faces is brilliant, provided it feels natural from you.
- Rushing straight into it! If you need time to pause, just pause. Of course there is the pitfall of waiting too long, but taking a bit of time to think about it is actually awesome if it means you can deliver a more powerful/insightful response.
- Being scared to adapt! Your experiences can be converted into
heaps of strengths/traits about you. It's a matter of thinking about
how. Save all of your academic ones (and in the worst cases, half-bluffs) only for the worst case scenario. More often than not, something you've done in your life is sure to answer the question they have on their mind.
- And finally, digressing/going on tangents! If you forget the question, get them to remind you about what it is. But preferably as you're talking, continuously think about how your experience actually is answering their
main question of interest. Otherwise they have very little to write down, and learn very little about you as well.
PresentationsPresentations are not something I think people do naturally. It's hard speaking in front of groups/crowds, and it gets worse when they're strangers and/or you have expectations to fulfil. Sadly though they're gonna be something you need to do quite often. A good presentation helps get your point across more than many other platforms in my opinion - you keep the face-to-face contact you lose with written material, but you must keep your audience's attention. Almost everyone needs to do a presentation at some point in their life, even when excluding high school subjects.
- Think about your AUDIENCEIt's one thing to get the content right, but it's another to be able to deliver it for
their sake. There are two main sides to this in my opinion. On one hand, you need to know who they are. Obviously when I'm lecturing for ATAR notes I'm not gonna treat my MX2 students as second year uni level or something. But also if I were to present an alternate perspective on some social justice issue, I'd want to relate back to things my audience already know. To effectively communicate something, you should understand who your target audience is and what they currently know/accept.
Put that into one word? I would say, relevance.
The other side is actually engaging them. Make them feel like you're talking to them somehow. You don't need to maintain eye contact with the same person over and over, but look at them. Ask them questions. Invite them to contribute if you can. Because seriously, surely you've all been in some situation where you're beginning to doze off because you were getting bored out of your mind. Think about what you wish they did when you were the audience, and convert that to strategies for when you become the presenter.
- From WHY, to HOW, to WHATThis is basically the golden circle technique of presentations. You grow from the centre - the why, and expand your way outwards.
So why (hahaha) do you do this? In the real world, you will have some kind of motivation behind your ideas. You want to address something, but you can't really convince them "why bother" unless you explain your motives behind it. It's important to get them understanding the problem of "why care in the first place" about your agenda. Remember, this is the hardest step of the three, but it's the most effective when you actually start with it.
Slowly slide your way then into the how. This starts becoming a bit easier to do. Try to avoid what your main ideas are for as long as you can. Get them thinking about "how" something could work to satisfy that big "why" you've just implanted into their heads. I find that the "how" does happen to mix a bit with both of the other two and that's fine. It's a good gradual transition from the "why" into the "what".
Finally, offer what your idea was in the first place at the end. At the end of the day, the presenter already knows what their goals are and their tools available, making this the easy part.
The main incentive to delay the "what" for as long as possible is to add the suspense and anticipation. Your idea will sell out more strongly when you choose to build up to it, instead of send it out at the end. If you try delivering the "what" first, you'll find that your audience no longer cares about what you say next. It may have been intended to help them appreciate something more, but because they've already reached your destination they won't care about any "subsequent thoughts". The key is to do all the enticing yourself beforehand, and only after you've been reasonably convincing should you let their brain do the remainder of the work.
- LESS is moreOne of the easiest ways to lose your audience is to ramble on the same spot for ages. They're not going to care about any waffle. Keep things going.
This isn't exactly something that has strict and concrete guidelines for. You may actually have a good reason to be talking about the same thing for a reasonably extended period of time (say, 5-7 minutes). Having said that though, you might want to consider talking about concepts that are ultimately still different, but just all happen to be related to the broader picture anyhow.
But as a rule of thumb, if possible please be consistent and move on.
This also carries over to presentation slides if you're using them. Your slides should be nothing more than a
summary of what you plan to put to speech. It should be something that they can refer back to, not something that takes up their time to read. They can helpful for you to refresh what you want to say as well, but that's about it. They shouldn't be extravagant (unless the situation calls for it), but they should be well formatted and easy for your audience to just "view".
- KNOW the actual presentation WELL ENOUGHSome people know their talk back-to-front, but I'd say most don't. That's not a big issue, but you still need to know it convincingly.
Fumbles during a presentation more or less arise because you forget what you were gonna say. Sadly, this sometimes just breaks the mood or whatever it is you tried to build up. More often than not, your presentations are not impromptu - they're things you've had the opportunity to prepare adequately enough for. If you have presentation slides, try to make them a tool that will refresh what you wanted to say the instant you forget. Or if you're capable to, keep mindmapping what comes next in your head as you speak.
(When I presented for our boardroom pitch during the STEM Leaders Program, we more or less had roles to focus on. I found that I was much better at presenting the stuff I focused on, but could say very little for everyone else. How did this happen? I firmly knew what I researched into and developed, and why I even did develop it.)
- TECHNIQUES?Sure.
- Tone: Obviously varies depending on what you're currently presenting. If you're doing a pitch, be enthusiastic and engaging about it! If you're speaking up for something, put emotion/passion into it! Also think about emphasising key points in your presentation.
- Expression: Look like the way you're talking. Most likely people are looking at you as well as trying to listen to you. Let them see you the same way you want to hear you.
- Hand gestures: Not necessarily a bad thing! Try to integrate them though - hand gestures are most effective when they complement what you're saying. There are lots you can find online, but two simple ones could be the listing (one, two, three etc.) and the common "why" gesture.
- Confidence: Takes time to develop. I found that if you're new to large scale presentations, you may want to do a bit of rehearsing first. Try to put the cue cards away and let your brain dictate what it wants to get out. But in general, confidence should've naturally made its way into you after a good 15 minutes of talking. Let that take over for you - knowing what you're saying coupled with confidence gets the point out in a more powerful manner.
Home
Help
Search
Login
