Dear All, I have an interview with a food manufacturing company and as first part of interview, I have to make a presentation. Can members with experience of doing such presentation at interview give me some guiltless as what to expect please. Regards

I think that I can help you. What is the topic on which you have to make the presentation?

Hi Apau Have they gave you a subject or title to base your presentation on or have you got a shot at what you like?? I had to do a 10 minute presentation for my job titled "The Importance of a Safety Culture to the Success of a Business" If you want any pointers or someone to review the presentation then please feel free to give me a shout Simon

Find out if there is anything in particular they would like you to do the presentation in. If they say that you can choose the topic, then choose something that actually affects the food industry. There are a few things you could decide on. For instance Manual Handling - although there are many handling aids available around, there are many tasks in the food industry which constitute huge MH efforts and very little chance of elimination, specially repetitive work in various areas. This IMO still a big issue in all food industries. Slips/ trip / falls - with increased potential in high care factories with daily washing down of equipment Transport Safety - FLTs - Lorries - MEWP Language barriers - food industry particularly not well paid. This means that a great amount of workers will be foreigners with not much English - high turnover of staff as people want something better etc Maintenance etc. list goes on... just to many risks you could talk about. find out if they have an specific topic in mind. Which sort of food industry is it? pm me if you want and I'll try to assist as much as I can.

Pm me when you know the subject matter as I may be able to send you something to help you in your quest. It may be prudent to make your presentation company specific, see if you can get a company logo onto a Powerpoint Presentation. I reckon for your first interview you are looking at a ten to fifteen minute presentation, keep it simple, keep it relevant, keep it to ten slides maximum, nice pictures instead of 100% script, practice the presentation in front of family members and get them to pull you to bits until you achieve excellence. Download your presentation onto a memory stick or CD in fact take two CDs just incase one fails. Have a hard copy to hand just in case all fails and you have to revert to a stand up presentation. If you have a video camera, video yourself at home doing the presentation, know the presentation off by heart, don't read from the slides and above all just be yourself. It may look good if you can make some smart powerpoint handouts for each of the Interviewers, say two slides to a page and in colour on quality paper, nicely bound. Make sure all spelling and grammar is correct. The presentation is a one hit with no second best prizes, no coming back for a second attempt. I am sure that the interviewers will be most pleasant and smiling, telling you to relax and take your time. Be on your guard, don't relax too much. During the presentation they may take notes, don't let that put you off. When I teach I flit my eyes from one pupil to another not focusing on one individual in particular. I do not look in their eyes but at the foreheads but keeping contact. Three minutes to the end of the presentation summarise what you have said two minutes to the end ask the interviewers if there are any questions. That will leave two minutes for the two way question and answer session. Oh and make sure you have a watch with you, place it in front of you then you will have an indication of how much time you have got left. You will be suprised how quick time runs out. The morning of the inteview don't forget your laptop, memory stick / CD, and dont forget the handouts. Good luck and I hope you get what you are looking for. Regards Franky

Franky - I found your advice constructive and informative - although I did not post the question, the tips you have given are very useful for future use - thanks

I have used the time function in powerpoint for this, I set a max time for each slide just over what I plan for (see practice, practice, practice comments above ), that way if I do run over the slide show moves on without me :) this will not work or be appropriate in all situatons but it can be useful if time is crtical! I agree with most stuff said above so won't repeat.

Just to cover all basis, assume that the content IS important! I was on one panel when the candidate declared that he was changing his presentation. Unfortunately for him, the content scored as much as the presentation skills - he didn't get the job! Looking at the topics, try the HSE's website - you should get a lot of useful information. In addition, make sure that it's a PowerPoint presentation they want - I have, in the past seen candidates merely using flip charts - just ask them! Last, but not least, good luck!!