How to Communicate Better (in an Interview)

Do you know any tips for great presentations ?

That's the question someone asked me a few years ago and I said no , because it really didn't matter to me as my work never involved giving presentations .

Then one fine day , I had to give a presentation to some of my clients , although they were just a bunch of people .

I never felt so nervous in my entire life .

I spoke very fast without breathing because I just wanted to get over the presentation soon .

I realize it's not gonna work like this .

My next present , next presentation has to be great .

Now , on the way to develop my own presentation skills , I discovered many little hacks that could improve the way we present things to the audience , maybe small or large .

So , in this video today , I'm bringing you these little hacks that would make a great amount of difference to your presentation skills .

Hi , I'm Akash .

And today I'm gonna share with you a few ways to improve your presentation skills that have helped me personally or I could say they have saved me on a number of occasions .

So let's get started .

Well , I'm not gonna start with your appearance .

How should you dress ?

It's common sense , I'm sure you all know that you need to be well dressed and appear great when you're supposed to stand on the podium .

Of course , you know that you're not gonna wear your most comfortable box of shorts and give a presentation .

But I would like to add something here , wear something that you're comfortable in only because you saw some presenter wearing that impressive jacket .

You'll be able to put the employer at ease because you're at ease because you fully understand what they are looking for from this position , from the potential employee that they're going to hire .

Now , I know what you're thinking .

You're probably thinking to yourself .

Ok .

Well , how do I know what the employer is looking for if they haven't even told me what they're looking for yet ?

Well , I can tell you that you definitely can learn , figure out exactly what the employer is looking for , if not everything , at least the majority of it by simply reading in between the lines of the job description .

So you have to know how to read a job description properly and then also know how to do research on a company learning how to properly read .

A job description is a key skill that you as a job candidate needs to have in order to be able to land a job offer that you're going to be happy with .

You need to understand why is the position open ?

What are they looking for from this role ?

You also should jump in how you carry what you wear is important .

OK ?

Now , if I say that you need to be a genius with your presentation , that would sound unrealistic .

But you need to know these three nos even before you start preparing your presentation , these three nos are definitely the building blocks for any great presentation .

The first no know your room arrive early and stroll around .

So you know where you will be presenting , you get the feel of the place we humans always take some time to get adjusted to the environment .

Next , know your people know your audience beforehand .

If you have a brief background about your audience , you can tune your presentation accordingly .

What's the point of presenting something that is not in sync with your audience ?

Uh Let me explain that to you better .

You need to have a treasure chest full , metaphorically speaking , not physically but a treasure chest full of relevant stories that you are going to bring up in the interview .

And these are based on experiences , achievements , projects , tasks , duties , assignments that you have performed in the past that relate to the position that you're interviewing for .

And you have to be able to demonstrate what the results were and how you can do it again .

For them .

In this role , I've talked about storytelling in other episodes .

So feel free to click on my channel to look for those ones .

But essentially , so you want to make sure that your stories follow the right structure , just like in a good movie , you want to set up the situation , talk about the action steps and talk about the results that occurred .

Tip number three is to cut your explanations down .

One way to communicate with ease in an interview is to make sure that you don't allow yourself to ramble in the interview .

Now , in the software industry , when uh when you develop a software understanding what the client needs is important , understanding that business is important .

If you don't do that , the outcome of the application , what the client has pictures would be completely different , even though you are great at your programming skills , same thing applies when it comes to understanding your audience .

If you do your homework , well , your presentation is sure to be accepted by the audience and finally know your speech , well , rehearse the presentation until you are comfortable with what you're saying and how you're saying it .

After all , you are presenting to and for the audience .

If you sound confused with your presentation and it's not absorbed by the audience , what's the point ?

So always remember these three nos know your room , know your audience and know your speech .

Well , take the comfort of knowing that nobody understands your presentation or your data in your presentation better than you .

There's a very popular mantra shared by a theater expert that says sometimes mess ups can happen .

The audience doesn't know your script so it could happen that you could mess up with some of the points in your presentation .

You might forget to highlight some important facts .

What would you do ?

Would you start saying sorry to the audience or maybe panic or freak out , come on , just relax instead of freaking out freezing up or trying to ignore it happen , just try to be graceful about it .

Chances are that it went unnoticed by your audience .

And even if it was noticeable , all you need to do is say , excuse me , I would like to add some more information here and carry on with your presentation .

Believe it or not , presentations can be fun .

Try to keep all these body movements under control .

Make some eye contact , eye contact , helps keeping the connection between your audience and you .

And is one of the key elements for a great presentation .

If you show your back all the time while reading your slides that will destroy the bridge between the audience and you .

And also remember staring down your audience without a bling can be creepy .

It's also stressful on you , shift your gauge and sometimes it's acceptable to glance at some note cards if you have one .

But also remember , just don't read those cards because reading those cards would be as good as reading those slides .

Come on , you need to smile .

Everyone knows you're nervous giving presentations is nerve-racking .

So make sure you're smiling and make an effort to make that eye contact with people .

Practice meeting the audiences .

Define the purpose of your presentation before you start designing your presentation .

Ask yourself what's the purpose of your talk in general ?

You're either informing persuading or building a goodwill .

So think about it .

Are you sharing your expertise , giving a step by step workshop ?

Do you want people to buy your product or service ?

Are you motivating people educating them or are you presenting case studies ?

Is it purely entertainment ?

Now , these are just some main themes you could build your talk or presentation around .

One of the best public speaking tips I have learned is to make sure that you're only gonna cover one main topic and just stay away from adding anything else you might want to share , although it might be important as well , it just takes away the power of your presentation .

Now , what do I mean by this ?

For example , this video is about how could you improve your presentation skills ?