I was asked to give a 45 minute presentation to 5-10 members of our group about a project you completed in the past that you are particularly proud of.

It has been scheduled in the morning, before my meetings with other interviewers. What I should include in my slides? Self Intro, Project background, project team, project overview, process, accomplishments and Q&A, what else? I plan to do 30 minutes’ talking and 15 minutes Q&A. But still, it is not that easy to cover 30 minutes without getting into too much details.

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Jay’s Answer: Skip the slides (or keep them to just a few). You want people to be focused on you. I don’t know what position you’re interviewing for, but consider what key piece of information you want to impart in your presentation (other than “hire me”). Then, tell your story. Make the story personal. What enthusiasm can you muster? What pain could you share? Slides full of buzzwords, graphics, etc are a distraction – people remember a story. If you don’t have story, provide analogies. But describe the problem that existed, how it was uncovered, what your thought process was about it, how it was solved, the new problems that you found during that process, the solution, the short-term result, long-term result, and knowing what you know now, would you do the same project in the same way again.

Don’t wait until the last 15 minutes to let them talk. Let them ask questions to help focus your story. If you get your story down, they’ll be enthralled.