Doing a presentation in an interview - advice please

[Sysman]

Go for it - at least it'll get you out of the house



Not so sure about that

[Fred Bloggs]

In my very early days of contracting I got a seemingly serious call from a "client" via my website. I lost a half days paid work to go and talk to this "client" for ~3 hours for free. I relaised soon after that I had been royally shafted over and that I had given away several £000 of prospective, pretty easy for me, consulting work. It will never happen again. I frequently get prospective clients calling or emailing me, but they always without fail, want free advice. When the conversation gets to that bit I say something like "you'll need to pay for that expertise/advice/knowledge/experience etc..".

I have managed 1 day of paid consultancy in 6 years.

[teclo]

In my very early days of contracting I got a seemingly serious call from a "client" via my website. I lost a half days paid work to go and talk to this "client" for ~3 hours for free. I relaised soon after that I had been royally shafted over and that I had given away several £000 of prospective, pretty easy for me, consulting work. It will never happen again. I frequently get prospective clients calling or emailing me, but they always without fail, want free advice. When the conversation gets to that bit I say something like "you'll need to pay for that expertise/advice/knowledge/experience etc..".

I have managed 1 day of paid consultancy in 6 years.

Kind of like the "You're a programmer, you know about computers, will you fix my computer for me??" I used to get that all the time until I started charging £30 an hour with a minimum of 2 hours work and all time rounded up to the nearest hour. They stopped asking quite quickly

[The Lone Gunman]

Could you not do a presentation which details common or specific areas of failure in your partícular field concluding with a statement saying that this is where your companies special skills and experience can help?
This shows that you have expereince and understand their problems without providing any solutions whilst showing that you have them.

If there is no spec what are you to present on? When asked I usualy present on common misconceptions about freelance workers.

[stillooking]

I did something similiar earlier in the year, against my better judgement, i did a 'pitch' , As soon as I met the person at the company (a manufacturer in N.Wales making telescopic sights) I had misgivings. I'm convinced he met a few people and pooled the information together and didn't bother engaging a contractor.

I would say don't waste yr time, unless you can have a dialogue with the client directly on the 'phone beforehand to probe a bit deeper.

[bogeyman]

I don't do interviews.

The idea of jumping through hoops and prostrating oneself makes me gag.

Networking! Contacts! Feck interviews!

[Fred Bloggs]

I don't do interviews.

The idea of jumping through hoops and prostrating oneself makes me gag.

Networking! Contacts! flip interviews!

Generally I would tend to agree with you. I have had several good contracts awarded after a 15 minute phone conversation. However, times are hard now. The client is in control more than ever before, hence the jumping through hoops requirements. Sad, but true.

[RichardCranium]

Thank you for an impressive collection of experience and advice. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I would be tempted to copy 'n' paste it into PowerPoint, put a front slide on it and use that as the presentation!!


I had a moan at the agent about the need for a presentation for a contract role but all he said was "But it's what you PMs specialise in". (Not me.) I told him about my previous experience through his agency and then he took notice. He got back to me the next day to say there would now be two rounds of interviews with the presentation only being required for the second round.

I have yet to be given an interview date.

[BlasterBates]

Give it your best shot, and let us say they were looking for free advice, whether you give it to them or not would make no difference to you, so assume it is a "real" interview and make sure you give your best.