Reply to: Doing a presentation in an interview - advice please

[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.

[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.

[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.

[bogeyman]

I don't do interviews.

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

Networking! Contacts! Feck interviews!

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[Sysman]

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



Not so sure about that

[cojak]

A few weeks ago I was shafted when I did a 3 hour interview for a role. I was presented, verbally, with a project mandate and the likely risks and asked how I would deal with it. I then gave lots of free valuable consultancy on how to run the project. The programme manager had no authority to recruit but was very glad of my advice and experience.

Having been bitten once, I am now paranoid and don't trust my own judgement. I need some advice.

I have been invited to attend a 2 hour interview for a central government agency. This is to include a 30 minute presentation.

• There has never been a job spec, just a few vague bullet points.
• There is no person spec., not even "PRINCE2".
• The role has only been advertised by just one agency. Yet this is a government gig.
• They cannot tell me what the project is except in very vague terms - I cannot even tell if it is technical or business change. Even for MOD secret projects they can tell you more than that.
• There is no idea of budget, timescale or the nature of the deliverable(s) other than "3 months to 2 years".
• I have been asked to provide a list of dates & times when I can attend, rather than the other way around (that's unusual in itself).
• It is the same agency as when I was shafted a few weeks ago.

One part of my head says "It's a gig and somebody is going to get it so go for it". Another part says "Here we go again: free consultancy, tell them to get stuffed".

What should I do?

Simples, Darlin!

See how Amazon.com provide tasters for their books.

They show the front cover (the main idea of the presentation - 1st slide),...

then they'll show the table of contents (2nd slide 5 - 7 bullet points of what you would do/they should do etc),...

then they'll give a little in-depth info of 1 of the bullet points (3rd slide, maybe 4th slide if your feeling generous...)

then they give you the back cover (on the 5th slide you'd tell them what you would do if you got the gig)...

Just enough info to get them interested, not enough to give it to them for free.

[NickFitz]

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

...ask them to fill out a questionnaire on your web site?

Not so sure about that

[HairyArsedBloke]

....
I have been invited to attend a 2 hour interview for a central government agency. This is to include a 30 minute presentation.
...
What should I do?

You should be ashamed of yourself. It people like you who have gotten us into this dismal economic crisis.

DON'T ENCOURAGE THE BASTARDS!

Tell 'em to stop wasting taxpayers money (not that I'm one of them) and sack the whole department.

[suityou01]

A few weeks ago I was shafted when I did a 3 hour interview for a role. I was presented, verbally, with a project mandate and the likely risks and asked how I would deal with it. I then gave lots of free valuable consultancy on how to run the project. The programme manager had no authority to recruit but was very glad of my advice and experience.

I don't think this was done on purpose. I would think that the bell-end organising the interview had the rug pulled from underneath him and was embarrased. That said, he is still a bell-end.

Having been bitten once, I am now paranoid and don't trust my own judgement.

I would say your judgement is sound enough. Have confidence.

I have been invited to attend a 2 hour interview for a central government agency. This is to include a 30 minute presentation.

Great! Some interview practice! All good. Go for it. It's good to hear the phone is ringing again. I have noticed the market picking up, so it's reassuring it's picking up for you too, shirley?

• There has never been a job spec, just a few vague bullet points.
• There is no person spec., not even "PRINCE2".
• The role has only been advertised by just one agency. Yet this is a government gig.
• They cannot tell me what the project is except in very vague terms - I cannot even tell if it is technical or business change. Even for MOD secret projects they can tell you more than that.
• There is no idea of budget, timescale or the nature of the deliverable(s) other than "3 months to 2 years".
• I have been asked to provide a list of dates & times when I can attend, rather than the other way around (that's unusual in itself).
• It is the same agency as when I was shafted a few weeks ago.

They sound very disorganised. Perhaps they recognise they need a project manager.

One part of my head says "It's a gig and somebody is going to get it so go for it". Another part says "Here we go again: free consultancy, tell them to get stuffed".

I don't think people would go to this length just to get some free consultancy, really I don't. This may come to nothing, in fact, expecting it too may liberate you in interview mode to just be yourself. Relax, do the interview so you feel proud of what you did, then go home and have a beer and put it out of your mind.

Knock em dead.

[Platypus]

Leave out the bit about not getting paid.

[Zippy]

On a serious note it's something to put on the CV under "Gave presentation on <abc> to <xyz>".

That's a good point. Consultancy work for major government organisation. Leave out the bit about not getting paid.