djs2772 said:
hi
i have a job interview in a couple of days which requires a powerpoint
presentation.
i know enough about ms powerpoint to put together to put together a
presentation but i have never had to put it foward in an interview before.
can anyone advise on what the technical setup is likely to be. will i
control the presentation via a normal pc which is linked to a
projector/screen? if not what devices/controls will i have to use to
control
when i need to switch between slides?
many thanks in advance.
You have really asked a question that I don't think any person other than
the interviewer can answer.
We can only guess. My best guess if they supply the computer and other
equipment is:
When I create a presentation for a system I don't know, I try to use the
lowest common denominator, set it to run on a Win 98 or 2000 system with
Office 97 installed. In other words, I don't use all of the bells and
whistles of Office 2003 or 2007. It is a lot easier if you know what
version of PPT will run the presentation. If your presentation is actually
part of the interview process to see how well you create the presentation be
careful of all the pitfalls of moving presentations to another computer.
They include but are not limited to: use Windows fonts only in the
presentation creation as the delivering computer may not have your fonts
installed, sound files should be embedded not linked to easily transport,
any video should be in a very compatible format (generally .wmv is the best)
and should be in a folder on the root of the drive along with the
presentation's file. Death by PowerPoint is not a great way to die.
If your interview would be in front of more than one or two people then the
system used would probably be set to a large screen monitor or projector.
You should not have any issue with that projector or screen however as it
would be the company's equipment unless that would be part of the interview
process. We don't know what job description you are attempting to get. If
it is for an employee that would be handling AV equipment they could throw
bugs in the process to see if you can fix them.
To advance to the next slide the company would either give you access to a
mouse, presenter remote or the computer keyboard where all can be used to
advance to the next slide. I have been to some presentations where someone
else controlled the slideshow from another location and would advance on a
signal from the speaker but this is rarely done with the advent of wireless
equipment.
You should also move the presentation to another computer to ensure that all
the items display correctly from your transport media (CD/DVD, flash drive,
etc.)
Run the program repeatedly until you know exactly what will display, when.
You will need to be as smooth as possible running the presentation and also
by running on different computers you will ensure that everything is totally
device independent.
Take a copy of PPT viewer on removable media just in case they don't have
PPT installed onto the computer that is to be used (however this will be
very unlikely.)
If you supply the computer (laptop) ensure that you know how to hook up to a
projector or other display, the control to send the desktop image to the
external device and find a monitor and test it. All other above holds true.
)