Second Interview: Presentation Examples, Structure and Full Preparation Guide

Who sets presentation tasks, and in what form

In the UK, presentations are a standard part of public-sector and graduate selection, not a quirk of a few private employers. The GOV.UK Success Profiles candidate overview lists "Presentation" among the Civil Service's assessment methods and tells candidates "You may be asked to do a presentation as part of the assessment process." Civil Service Careers adds that the subject "could be given to you in advance or it could be given to you on the day", that you might get extra materials, and that you are likely to be asked further questions "about the subject matter, or about the way in which you prepared for it."

For graduates, Prospects describes assessment centres as "often the final stage of the selection process for large graduate recruiters", with presentations among the usual exercises. Its guide to interview tests says interview presentations "usually last 10 to 20 minutes and are prepared in advance", while assessment centres may set an impromptu task with "around 30 minutes to prepare".

Whatever the sector, briefs come in roughly three shapes, and each of the examples below is one of them:

• A problem from their own work, often with a short data pack. The most useful brief for the panel and the most common for operational and management roles.
• A plan for the role: "your first 90 days". Common for management and senior specialist jobs.
• A task on the day, with preparation time measured in minutes.

A fourth, "tell us about yourself and why you want this role", turns up occasionally. Treat it as your answer to "tell me about yourself" with slides: two achievements that match the job, why this organisation, and what you would bring. The common interview questions guide covers the spoken version.

Example 1, worked in full: a problem brief with a data pack

This example is fictional: the organisation, the numbers and the candidate are invented to show the method. The shape of the brief is typical of a team leader or service manager role in a council, housing association or NHS trust.

Read the numbers before you design anything. 450 in and 400 out means the backlog grows by 50 a week, so working harder on the old emails alone never fixes it. The answer has to change the flow, then clear the pile. That arithmetic is the backbone of the presentation, and most candidates given a pack like this never do it.

The plan, with its assumptions stated:

• Cut what comes in. About 150 emails a week are simple requests. Change the automatic reply to link straight to the online form for each; assume half of those senders use it. Inflow falls to about 375.
• Speed up what goes out. Approved template replies for the five most common questions. Assume output rises from 400 to 460. The team now clears 85 more than arrives each week.
• Clear the old pile once. For four weeks, two advisers work the oldest emails with paid overtime, clearing an extra 150 a week.

Slide by slide, 9 minutes of speaking:

The spare minute is deliberate. Presentations run long on the day, and finishing at 9:00 in rehearsal means finishing inside 10 in the room.

Questions the panel would probably ask, and the outline of an answer:

• "What if people ignore the online forms?" Then the team gains only 10 emails a week, so the overtime has to run for about nine weeks instead of four, which costs more. That is why the form links are the first assumption on slide 3.
• "Why not just ask for more staff?" Temporary staff need training on council tax before they help; by the time they are productive, the backlog should be gone.
• "How would you bring the team with you?" Write the templates with them, not for them, and show the weekly numbers so they see the pile shrinking.
• "How did you prepare this?" Civil Service Careers warns this kind of question is likely. Have a one-sentence answer: "I started from the in-and-out numbers, then worked out which lever moved them most."

Example 2: "Present your first 90 days in this role"

An example brief: Marketing Manager at a mid-sized UK retailer, 10 minutes plus questions, no data supplied. The risk with a 90-day plan is presenting changes to a business you have not yet seen from inside. I would frame the first month as questions to answer, and only commit to actions from month two, each tied to one of those questions.

Ending on your own question works well here. It shows you know a plan written from outside is provisional, and it starts the Q&A on a topic you chose.

Example 3: the task set on the day

At an assessment centre you may be handed a scenario, often connected to an exercise you have just done, with around 30 minutes to prepare a 5-minute presentation. There is no time for a deck, so you are usually working on a flipchart or three simple slides. An example scenario: "You have read the complaints log for a leisure centre. Present your top recommendation to the centre manager."

This is how I would split 30 minutes:

• 0–8 minutes: read everything, marking anything with a number or a date.
• 8–13 minutes: choose one recommendation. Not three. Write it as a single sentence.
• 13–25 minutes: build three pages: the problem with its evidence, the recommendation with its cost and owner, and what you would check first.
• 25–30 minutes: rehearse only the opening and closing sentences, out loud and quietly. The middle will come from the pages.

Assessors know you had half an hour. A clear single recommendation with its reasoning scores better than a complete-looking list you cannot defend.

Slides, rehearsal and delivery

Keep slides to one idea each. For 10 minutes I would use six to eight. Give each slide a headline that makes the point in a full sentence ("The backlog grows by 50 a week") rather than a label ("Current situation"), so a panel member who drifts for a moment can catch up by reading the top line. Put detail in what you say, not on the slide.

Rehearse aloud, timed, at least three times. Record one run on your phone and watch it. In Tross and Maurer's 2008 study, 144 participants received one of three levels of coaching before a structured interview, the most comprehensive including skill training, and those with more comprehensive coaching received higher interview ratings. The study was about answering interview questions rather than presenting, but the same rule applies: reading your notes silently is not rehearsal.

Plan for the technology to fail. Email the file to yourself, keep a PDF copy alongside the original, and carry it on a USB stick. If you are presenting over video, ask whether you will share your screen or the panel will, and test screen sharing in the same software beforehand.

In the room, talk to the panel rather than the screen, and share your eye contact across everyone, not only the most senior person. If someone interrupts with a question, answer it briefly; if slide 6 covers it, say so and carry on. Speaking slowly will feel too slow to you and sound normal to them.

In the Q&A, the strongest answer to a question you cannot fully answer states your assumption and how you would test it: "I didn't have figures on that, so I assumed X. It's the first thing I'd check." Do not bluff. The panel wrote the brief and know where its gaps are.

The rest of the second round

The first interview was usually a check that you meet the criteria. The second is the hiring manager, and often more senior colleagues, deciding whether to make an offer. Expect the questions to return to what you said in round one and push further into it. A Civil Service interview, for comparison, "will usually last 45-60 minutes" according to Civil Service Careers, and can mix behaviour, strengths, experience and technical questions.

Deeper competency examples

Prepare five or six STAR examples that cover the criteria the job description stresses most. Round two is where follow-up questions arrive: "What was the biggest obstacle?", "What did you personally do, rather than the team?", "What would you do differently?" For each example, know the team size, the budget or scale, the timescale and the outcome, and have an honest answer to the "differently" question. Reread your first-round notes, because the panel will have theirs.

Research the people, not only the organisation

Look up each panel member on LinkedIn or the organisation's own staff pages: their role, how long they have been there and what their part of the business is responsible for. The question to be ready for at this stage is "What do you think our biggest challenge is?" Answering it well needs a view of their market or service, and the presentation research usually gives you one.

Salary, notice and start date

Have a salary range decided before you walk in, and know your notice period from your contract. "I'm on one month's notice, so I could start four weeks after accepting" is better than a vague "soon"; the UK notice period guide explains how notice is counted. If an offer is made in the room, thank them, say you are keen, and ask for a day or two to look at the detail. That is expected, not hesitant, and the salary negotiation guide covers what to do with that time.

Your own questions

These carry more weight in round two. I would ask two or three of these, and the second one every time:

Before you leave, ask what happens next and when you should expect to hear. Be more direct about wanting the job than you were in round one; a panel choosing between two strong candidates will not pick the one who seemed unsure.

Afterwards

Send a thank-you email the same working day, or first thing the next morning if the interview finished late, and mention one specific question from the Q&A. If a panel member asked something you answered badly, the email is a fair place to add the two sentences you wish you had said.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Success Profiles, candidate overview (presentation as an assessment method)
• Civil Service Careers: Assessments and interviews (presentations, interview length, reasonable adjustments)
• Prospects: Assessment centres
• Prospects: Interview tests and exercises (presentation length and preparation time)
• Acas: Interviewing job applicants (reasonable adjustments)
• Tross and Maurer (2008), The effect of coaching interviewees on subsequent interview performance in structured experience-based interviews