Interview Guidelines: Speaking Component

How to Look  Show up in your Sunday Best!  Women : conservative business or church attire. Do not wear heals you cannot walk in! You may choose either a skirt or pants, but your skirt should be AT THE KNEE or lower.  Men : business or church attire. Wear a tie. A suit is fine if you won’t get too hot.

How to Look (2)  Make sure your hair is washed and PULLED BACK  You cannot present with hair in front of your eyes, and you cannot keep playing with it  Face and teeth should be clean, makeup minimal  Do not wear any overpowering colognes or perfumes. Your panelists may be allergic.

How to Walk  Walk with confidence as you come in. Go to the front of the room and shake hands with each of the panelists.  As you shake, make eye contact and thank each of them for coming.

Beware your Hands  Body language speaks louder than words.  Be sure to:  Keep arms at sides unless you are using them as you talk.  DO NOT  Cross your arms or hold them in front of you like Adam and Eve. These positions make you appear angry, nervous, or unwelcoming.  DO NOT  Play with your hair, your sleeves, your clothes, or anything else as you speak. Your arms and hands should be helping you talk, or at your sides. Those are the only options.

Have Confidence  Speak clearly and with confidence  PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE  You must know your content inside and out before presenting in order to be confident  YOU CANNOT USE CUE CARDS AND YOU CANNOT READ OFF THE SLIDES, so you must know exactly what you are going to say ahead of time

Have Confidence (2)  Enunciate. This means make sure you are saying every word clearly and loudly.  Project your voice like a teacher does – pretend you are trying to be heard by someone in the back of the room.  SMILE, even as you speak  DO NOT CRY. Many learners have some emotional challenges to share with their panelists, but you should practice speaking about your experiences with professionalism – that means being an adult, and, frankly, not crying. You only have 10 minutes. You cannot get distracted.

Have Confidence (3)  Lastly, speak with conviction. This means believing what you are saying – speaking from the heart – so that the audience wants to listen and believe you. You must make the audience care about who you are, where you came from, where you want to go, and how you will get there.

Eye Contact  Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.

Speaking and Listening  Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid- stream if you are well prepared to do so. Remember that communication is the key to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, know what can be safely left out. If you have extra time, know what could be effectively added. Always be prepared for the unexpected.

Be Funny!  Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.  You can be funny through visual aids too!

Keep Words on Visual Minimal  Don’t over-clutter the visual parts of the representation with words.  There should be as few words as possible, and plenty of pictures. This makes sure that the audience is LISTENING TO YOU, NOT READING YOUR SLIDES.

Keep it within 10 minutes  Time yourself as you practice, so that you are sure you will only use the time given to you.  In the past, panelists have wanted every second possible to ask you questions at the end. Be ready to answer those questions as fully, and as to the point, as possible.

RELAX!  Lastly, relax! Remember, each of the people in the room with you WANT YOU TO SUCCEED! They are there to support you.  DO NOT APOLOGIZE for nervousness. They probably didn’t even notice.  Focus on the message: who you are! Tell them about yourself, and have fun with it.  Before you go, visualize yourself being fabulous, and you will be!

After Questions  Thank the panelists again, and leave gracefully