Sometimes I wish John Lennon had written a song titled ‘Imagine there’s no PPT’. And every corporate would make it their anthem! Life would be so much more fun! The last decade or so has unleashed upon the world such a torrent of boring speakers as never seen below! Today every Tom, Dick and Harry who has MS Power point/Keynote on his laptop thinks he is the next Obama!

Part of my job is facilitating companies on campus who would like make a pitch to the students about their industry/ company. They are here to ‘sell’ the students on the kind of exciting work they do and why starting/ building their career with them could be the best thing possible!

That is what they are supposed to do.

But what do we really get?

Slide after slide of boring information! Each slide armed to the teeth with the  latest ‘astounding’ facts and figures describing the organisation’s performance.  They are supposed to galvanise you into applying for a job but instead turn out to be a guaranteed sleeping pill!

I often wonder to myself how many times did the person who made this presentation actually sit through it him/herself? Did their marketing/ sales/ communications department ever get a chance to view this presentation?

Here are a few simple tips when making presentations to students that I wish campus hiring personnel across the country would incorporate before they visited the next campus on their list!

1. If this is a campus you have hired from in the past, take an alumni along for the presentation- nothing builds credibility as hearing alumni speak well of the organization.
2. If the above is not possible- create a video of the alumni speaking/ other MT’s speaking of their growth/ opportunities in the organization. Students identify more with these guys rather than the suit on stage.
3. Never forget: Facts Tell but Stories Sell! Make your power point interesting- tell a story. Support it with facts! While telling your story make it conversational. Share the story of your organization. Why did you come into existence? What is the need you meet? Why are you unique?
4.  Let your passion shine through. Passion is contagious. You are asking people to invest atleast 2-3 years of their life with you- please let them ‘see and feel’ why?
5. Get the audience involved- don’t make it a monologue with Q&A session at the end. Ask fact based questions with small rewards for correct answers.
6. Have professionals design the presentation. This is important stuff. OR study and implement the basics of PPT design- font, background, content etc.
7. Create a set of poster’s to be displayed on campus in advance.
8. Have an interesting and knowledgeable speaker from your organization visit campus and talk about opportunities in the industry, in advance. If it is an alumni, even better.
9. Please have your top management- especially marketing view your presentation! HR’s need to start thinking sales and marketing!
10. Send your campus recruiters for presentation training- could make a world of a difference to the kind of people you get on board!

I know that a lot of this might seem very basic, but it is surprising how many recruiters miss out on these! I hope if atleast some of these suggestions are incorporated by organisations we will have more engaged and enthusiastic students sitting through a ‘company’s PPT’.