prepare a 3 min presentation telling us something about you you think we should know

VimFuego

I have an interview next week for the National Trust, and one of the things I have to do is that above. Now, I haven't had a formal job interview since 2006 (the interview I had last week was more of a chat, very informal), so I am totally out of loop for what gets done nowadays. 
So, I was hoping some of you more corporate savvy types could give me some clues about what I should do for this. 

Teyeplayer

Hit them with something they are not expecting:
You’ve a penchant for pyromania and ‘that’ forest fire on NT land last year, yes the one in location X that did massive damage -that was yours. You can bring something positively incendiary to the roll, good times, drop the mic.

Flink_Poyd

I'd probably end up with a 3  minute presentation telling them how utterly useless this 3 minute presentation is for judging me for a job. They have the cv, read my skills and previous experience and stop messing around with pointless exercises designed to give the interviewer a 3 minute breather. 

blobb

I've done a couple of these:
1. The evolution of the modern drum kit
2. How to make paper aeroplanes.

The second one went down best as I gave them all an A4 piece of paper at the start. They all made aeroplanes and my final slide was a big target so they all launched them at me in an orgy of paper dart throwing.  Great fun.

I figured that they had been sitting there all day listening to boring powerpoint presentations about how great people are, they could probably do with a laugh. It worked, they are looking to see what sort of person you are, will you fit in with the team, are you fun etc.... I don't think they were that interested in drum kits.

VimFuego

Flink_Poyd said:

I'd probably end up with a 3  minute presentation telling them how utterly useless this 3 minute presentation is for judging me for a job. They have the cv, read my skills and previous experience and stop messing around with pointless exercises designed to give the interviewer a 3 minute breather. 

sadly this is a. exactly the kind of thing I would say and b. exactly the kind of thing I am trying to avoid saying.

@blobb thanks, I will give that some thought. 

slacker

Give ac3 minute presentation on how you would use 3 minutes more wisely.

Sporky

3 minutes isn't long. First thing is don't go waffling on for longer. Have visual aids, and talk about something you know so you don't get stuck not knowing what to say.

Jalapeno

How to lay a hedge ....

VimFuego

Jalapeno said:

How to lay a hedge ....

ah now, that is kind of what I'm trying to get to (but not explaining at all well) what is it I should talk about? Is it related to the job? A hobby of mine? I am at a complete loss to know what topic to pick.

Sporky

Probably something that demonstrates you'd be great at the job. 

sinbaadi

Say you have some trust issues.

After the laughter subsides tell them an excruciating and uncomfortable story of how you were, erm, exploited as a child and how you don't see "that" uncle anymore.

Teyeplayer

Sporky said:

Probably something that demonstrates you'd be great at the job. 

In all seriousness this ^

If it’s team work they want from the job description then try to find an appropriate anecdotal parallel, if it’s independent working, likewise. Even better if you can link it to an aspect of their work -the ancient art of Saxon hedge building or something similarly specialist and obscure. Do that and you are probably well on your way. Then sound enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate about sharing your experience.

EricTheWeary

Somewhere in the Person Specification it probably says what this is meant to demonstrate ( presentation skills, communication skills or something) . If it does then you you should talk about and/ or demonstrate that - the presentation topic is just a vehicle for that. Otherwise three minutes on why you love the National Trust I guess ( I don’t, they’ve closed down my favourite camp site to turn it into a car park).

I have used ‘ tell us something about yourself we wouldn’t be able to guess’ as a group work ice breaker but after I got ‘ I’m having an affair with the wife’s sister’ as an answer I gave up on that. 

VimFuego

thanks eric, that's helped me a lot. 

Hootsmon

tell them all about your great personal achievements from over the years and improvise for 2:55

LuttiS

Important bit to remember is to keep is 3min on the dot.. i imagine time keeping is part of it. 

beed84

blobb said:

I've done a couple of these:
1. The evolution of the modern drum kit
2. How to make paper aeroplanes.

The second one went down best as I gave them all an A4 piece of paper at the start. They all made aeroplanes and my final slide was a big target so they all launched them at me in an orgy of paper dart throwing.  Great fun.

I figured that they had been sitting there all day listening to boring powerpoint presentations about how great people are, they could probably do with a laugh. It worked, they are looking to see what sort of person you are, will you fit in with the team, are you fun etc.... I don't think they were that interested in drum kits.

I'm almost tempted to apply for jobs that require a presentation simply so I can do this. Great idea.

Bygone_Tones

Teyeplayer said:

Sporky said:

Probably something that demonstrates you'd be great at the job. 

In all seriousness this ^

If it’s team work they want from the job description then try to find an appropriate anecdotal parallel, if it’s independent working, likewise. Even better if you can link it to an aspect of their work -the ancient art of Saxon hedge building or something similarly specialist and obscure. Do that and you are probably well on your way. Then sound enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate about sharing your experience.

  Shouldn't they already have that information on a persons CV and/or application form? and doesn't pretty much every man and his dog emphasise soft skills on their CV? 

Personally I would avoid repeating the boring stuff about team work and communication skills. Use the 3 minutes to tell them something unique and a bit quirky about yourself that makes you stand out from everyone else - but keep it "on topic" to the job requirements. Let them decide what skills you are demonstrating. The chances are they are assessing your communication skills.

Doing  a short talk like that and being judged by people sat behind a desk is one of the most stressful things a human being can do. It is a well known pyschology experiment (among psychologists). So they are probably assessing how you handle the stress of the situation, and your communication skills, rather than the actual things you are telling them.

Kilgore

Do it through the medium of contemporary dance.

EricTheWeary

A presentation has to judge something and you should know what that something is otherwise it’s worthless. I think sometimes employers get you to do one because they think it’s a thing people do at interviews. 

I used to get people to do them because presenting skills was a big part of the job. Last one I had to do was on the Care Act 2014,* actually went quite well but there was no obvious point to doing it as a presentation rather than just answering questions. 

* I know, exciting huh. 

VimFuego

thanks eric, at least you gave them an idea what they should talk about. I have no issue with giving a presentation (even though it is a very low level job, but whatever) but they could at least give me an idea. As you say, I suspect the interviewers are doing it because they went on a course where they were told that's what you do.