How To Ace Your Internship’s Final PowerPoint Presentation

Let’s just say, hypothetically, you have that internship you always wanted. You’re too happy about it and you’re already day-dreaming about that pre-placement offer from the company. Now, let’s fast-forward a bit more.

Say your internship is about to end. You have worked your ass off for the past couple of months to prove your worth. Or maybe you haven’t and you realize that now it is high time you show’em what you can do. And you have just a few days left to make that final impression.

So, what do you do to finish it off? How do you sum up all your work and present your final report?

Make that Powerful PowerPoint Presentation!

Here are some tips to help you create an impact in your deck (Yes, they also call it a deck in the corporate world):

1. Devise a Storyboard

First of all, before you start away with the content, think of a clear storyboard (table of contents in simple terms) and consult your mentor regarding its appropriateness. PowerPoint presentations should be made like a story with a flow that connects with the audience instead of just a monotonous sequence of unrelated headings.

2. Keep It Straight and Simple!

When it comes to the content, always stick to keywords as far as possible and avoid complete sentences. Use bullet points placing the content in the middle of the slide. The lesser the opposite person has to read, the more likely you are to keep him engaged. Minimize the use of sound-effects and animations and try not to do too much in one effort!

3. Font It Up!

Select a large font size even if it means minimizing the amount of text in one slide. You may not always get to present it on a big projector screen and small font on a small sized-laptop is a big no-no for keeping the boss awake!

Also, make sure it’s a commonly installed font present in all systems in the company or else all your text could end being misaligned leading to a sloppy and messy presentation.

4. Heard Of A Master Slide? 

You can use master slides for your PPT as it helps edit all the slides at one go and maintain a uniform format.

Ask your mentor for the company’s master slides as this design layout would be uniformly accepted and used throughout the company.

If the company doesn’t have its own template, then use the company’s colours with the logo and your seniors will love it.

5. A Picture Speaks Louder Than A Thousand Words

Try to use appropriate images and clip arts wherever possible. For displaying data, you can create graphs, tables, and charts with soothing colours in Excel and use those in your PPT.

And yes, do select your colours very carefully.  For example, you should preferably use light colours with different shades of a colour for something like a pie-chart.

6. Give Credit

Always mention the sources and references for all data and images that you use.

If possible, small-sized hyperlinks in the same slide as the data would be great as you never know when you could be asked to show them the source of all your ground-breaking data!

7. Talk To Them And Get Them On Board!

Always talk freely instead of just reading your slides. Maintain eye contact with the opposite person and not with the screen as it’s the person you want to connect with and not the machine.

Don’t forget that your slides are only there to support, not to replace your talk! Interact with your audience and don’t just give a monotonous speech. This is your chance to ask them questions and test their attention before they start grilling you.

8. Get Familiar With Useful Keyboard shortcuts

You can save a lot of time by learning some valuable shortcuts and tricks about this beautiful software.

For example, during the slideshow, you could show-off your PowerPoint skills by pressing the ‘B’ key to make the screen go black or pressing the ‘W’ key to make the screen go white while asking questions to the audience.

 

Wait, what? You are still looking for internships? Register on Internshala already and launch your career today!  

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