A key skill that many engineers, as well as others, lack is the ability to do an effective Powerpoint presentation. While one might get away with never doing a presentation, your ability to present your ideas and positions effectively may be the deciding factor in promotions, raises, or layoffs.
> Practice makes perfect. Your presentation should be without "um's" and "er's" etc. Better to pause completely than to detract from your presentation.
> You should video record yourself doing a mock presentation. If you can do that a Toastmasters in front of a real audience, so much the better. Look for things that distract the audience or detract from your message.
> Know your material. You should be able to do your presentation completely without refering to your slides. [red]You MUST NOT READ your slides to your audience, they can do that on their own.[/red]
> KISS. If your bullets word wrap a couple of times, they're too long. Summarize; your bullets are talking points. Do not be afraid to skip bullets; your audience has probably already read them by the time you get to them.
> Look at your audience and make eye contact. You should only look at your slides to make sure that you're on the right one.
> Your slide titles should contain your message for that slide. Do not have "This is a horse" titles. Your audience should be able to determine the content and message of your presentation solely from the titles.
> Ideally, you should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. Basically, tell the audience what you're going to present, present the material, and summarize your material and message.
> Supposedly, you should allow 1-2 minutes per slide, if you're given a specific time allotment. I've personally never taken that long; I'm usually under a minute per slide. These are not masterpiece works of art, so staring at them for long periods doesn't improve the appreciation.
