If there\’s one thing I dislike, I dislike giving presentations. As much as I would like to tell people about ideas and my projects, the idea of standing up in front of an audience is just never appealing. Personally, I would rather tell people my ideas and projects in a smaller group setting. But there are times when presentations are the only way.

Last week, during my human factors class, I must have made some of groan when the professor called on me to present my chair design to the class. Note the fact that I must have had a sign above of my head that said this student doesn\’t want to be called upon, so call on her!

But really, what makes a great presentation? I often imagine myself giving great talks, enjoying the communication that I would have with my audience. The article contrasting Steve Jobs\’ and Bill Gates\’ presentation style caught my eye. There are many talks that I have attended where I have been bored to tears because the speaker gets too caught up in wordiness and doesn\’t have slides to back up his point appropriately. But that\’s not to say that I haven\’t done the same. I have always made horrible blunders such as reading the bullets directly from the slide or worse yet, using the Microsoft template (I learned the hard way when people admonished me for using the Microsoft Word resume template). Simplicity is always the key. People get bogged down by words and focus on those words on the screen much more than what is said. People always remember how they felt at the presentation than what they heard. So why not focus on the feeling?

All reminders to myself when next semester, I truly start job interviewing.