Presentation for an interview?

26 Comments

1. AnonymousMarch 4,2025 at 7:28PM UTC

   I would not spend 3-4 days on anything for free. That's way too comprehensive. I would provide a top line summary on the steps I would take and approach to solve a very broad problem. Nothing too specific or detailed. I would not drill down to specifics.

2. AnonymousMarch 4,2025 at 8:21PM UTC

   I wouldn't do it for free and have mentioned that it takes time to prepare a presentation and is the topic "xyz". If it is a large consulting firm, they can use that presentation without your consent and without paying you a fee.

3. AnonymousMarch 6,2025 at 2:48PM UTC

   Agreed! I know a company that used to do this regularly; my friend was part of the marketing team. She told me that if the team got "stuck" they company would often times post a position that didn't exist and have potential candidates produce presentations as part of the interview process. When they found a presentation/approach they liked, they would "close" the position and circle back with all the candidates with a "thank you, unfortunately we will not be moving forward with your application...". They would then proceed to use the chosen presentation (with tweaks here and there) for their own benefit. Highly unethical in my opinion, however according to my friend this is not an uncommon practice.

   I would proceed with caution.

4. AnonymousMarch 4,2025 at 8:22PM UTC

   High level. Unless they want to pay you an hourly rate or fixed fee.

5. Vanessa LontocMarch 4,2025 at 8:31PM UTC

   This is a tough situation, and I understand your hesitation. While I agree that asking for a multi-day presentation upfront can be a red flag, I also know that sometimes demonstrating your approach is crucial, especially for certain roles.

   For executive-level positions, I've found that creating a concise, impactful deck showcasing your "who I am and what I can do" approach is incredibly effective. It doesn't have to take days – a well-crafted template, customized to highlight low-hanging fruit and immediate impact based on the job description and company research, can make you stand out.

   I've often been the only candidate to present a proactive deck, and it's definitely made me memorable and control the conversation. It shows initiative and genuine interest, and it's a great way to control the narrative and demonstrate your strategic thinking without giving away proprietary solutions. It depends on the role, but sometimes showing you’ve done your research and are ready to hit the ground running is the best way to prove your value.

6. AnonymousMarch 5,2025 at 1:15AM UTC

   Present at a high level as you will not the know inner workings of the company. Give an overall topic then provide steps on how you would resolve. These types of presentations are quite common these days. It’s a job and one you seem interested. Do the best you can and show them what you can do. Good luck!

7. Maggie SoldanoMarch 5,2025 at 2:20PM UTC

   Can you present a solution you developed in the past and the results that came from it?

8. Barb HansenMarch 5,2025 at 6:39PM UTC

   I’ve both walked away from job opportunities because of a "take-home" assignment and, at times, gone ahead and done the work. For me, the deciding factors have always been:

   1. How much work is required?

   2. How much do I actually need this job?

   The first question is always "How much work are they expecting me to do?"

   I’m not spending a full week building out new features, go-to-market plans, and partner strategies for your product suite. I’m not presenting my ideas to your C-suite and board while you decide if I’m good enough to hire.

   True story: A startup once asked me to create a full plan to rebuild and reposition their entire product suite, including staffing requirements, costs, timelines, go-to-market strategies, and more. The recruiter was upfront that this “take-home” assignment would take a full week and that I’d be presenting it to their board. When I realized they essentially wanted free consulting, I walked away. Nice try.

   On the other hand, I have created plans and presented ideas for some jobs. Just because I share my approach doesn’t mean they can execute it as smoothly as I can—sometimes, it’s worth showing how I think to prove I can do the job. Other times, it’s not worth giving away my brainpower and expertise for free.

   I’ve never asked for compensation for a take-home assignment, mostly because I never thought about it that way—but it’s an interesting angle.

   I don’t have a one-size-fits-all answer, but trust your gut. If it feels like they’re asking for too much, they probably are.

9. Anne RenehanMarch 5,2025 at 8:18PM UTC

   I've been asked to do this multiple times. It seems to be a fairly common practice particularly in marketing. Once a company offered to pay, but it was far less than the work was worth. In that instance, I declined as it was a very heavy lift and I wasn't sure about the company. A better approach was at my last company. They asked for a presentation on bringing a new product to market, but said that I could reuse an existing presentation and simply black out anything confidential like product names or statistics. Could you do something like that?

10. GirlBossanova934974March 6,2025 at 2:41PM UTC

    You have 2 choices. You can decline the project OR you can SCALE DOWN your effort on this project. Why is this going to take 3-4 days? I think you need to backtrack a bit and figure out what you can put together in 2-3 hours. Top level stuff with the idea if this piece of info is provided, the work can be improved. Stick with developing a MODEL which can be improved and perfected when a job offer appears!

11. AnonymousMarch 6,2025 at 4:23PM UTC

    I assume you are interviewing for a FTE role? If so, Spend an hour putting together some simple slides with limited information

    When presenting tell the audience that making slides is not your thing but, you can white board and walk them through your iterative process with them included. If that doesn't work they are possibly looking for actors (good show people) and not those who can really do the job. As an alternative if you choose to spend more time tell them your hourly rate for consulting. Or another alternative is find a similar plan from your past and walk them through how that was done and used. There is definitely no avoiding this if this is part of their process. Next time at the onset of interviewing places ask for the steps in their process so you are not blindsided by having to do this if it is against your morals.

    If this is for a contract gig, definitely tell them the cost for your time and bill them accordingly. Nobody works for free...

12. AnonymousMarch 7,2025 at 1:43PM UTC

    I agree with one small caveat - I would omit the statement about slides not being "her thing." Instead, I would state that a simple presentation was prepared based on the amount of nonbillable time allotted. If awarded the role (or compensated for time) I'd be more than willing/capable to prepare a more comprehensive slide deck.

    Or something like that. "Not your thing" sounds like your not capable of preparing a presentation IMHO.

    Again, i completely agree with your response otherwise!

13. Melissa McHughMarch 7,2025 at 1:36PM UTC

    I won't do a presentation if I don't *really* want the job, because it's unpaid time I could be using for other job search activities. So my advice echoes what others said. If you really need/want the job, then definitely do it.

    I used to spend a lot of time on these presentations. But then I realized I'm going to deep since they just want to see how you can structure and present ideas.

    Now, I stick to 2-4 facts and solutions per presentation. It's enough for them to see my strategic thinking and problem solving skills but not so much that it takes me hours to complete.

14. AnonymousMarch 7,2025 at 2:10PM UTC

    If it is truly a 3-4 day project, put an overview of the approach at the beginning, and fill out only a part of it with details. For the rest, simply put in high level approach material.

    As a company who used this approach to ensure people had the expertise and communications skills we were seeking, using something you had done before would not work. Why not? That work may not have been wholly yours, and it was on a topic you knew, not us.

    The point of this isn't to get your ideas for free, it's to ensure that you are in fact the real deal. It sounds like you are, so if you want the job, give them something that shows them that.

15. AnonymousMarch 7,2025 at 2:38PM UTC

    I would have to agree with others that said to do something high level. If they're looking for a complete step by step solution, that feels like consulting work to me. I recently had multiple interviews with a company that grilled me on how things were handled when I worked for a much larger organization (which of course I could only answer to a point). I got a lot of "that's great, music to my ears, etc.", and was ultimately passed over for somebody much younger and not even close to my experience, and none in the industry I was applying in. I now think they used it as free consulting.

16. AnonymousMarch 7,2025 at 3:27PM UTC

    There's a LOT of good advice in here and it's been a few days, but I'll echo ideas to really just outline it and add that I think it's absolutely fine to say something like "I would dedicate more time to fleshing this out in the role, but for the purposes of interviewing am focusing on a high-level plan to give you the broad strokes of how I'd solve this problem".

    Something you might not have considered -- If it takes you 3-4 days to put together, how long is it going to take you to present it? Probably longer than they actually want to sit there for an interviewee, I'd bet!

    When you're the kind of person who does work thoroughly and as well as possible, sometimes you have to catch yourself for a second and consider what the actual desired outcome is. I think it's pretty unlikely they think interviewees will spend 4 days on a presentation.

17. Katherine "Kate" ParramoreMarch 7,2025 at 9:16PM UTC

    Do not EVER work for free. Do not answer anything other than with a hypothetical and telling them you'd need to examine (whatever- finances, market share, people) before you could give a lucid reply to a problem SPECIFIC to them

    And no, it's not a "normal thing to do" Glassdoor posts have just as much fraudulent info as any other site. They claim companies can't remove "bad reviews" ? Glassdoor ALSO can't remove fake ones or ones that claim that XYZ is "common"

18. Janet ParkhurstMarch 12,2025 at 4:45AM UTC

    Dear Anonymous:

    You just answered it, yourself. "...without giving away what they should be paying for?" I would handle it exactly as you said, earlier. "...I would be happy to do that for my consulting hourly rate of XXX..."

    This suddenly brings to mind, something similar I was asked to do for a company for whom I was a copywriter candidate. They were completely WITHOUT a writer at the time, and they asked if I'd do a writing assignment that they really needed. But they PAID for my time and work. They also said whether or not I agreed to do the PAID work, it would have no bearing on my candidacy. I did the work, and really enjoyed it. They hired me and I was there for over 12 years. Now, THAT was a great company. And they paid me well for those 12 years.

    Beware of a company that tries to steal your time and expertise. It's not only "cheap," it's robbery. Avoid them at ALL costs.

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