Interview Presentation

BCD

I've been given an interview for a research assistant at uni for the summer holiday.

Great!

It's in the business school.

It's this Wednesday.

In the letter, they have asked me to give a 5 minute presentation on the following subject: Tesco: their financial performance over the past 5 years.

OMG!

Where do I start?!

Do you have any advice on what I should/shouldn't include or how detailed I should go?

I don't have a finance/business background, and they are aware of this.

Thank you!

Gleeful

The clue is in the job title....'research assistant'

Go and do some research!

BCD

Thanks

That's what this is, is it not?

greenberet1990

here you go
http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=30

every little helps xD

micflair_2

This is a good post. If you need advice on how to do research then really the job is not for you! I would not class coming on here asking for help as research!

Heres a start.

https://www.google.com

jobbingmusician

Sigh. I can't resist sticking my beak in, even though I agree that anyone who needs to be told how to do research....

If I were interviewing, I would be looking for a broad range of sources, with critical evaluation as to credibility. You've got the source data from Tesco itself. Now go look in the newspapers for comment.......... If I were doing this presentation I'd probably also include a couple of (researched!) sentences on the effect of supermarkets on current society as well, the consumer move towards cheaper brands during the current recession...

Go in with a wodge of papers printing out your presentation AND CITING SOURCES. And use a recognised citation format - example here.

(That rather answers the question 'is posting on here research?' doesn't it? Unless you are seriously going to say 'and the good folk on the MSE forum said..........')

BCD

I think there's been a misunderstanding!

I was not asking how to do the research or for specific data to include - more general advice on what they would expect from such a brief.

I simply meant how detailed do you think I need to go.

Read my OP again.

But, yeah, thanks for the sarcasm.

StumpyPumpy

Haven't you, perhaps, missed the point of the exercise? They have asked you to present on a topic you know little or nothing about. The last thing they are going to be interested in is the topic itself.

They want to know how well you research. If I were interviewing you, I'd tear your presentation to pieces and ask you questions about how you came to your conclusions, and I'd expect some reasoned responses such as "I looked through the News archives and company reports" or "Cross referenced Wikipedia with more reliable sources".

Unless the job itself requires presenting skills I wouldn't worry much about how it looks, but I would want you to be able to give a 5 minute briefing that lasts 5 minutes (not 10 or 15 or longer!) sticks to the brief and has factual; attributable and, most importantly, verifiable content, not random speculation from a bulletin board.

SP

BCD

I wholeheatedly agree. I would not use any information from a message forum!

I'm a uni student and have no problem with research, referencing, citations, etc.

I have not asked for any information or opinions or suchlike.

DVardysShadow

BCD wrote: »

I simply meant how detailed do you think I need to go.

Read my OP again.

But, yeah, thanks for the sarcasm.

It is a 5 minute presentation How detailed can you go in 5 minutes?

Expect them to grill you on your methodology and on the background to what you say. Off the top of my head, I would say prepare a 30 minute presentation, so you have a good grasp of some meaty arguments. Then tear up that presentation and prepare and deliver the 5 minute presentation. If you are challenged on anything you should be able to address it to some extent,

daveboy

It isn't too hard to find the words to say that the company took its eyes off the ball on the UK side of the business to try and expand abroad, then realised they had dropped the ball by not investing in stores and staff.

The share price was over £4 last year and is a touch over £3 now, and they have taken the free shares given to staff away and replaced it with a 3.6% bonus - but in 2015.

You're basically looking at filling five minutes looking at the fact Tesco wasn't that bothered about the UK market and was too complacent in thinking it could hold on to market share. It forgot about the basics, especially its staff.