How should you demonstrate your expertise while you’re presenting? Not this way…
Before: This is me and this is my experience and this is what I do and this is…
Bob’s one smart guy, but he’s trying too hard to prove it. He’s going to have to silently wait about two minutes for everyone in the audience to read the slide. True, there’s a lot of good information there, but there’s no need to verify to this extent that he’s competent to give this presentation.
After: Getting to the point
Here’s the redesigned slide, short and sweet. Distilling all of the information in his résumé down to two short phrases makes the text easier to read and more direct. If he wanted to get people to giggle during the presentation or snap out of their boredom, Bob could strike the exact same pose as he did for the photo, winning smile and all! After that, he could tell a short anecdote about his conversion from black hat to white hat that includes some details about his training and experience. Telling people about himself this way will seem friendlier and less forced than the slide résumé.
The Takeaway
People want to know they’re hearing from qualified professionals. But rather than making them read a résumé, it’s better to incorporate a brief verbal biography into your presentation.
Also, have you ever had to type the word “résumé” over and over again? With all those accent marks, it’s a real pain!