PowerPoint Skills

Hey guys, something in the works right now, but for those of you in IB, what are the top things that determine whether someone is "good in PPT" or not for IB? Obviously attention to detail matter, but I mean more specifically within PPT...what skills are crucial? alignment/quickkeys/consistency, etc?

Thanks!

 

Have more a consulting background but.....

It's lot like when a girl says she's really good at organizing the house, and somehow manages to fit a couple hundred bucks worth of grocers into a fridge and a single drawer in the shelves.

The true test of someone who is amazing at powerpoint is the ability to compress a lot of information into a single slide without any noticeable loss of aesthetics.

 

Think PP can be broken down into three categories:

-speed: shortcuts etc. which anyone can get reasonably good at given enough time

-intuition for layout / aesthetics: something that comes easier for some and harder for others, probably longer to learn

-synthesis / big picture message: knowing which slides to include and why, and how they flow into the broader message of the presentation. this will probably develop last, after reasonable comfort and proficiency has been achieved with the above two. This is what the MD is thinking about when he briefs you on your staffing, and it's what he / she is hoping you can start thinking about independently as you develop as a banker

My 2 cents

 

From my experience, people don't often care as much about speed or knowing shortcuts as they typically would for Excel. What it comes down to is if you're often able to take a blank page your MD might have scribbled some boxes on and an overall message they are trying to convey and coherently and sufficiently organize it in a aesthetically pleasing manner, while being able to "trim the fat" as necessary. Often times, I'd find myself with a drawn out "idea" on paper from a senior, and they were typically looking for if I had a good handle on simple graphic design (would send to presentation center for the more advanced stuff), and how well I could organize the ideas into a slide.

 
Best Response

Also ex-consultant turned banker, I look for three things: 1) Message - is the message coherent within the slide and across slides; Minto pyramid principle style logic 2) Parsimony - no extra information (slides, words, graphics or colors) that detract from the message; MECE meets Edward Tufte 3) Efficiency - Ability to storyboard before jumping into trying to make slides left and right; not overloading the graphics team with requests for 50 slides when only needing 10 in the final deck

A "good" person in PowerPoint is at the core a strategic thinker, even in IBD.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

All the above tips were very helpful for how to convey a message and build a strong presentation but I think you're asking more about the technical skills of PPT. Disclaimer I don't work in IB, just deal with a lot of financial presentations To me, some technical things I look for in good presentations: 1) make all charts and blocks of text align so that you can move from slide to slide without them jumping around (drawing lines are good for this) 2) if you use charts with 2 axes, make sure they use the same grid lines (this is just simple math but people overlook it frequently) 3) not sure how helpful this is in IB but citing sources at the bottom of slides, doesn't have to be APA or anything but having a source people recognize will instantly make them trust your deck that much more 4) appropriate usage of animations/making content appear - use them to tell the story as you talk, don't just throw 5-10 mins worth of information out there at once cause it will distract the audience to read ahead 5) utilization of space/knowing your presentation setting - if you have a large conference room with a large screen, don't go with size 40 font for your main text (same goes for using too small of a font) 6) this one is just a pet peeve but use sans serif fonts for presenting and serif fonts for handing out copies

 

I feel PPT is really more of an art than a science. Convey the message in proper English, emphasize the salient points, don't overload people with non-crucial information, and be persuasive. It sounds a lot easier than building an lbo model but I've seen Harvard MBAs with IB experience fuck it up. Doing those things right is way more important than memorizing shortcuts.

 

My background is consulting rather than IB but being "good" at PPT arguably comes down to the same core things - being able to tell a tight story and presenting it in a compelling and visually appealing way (totally second Synergy_or_Syzygy on their points). I've tried to give you some extra info and resources....

Concept - telling the story If you want to get up to speed on the "story structure" concepts then check out things like: - Barbra Minto: I started my career at Accenture and the Minto pyramid principles was required training - Slide:ology: Nancy Duarte is a presentation specialist and her book is excellent. The website/blog is also very interesting/helpful and has free template downloads. - MECE - understand the concepts around mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive and decision trees (in saying this.... pretty well covered in the work of the two ladies listed above but you need to know the acronym!)

Technical execution - building the slides Being "good" at actually using PowerPoint to build presentations has two components. Practice and add-ins! - Practice: there are loads of paid training courses available but you can also just download plenty of investor presentations off the web and just have a go at recreating if you want to build your skills. Review decks against what you learn from Minto & Duarte if you think you're struggling to understand what is "good". - Add-ins: in Consulting, most top tier firms use PowerPoint add-ins (also called macros) which shortcut or add new functions into PowerPoint (they embed as an extra tab/ribbon so you're still only using the PowerPoint interface). Not sure if this is as common in IB? Some are awesome, some are average and most are proprietary (not available outside their firm). Accenture had a custom add in called QPT which was pretty average given Accenture's size but still helped speed some things up. I've been told BCG have a pretty good "macros" toolset but I've heard mixed things about McKinsey and Bain. Add-ins make it faster to create presentations which look more professional (e.g. select all shapes on your slide and single click to make them same width/ same height; auto create table of contents, optimise tables etc).

The company I now run was started by ex-BCG consultants specifically to offer a set of PowerPoint add-ins. PPT Productivity offers 90+ functions including a custom shapes and slide gallery to save and reuse your work and/or share shapes and slides across teams. If you're interested in a free 30 day trial, google 'PPT Productivity'

 

Agreed...premature...I haven't been to bschool, but the ones I've worked with coming out of it without backgrounds in consulting know very little as is. PPT is just like Excel...knowing where all the buttons are isn't enough, you need to see how people actually use it to build their pitches, proposals and client deliverables.

 

You'll be working on PPT much of the time, but there will be lots of training for you before you're expected to produce polished decks. You're given a bit of leeway when you first start, but like everything in consulting you're expected to get up to speed very quickly.

I would advise against investing any time learning deck building before you start. If you can't become a PPT master through school, basic training and learning on the job, then you're not cut out to be in consulting. Sorry. You're in IB, I think you'll be just fine.

Why don't you get into a target b-school first, enjoy life and do interesting things you're passionate about so that you have something to talk about to recruiters and interviewers instead of how you took a course on PowerPoint over the summer instead of visiting Machu Picchu.

A piece of advice:

In consulting, IB as I'm sure you know, and many other jobs, there will always be a thousand things for you to worry about 1 day-1 week-1 month away. Successful people focus on the now and get those things done and solved, instead of getting caught up in details that they have no control over in the present.

Your number one focus should be getting into a top b-school. Then shift your focus to framing your story as to why consulting is the absolute best fit for you through the school's networking events. Then preparing for interviews. Then killing those interviews. Get hired. Go travel before you start (though you'll travel as a consultant, backpacking through SE Asia is different then ordering room service in a hotel because you've been working for 15 hours).

After all of this, start thinking about how you use PPT.

Notice how far away that is? That's the right set of priorities, IMO.

 

Premature, but I will answer in case others view/search this topic

It's not so much how to actually use PowerPoint (the technical skill), as that can be learned through a few hours of online videos, and you'll quickly become efficient once on the job.

What is more difficult - and more important - is to learn how to COMMUNICATE using PowerPoint. This includes logical structuring, storyboarding, and displaying information in a well designed way. Effective design helps make the content easy to digest, thereby encouraging the reader to read and approve of your content. I can't tell you how many times a clean, well designed slide gets a pass with barely any review from partners or client while a slide that looks like shit and is difficult to understand gets destroyed.

Study design principles and read the Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds books, although do note that the PowerPoints we tend to create in consulting are documents, not presentations, so much of what Duarte and Reynolds preach does not apply (it is very useful though). Once you're on the job, scour as many completed decks you can find and keep an inventory - mentally or actually - of good slides.

 

Agree with all the above- absolutely no need to worry about PPT skills so early. You'll develop plenty at B-school and even if you don't will become an expert within a few months of being a consultant

I previously worked for McKinsey in London and have started a blog about consulting and how to get into it at www.theconsultingcoach.com
 

I disagree.

In B-School, you are so busy grasping other skills and / or trying to free up your calendar for social activities, there is no harm in brushing up storyboarding / powerpoint skills before you join.

I had this book on my pre-reading list and would highly recommend :

Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication that Drives Action http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Presentations-Design-Creating-Communicat…

Addiionally, I would recommend reading "The Pyramid Principle" by Barbara Minto. It would also help you in your case interview skills.

 

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