Practice – tutoriale

I tend to talk a bit too fast.

Memo to self – talk at a slower pace.

It helps the listeners enjoy the presentation and get ideas.

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There’s a lot of emphasis on the big games – Real vs. Barcelona, the grand final of the Champions League, or the match that determines the World Champion in soccer. It’s the same with conferences – there are some big conferences everyone wants to attend.

While it’s true to some degree that the big games have a higher probability of being enchanting, great, and beautiful, there could be more minor games with great intensity.

You can have a match with 4–5 goals, while another can end with 1-0.

The same goes for conferences—yes, while a big-name conference may lead to ideas, you can likely get ideas from smaller conferences.

Pick a big one if you go to a single conference in 5 years.

But if you have a large budget, consider spending it between more events. You might get more ideas from attending multiple, smaller events.

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” ― Beverly Sills

Also, if you want to prepare for a big concert, go to smaller ones, first.

It’s fine to go overseas and see Metallica in a concert, but try some local concerts, also.

Don’t go just to Metallica and Pink Floyd.

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I have friends who constantly give me news on the end of the world: how to build a bunker, what nuclear powers will do, and when will the next big war start.

These friends tend to spend some time reading about things but fail to act on their readings.

They don’t move to Antarctica, they don’t build a bunker, and they don’t hide in the closet.

As I view it, you’re much more likely to have issues with stability, and you could train your body equilibrium using exercises.

Also, you’re much more likely to be affected by alcohol, bad food, and not sleeping enough, much rather than what North Korea will do next.

If all you do is read what could go wrong, but you act on nothing like this, then, in my opinion, it doesn’t help.

Sure, if you think an earthquake will come, and you are a prepper and do things, that’s fine—read about earthquakes.

But if all you do is accumulate anxiety and do nothing about it, reading about a war in another part of the world does not help.

So, how will the world end? Likely, not via a catastrophe, but by falling from a ladder because you are not exercising enough and don’t have enough dexterity. Read about practical things, not things that are out of your control/interest but give you anxiety.

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I remember my first group interview—in high school when I applied for a scholarship through Open Society Foundations Romania (now defunct: Fundația pentru o Societate Deschisă —Wikipedia).

I took an English test and passed, and then there was a group interview.

There were three people, me and two girls.

Imagine our situation: at an extreme, two girls next to each other, and me.

After some initial questions, we were supposed to talk to each other.

Now, imagine how the interview went – as you can imagine, the girls started talking to each other.

I didn’t get the interview. I don’t blame it solely on the group interview issue, but I think it’s one reason.

In college, I got some group interviews with student organizations.

At some point, an HR person came to hold a conference organized by one of the organizations that organized group interviews and bluntly said that group interviews are bad. There was a lot of laughter from the audience.

The manager of the NGO rose and said they organized a series of recruitment sessions and group interviews and how good they are for doing so—oh boy! They are the greatest.

The speaker softened his message but kept his ground – group interviews are not recommended.

How I view it: In group interviews, you need to talk, but you don’t need to talk to everyone. There’s no specific reason for which a person doesn’t get spoken to; the blame is collective. If no one wants to speak to X, for whatever reason, there’s not a single individual to blame this on.

Another thing is that evaluating a group of people becomes more complex (Differences between a panel discussion and a single speech—Blog de Olivian Breda). When you talk one-to-one, you get an idea of how a person is. When evaluating a group of people, this becomes more difficult.

A better solution? If you’re an NGO and have 1,000 people applying for ten positions, you could give each person a task that you need to do (writing a blog post or doing something that could benefit you). Then, provide a more challenging task to the remaining 100 people who do the first task. Then, only have interviews to ensure you can talk to the person, but don’t refuse people because you don’t like them for whatever reason. In the end, hire 20–30 people for the NGO and give them a lot of tasks at the beginning. After a while, you should have ten very motivated persons.

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You might wonder: Why include slide numbers in presentations?

I think it’s useful to get an idea where you are in the PPT.

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You might need to hold a 10-minute presentation.

You might be tempted to think like this: “I need exactly 10 minutes, so I’ll use a timer.”

In my opinion, that’s a poor choice – at the end of those 10 minutes, you’ll need to take action on your smartphone to stop the sounds, and you’ll look distracted and out of focus.

You’ll still need to look at the timer occasionally because if you only know that you’re out of time at the end of the 10 minutes, you won’t be able to fit your talk into the allocated time.

A better solution? Use a stopwatch. Of course, you’ll need to manually check the time a few times, but you’ll look more professional.

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