We used to talk in financial terms about the high cost of a bad hire. Now, ‘mis-hires’ are seen as a huge setback to velocity. The speed at which business runs and the lean structures in place make a bad hire not just costly, but a nightmare, often a major setback to a brand overhaul, to getting stability injected into e-commerce, or a blow to a product development cycle.

Whether you are a senior engineer, designer, in marketing or sales, or a CXO, it’s now commonplace to be asked to do a presentation during interviews for a new job. Often, just after you’ve been escorted in and offered the standard coffee or water, you’re on deck to present *something* to the hiring team.

The team gathered before you is assessing your presence.  Determining if you are compelling. They are looking for style—are you an analytic, creative, funny or serious? Are you appropriate for their culture? And, of course, whether it’s a summary of your career or an overview of a project, are they interested in your content?

But most of all, they are assessing whether you can take the ball and run with it. Clearly, in our accelerated pace, that’s a key component of success. Hiring someone who needs too much time to assess or needs too much direction may not be the best hire.

Presentations are a useful tool in the hiring process, far more so than a random series of 1/1 sessions. Companies get more texture and insight into a candidate. As for candidates, the more vetted you are, the better your odds of success should you land the role.