How to Hack Your Internship & Low Pos in Office

When you’ve just finished a project:

Let him know you’re thinking about the future. Either ask him, “So, what’s next?” or let him know you’ll be needing some time to get things together before he approaches you with the next project. Something like, “I’m getting ready for the next project. Could we talk about it in an hour/this afternoon/tomorrow/next week after I tie up some loose ends? I’ve been focusing on getting this done but want to make sure I haven’t let anything fall through the cracks.” Both approaches let him know that you’re focused on what is best for the company. The second allows you to look this way but gives you the break you need when the project you’ve been working your butt off to finish is finally done.

When she’s pointing our your little mistakes (Again!):

Remember that this is part of her job, and may be as distasteful to her as it is to you (or may not, depending on the boss). If the criticism is particularly difficult for you to hear, remember to breathe before you say anything. A deep breath or so, when done surrepitiously, can give you the strength to respond calmly. Then, if it’s appropriate, defend yourself. If her criticism is just, nod as she speaks. Tell her, “Thank you for showing me how you would prefer this to be done/how this should be done/how to add a column of numbers/whatever.” If she persists, or is talking to you about something for the Nth time, say, “This seems to be something that you want me to work on/I should work on. Are there any resources available to help me improve?” Whether you need to be on time, make the web page load faster, or something else, it’s hard for a boss to fault an employee who wants to change. If she points you in a direction, follow through!

When you’re swamped and he wants you to do more:

Be honest about what you can do. Most supervisors appreciate hearing when their people are overworked and stressed. If he likes up front, honest people, say, “You know, I’d be happy to take that on, but realistically I won’t be able to get to it until I finish with X, Y, and Z. Will that work for you?” He may take it to someone else, or he may give it to you, but either way he knows what he’s looking at. If he’s going to lay it on you no matter what you say, try, “I’ll take that on. Right now, I’m working on P, D, and Q. Where does this fall in priority relative to those?” With this, he knows where he stands and what you have on your plate, and he can determine when you get to it.

When you know you’ve made a big mistake:

If you can’t fix it in time, be the first to let her know. Swallow the butterflies and make your weak knees walk to her office (or write that email). Most of the time she’s going to find out anyway, so you’re only prolonging the agony and creating a ton of anxiety for yourself if you don’t tell her. Your poise and honesty will also make an impression, even if she’s upset and there are consequences. At the very least, she’ll have a positive sense of your integrity for any future recommendations. At best? You might save your job.

When you’re interviewing for a different job:

In a few companies, this is considered tantamount to treason. If you work for one of them, keep it under the table but don’t lie if you’re asked directly. You might be asked to leave, but they won’t be able to fault your integrity in a recommendation. But if you work for most companies (or, at least, most of the ones I’ve experience/heard about), be honest. Tell her what you’re doing. If you’re valuable where you are, you would be surprised how many times she will do all she can to get you a counter-offer. If she can’t or if she has some other motivation to not re-hire you, she will appreciate not being blind-sided when you turn in your notice.

[via wisebread]

How to Hack Your Presentation Skills

5 Powerful Hacks to Immediately Improve Your Presentations

“It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time.”

- Wayne Burgraff

Note: This post was written by personal development blogger Scott Young. You can check out his website here.

Communication is a skill. That means if you want to blow the interviewer away, knock them out with your slide show or have them cheering after your speech you need to practice. Unfortunately since formal presentations, interviews and speeches are often an infrequent occurrence, you can’t become a master overnight.

But even in my own limited speaking I’ve discovered a couple hacks that can be used to improve your communication right away. They can work immediately to give you an edge in an upcoming event.

Hack #1: Rephrase Questions

When you get asked a question, spend a few seconds to rephrase the question. If you are giving a speech to an audience this has the first benefit of clearly stating the audience members question for everyone to hear. But the hidden benefit of doing this is that it gives you a few extra seconds to prepare a response.

Polished professional speakers and interview veterans can prepare for common questions in advance with a great reply. But if you don’t have the experience or a question throws you off balance, you can maintain composure by rephrasing the question. To everyone it looks as if you immediately knew an eloquent response, but in reality you were given a few seconds to process a response.

Hack #2: Pause, Don’t Trip

When you are nervous, everything get’s magnified. During an interview, speech or presentation forgetting what you intended to say or losing your flow of speech can be terrifying. When this happens remember to stop and take a deep breath. This pause feels incredibly unnatural for the speaker, but it is usually barely noticed by the audience.

Pausing is far better than tripping over your words and making incoherent sentences. Most people end up speaking too fast when they feel nervous, so intentionally slowing down and taking time to pause can prevent tripping over your words which is a lot more noticeable.

Hack #3: Write Out the Tricky Parts

If you have to talk for over five or ten minutes, it can be difficult and incredibly time-consuming to prepare every single word of your speech and memorize it. Many professional speakers instead choose to just write major topic headings so they understand the structure but can deliver the speech naturally.

When you get a chance to practice your presentation, notice points where you trip up. These are usually the same points you will have trouble with when presenting. Write out those few sentences word for word before presenting. The easy parts of your speech will continue to flow and you can be thoroughly prepared to handle the harder parts.

Hack #4: Watch Your Apologies

Never apologize when the goal of that apology is to soften the criticism of the audience. Some speakers apologize for appearing nervous when giving a speech. The truth is most the people in the audience wouldn’t have realized the speaker was nervous until he apologized for it. Apologizing from where you lack confidence only draws more attention to your weaknesses and detracts from your performance.

Apologies for legitimate errors are acceptable, but apologies designed to elicit sympathy won’t help your performance.

Hack #5: Don’t Distract With Powerpoint

Powerpoint presentations are very popular among presenters. But remember that as a speaker you want the focus to be on you. Slides should enhance your presentation, not form a backup. If I can get all the information I need out of your slides, why should I pay attention to you?

If you watch any presentations done by hugely successful speaker and marketer Seth Godin, you quickly notice how many of his slides are nothing more than a single image or word. These slides enhance the message he is trying to convey but they don’t steal the spotlight since they don’t contain enough information to distract.

If you are going to be doing a lot of presentations, interviews or formal communications in your work or life, I’d suggest joining Toastmasters. A non-profit organization dedicated to improving communication skills they can give you practice. But if you are concerned about an approaching presentation you’ll just have to hack it.

About Scott Young:
Scott Young is a productivity and improvement blogger. You can check out his blog here, and you can subscribe to his feed (updated 5-7x per week with posts similar to this one). Some of his most popular articles include Habitual Mastery, Double Your Reading Rate and How to Ace Your Finals Without Studying.

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