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GuideEducation3 min read

Your project report is not your project

The report is written for your department. An interviewer wants the project explained in your own words. How to turn one into the other.

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Two adults use a practical guide, checklist cards and a recorded workshop to support their learning

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Overview

Most final-year projects end with a long report: abstract, literature survey, design, results, conclusion. It was written to satisfy the department, and it did that job.

In an interview the report is little use. Nobody reads it in the room, and reciting it sounds like reciting. This guide is about turning the report into something you can say.

At a glance

Key takeaways

  • The report answers the examiner; the interview answers a curious stranger
  • Pull out the one problem, your approach and what happened
  • Drop the literature survey and most of the formal language
  • Keep the numbers you can explain and leave out the ones you cannot
  • Reread your report for claims you could not defend aloud
  • Practise the spoken version, not the written one

Read the article

Start by noticing how different the two audiences are. An examiner has your report in front of them and the time to read it. An interviewer has a few minutes, often no copy of the report, and wants to find out how you think. The report is organised by what the department requires. The interview answer needs to be organised by what makes sense to someone hearing about the project for the first time.

So begin by pulling out three things from the report: the problem, what you did about it, and what happened. Write each in plain words, as if telling a friend from another branch. If a sentence from the abstract does not make sense out loud, the interviewer will not follow it either. 'A novel framework for optimising resource allocation' becomes 'a way to decide which classroom is free at which hour, so timetable clashes drop.'

Leave out most of what makes a report a report. The literature survey, the list of references, the formal chapter structure and the long background on theory rarely belong in a two-minute answer. You may mention one earlier piece of work if it shaped your approach, but only if you understand it.

Be careful with numbers. A report often includes accuracy figures, test results and comparisons that were produced, copied or tidied up in the last week. Keep the ones you can explain: how they were measured, on what data, and what they leave out. If you cannot say how a figure was obtained, do not quote it in an interview. A single honest number you understand is better than five impressive ones you do not.

Reread your own report as an interviewer would, looking for claims you could not defend. 'The system is highly scalable' invites 'how many users did you test with?' If the honest answer is five, say five. Mark every such sentence and prepare a plain answer.

Finally, practise the spoken version. Read the problem, approach and result aloud to someone outside your team. If they ask what a word means, replace it. If they lose interest, shorten it. You can take the report to the interview as a printed copy if you like, but the answer should stand without it.

TopicsCommunicationInterviews

Come to the session it came from

Reading it is useful. Being in the room and asking your own question is better.