Project Clinics
Most students start with the technology. Interviewers want the problem.
Ask a student about the project and the answer is often a list: React, Node, MySQL, a machine learning model. The interviewer is still waiting to hear what it was for. In this session a working professional listens to each team explain the project and says where they lost interest, and why.
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The first answer sets the tone for the rest of the conversation.
When an interviewer says 'tell me about your project', the first minute decides how the next ten go. A clear answer gives them something to ask about. A list of tools gives them nothing, so they pick a tool and test you on it.
Most students have never explained the project to anybody outside their own team and guide. They know it well, which is exactly why it comes out in the wrong order.
This session is a rehearsal with someone who has sat on the other side of the table. It is not a marking exercise. Nobody is graded.
What a good two minutes contains
18 topics across 5 areas. Five parts, in this order. Each team works out its own version.
The ProblemOne or two sentences, in plain words.4
- Who has the problem
- What they do today, and why that is not good enough
- Why you chose this problem
- No technology names yet
If your project came from a list given by the department, say so. Then say what you found interesting in it.
Your ApproachWhat you decided to build, and in what shape.4
- The idea in a sentence
- The main parts of the system, named in everyday words
- The one or two technologies that mattered, and why
- What you left out on purpose
What It Does NowThe honest state of the project.4
- What works end to end
- What works only on the demo data
- What is not finished
- How you checked that it works
What You LearnedThe part interviewers remember.3
- One thing that went wrong, and what you did about it
- One thing you would do differently
- One thing you now understand that you did not before
Ending the AnswerLeaving a door open for the next question.3
- Stop at two minutes, even if there is more
- End on the part you are most ready to discuss
- Do not apologise for the project
Common ways the first answer goes wrong
- Starting with the technology stack
- Reading the abstract from the report
- Saying 'we' for everything, including what you do not know
- Taking five minutes and losing the interviewer
- Describing features instead of the problem
What participants leave with
- A written two-minute version of their own project
- A sense of which words to drop
- A list of the questions that answer is likely to bring
How the session runs
Each team gives its two minutes. The professional says what they understood, what they did not, and what they would have asked next. Teams then rewrite the answer and try it again on each other. The college chooses the date and the teams.
What your students leave with
- A two-minute explanation that starts with the problem
- One sentence that says who the project is for
- A clear line between what you built and what you used
- A way to end the answer so the interviewer can ask the next question
- Practice saying it aloud, not reading it
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Two minutes is enough, if they are the right two minutes.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.