Hi there,
Congrats on getting the offer!
1.I expect there will be a lot of templated provided by the firm to be used (including think cell). So I was wondering if having advance ppt skills such as building shapes, formating, etc will really be needed ?
Yes they have templates (far more than think cell…they also have a ton of macros/shortcuts).
The skills needed are how to make things look good and how to tell stories on a slide.
2. I am registered to two courses. Based on the content, which one is most crucial to invest time on ?
CEO-level slides (more about slide communication): https://www.udemy.com/course/ceo-level-presentation-course/
3. What are the features in PPT that a consultant should master ?
Wireframing, storyboarding, telling a cohesive narrative, frameworking, conciseness/preciseness in wording.
4.I ama also planning to read say with chart and look several examples of MBB slide. Any way to optimize these two without consuming too much time ?
I don't understand this question.
5.Any other general tips on building ppt skills ?
Here are some PowerPoint Tips:
I recommend that you start to approach it this way: boil down good vs bad design into principles, determine the key things to check in a slide, identify what small tweak changes a slide from looking average to awesome.
For example:
- Always align items on your slide
- Look to keep even spacing and sizing between multiple items (i.e. if I have 4 icons down the left column, I make them the exact same size, and set them all to be equidistant from each other)
- Use colors to highlight focus areas and draw the eye - but don't overuse colors! (Maybe my first column will be dark blue with white text, if it's asking the key questions we have. Or maybe if I have a "summary" or 3 takeaways on a slide I'll bold + add color to the specific words/phreases that each takeaway is really addressing)
- Identify what you are trying to achieve from the slide and then pick your template - there are probably 5 template I cycle through based on what I need. Coloring + content make them look different from each other, but boiled down, they're all quite simple (i.e. a table slide, a sequence slide, a 3 key takeaways slide, etc. etc.)
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/powerpoint-skills-4072
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/why-are-powerpoint-presentations-made-by-consultants-considered-good-when-most-pages-are-so-crowded-8494
(edited)