In this guide
Use this material to examine your own work. Confirm current requirements, forms and dates with IStructE before applying.
You control the content of your presentation, so prepare it carefully. Skipping it carries an automatic assessment penalty.
Choosing material for the presentation
Use the presentation to introduce work you can explain well and evidence across the ten objectives. A short overview of your current role is useful; avoid spending the time reading your employment history aloud.
Planning ten minutes
Ten minutes is roughly 1,200 spoken words. One possible structure is:
- Your current work and responsibility: 1 minute.
- Two or three projects covering relevant objectives and decisions you made: 6 minutes.
- Wider evidence in sustainability, safety, management and commercial awareness: 1½ minutes.
- CPD and the development you are planning next: ½ minute.
Keep within the allotted time so there is room for questions.
Preparing slides
Ten slides is a maximum. Use fewer where they explain the work clearly. Drawings, photographs and sketches often help more than paragraphs read aloud. Add the relevant portfolio page reference to each slide.
Rehearsing
Practise aloud, timed, with the screen shared on the platform you will use. A first attempt can easily reach fourteen minutes. Revise it until it fits.
Preparing it
Look for
- Choose projects for objective coverage, not for scale
- Name a decision you made on each project, and be ready to be challenged on it
- Cross-reference each slide to a portfolio page
- Rehearse out loud, timed, over the actual video platform
- Have a plan for what to cut if you are running long
Watch for
- Walk through your CV employer by employer
- Fill slides with text you intend to read out
- Use all ten slides because ten are allowed
- Present work where your own contribution is hard to isolate
- Omit the presentation required under Core Objective 2
Questions to ask yourself
- Which objectives does my presentation touch?
If it only covers design and analysis, it is steering the interview towards half the assessment and away from the half candidates usually fail.
- Would a reviewer know what I personally did on each project?
The same trap as the portfolio: a project story is not evidence of your competence.
- Can I deliver it in ten minutes without rushing the last slide?
The Institution says approximately ten minutes, and reviewers have a fixed window for the whole interview.
Official sources
Selected publisher pages were rechecked in September 2026. Other source records were last checked in July 2026. Open the latest official document before relying on a requirement.