7 Simple Tips to Help Crush Your Academic (Job) Talk on Zoom

I am by no means an expert at doing academic talks, job talks, or talks on Zoom. But, I have presented my academic work online a dozen times since the start of shelter-in-place orders. Some of those talks went well. Some of them did not. I took some notes, and here are some tactics to leverage the Zoom platform so that you can crush your talk:

1. Make yourself prettier with good lighting. The lighting in most of our houses and apartments is not great. To look your best, it helps to have your face lit directly. If you’re lucky enough to have a large window, you can sit facing your windows and light yourself naturally. If you’re like me and don’t have great lighting, buy a ring light. I purchased this one on Amazon for less than $50.
2. Cover up your mess. I live in a very small apartment with my beautiful wife and two small dogs. And we are a mess. We are always packing or unpacking. There are Amazon and H&M packages. There are unfolded workout clothes on the back of my chair. When I’m on Zoom, I sit in front of a blank wall and turn on a virtual background.

Hide your mess!

You can invest in a green screen. Or you can upload any background. I made my own in Powerpoint. Since I’m in the liminal phase between Doctoral Candidate and Assistant Professor, I put up the logos of both schools. Also, I try to use a mostly white background if I’m not in front of a green screen because this way, the Zoom algorithm doesn’t replace my teeth (which match the white of the wall) with the background. I did an entire talk, and only at the end did someone inform me that when I smiled, my teeth were orange.

This is my Zoom Background. Keep it simple.

3. Don’t hide your information. When you present on Zoom it is easy to forget that people will have up your presentation and a video of your face. Design your slides so that people know where to put the video and remind yourself where your information should not go. Here’s an example from my dissertation defense:

Tell your viewers where to place your lovely face.

Notice that my slide titles and graphs do not touch the zoom video box. This will help ensure that people can see your awesome work.

4. Write your script. One of the benefits of Zoom is that no one can see beyond what you show them. If you have two screens, you could use one screen in the presenter view and script each of your slides. You can also write your script and put it in large print behind your camera. This way, you’ll be looking into the camera and delivering your talk without filler words.

5. Cover your blemishes. Pimples look huge on Zoom. I had a huge breakout before a talk (because this is a stressful time y’all). My wife hooked me up with some foundation before I gave a talk. I looked great. I then went down a rabbit hole of make-up tutorials. Here is a good one for men. And here is a good one for the ladies. Also, please take someone else’s advice on make-up. I’m not even a novice.

6. Take control. Academic talks are already unpredictable and stressful. Doing the talks online just adds more stress and uncertainty. To reduce this uncertainty, take control of the talk. Decide how people can ask you questions (or at least ask your host ahead of time how people can ask questions). Make sure you have host privileges to mute heavy breathers or people who come in the room late.

7. Sound better. Your built-in mic on your computer sucks. Use a headset. Airpods work well on the mac. Or you could pick any of these. Or ask a gamer, they’ll have some good recommendations.

If you have any other tips or resources, please leave them in the comments below.