<p>@cosmicfish your joking @boneh3ad aww thanks ;D lol </p>
<p>@Shipsarecool, I honestly have no idea why you think I am joking. Presenting and speaking in front of groups is a regular part of being an engineer, especially if you want your career to go anywhere!</p>
<p>But some large companies will train you. There are tons of classes for employees to help improve the work force. Don’t worry, land a job first.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish umm, it was sarcasm, I know your not joking I was saying that like “oh no D;” lol cause i don;t like speaking in front of crowds 
</p>
<p>Yes, engineers need communication skills … working in groups, writing emails, preparing report / presentations, presenting at meetings. But that is true for many fields today. </p>
<p>Better prepare yourself for public speaking. Any future internship surely will have a presentation in front of all the management and other interns. You can do the best work in the world during the summer, but if your presentation is bad, you will not get the job. I’ve seen it happen and I’ve been on the receiving end of a job offer due to a presentation. Start practicing now for public speaking. </p>
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Yeah, that doesn’t come across so well, especially on a site like this. Please brush up those communication skills!</p>
<p>Maybe a raw new hire won’t be speaking to a group, but a junior engineer certainly will. It might be a small group but once you are in front of a group of people it doesn’t matter that much the size. It is still you up front speaking. </p>
<p>I used to be very scared about speaking in front of an audience, but I learned to do it. There are organizations that help you develop those skills. One I know about (but have never joined) is Toastmasters. I’m sure there are many others. </p>
<p>Some of the things that I can think of off the top of my head to be a better speaker:</p>
<ol>
<li>Know your material. Nothing makes you more nervous than not being prepared.</li>
<li>Practice your presentation several times. At least once in front of one person who can critique it is useful.</li>
<li>Know your material
4 Anticipate what the questions will be and have thought thru what your answers are. If you don’t know, SAY SO. Better not to know than give a wrong answer. Take an action to get back to the person with an answer.</li>
<li>Know your material</li>
<li>Take everything out of your pockets. Amazing the number of speakers that started to get frazzled and then started playing with their keys (or whatever). They totally distracted themselves and they lost the audience quickly.</li>
<li>Know your material</li>
<li>Pick a person in the audience (assuming that you have a larger audience) and speak just to them. After a minute find another person and now speak to them (not literally but with your focus). In that way you kind of feel that it is just you and that one other person. Constantly gazing across the audience can become overwhelming.</li>
<li>Know your material
10.Remember, you are in charge of your presentation. Stay on course. Act confident (even while you are freaking out inside) </li>
<li>Oh, and did I say: KNOW YOUR MATERIAL.</li>
</ol>
<p>On item 4 about the questions. You want to try and have a complete presentation with all the answers already in the presentation. But, sometimes to do so will take much more time than you are allotted and so some minor material will be left out (don’t leave out the big stuff). Usually it is material that will interest only a few people in the audience and is best discussed with just those few in a side meeting. You have to decide whether to ask for more time or leave the material out and have that side meeting. I like the side meeting approach and will often suggest it instead of letting the presentation get high jacked on a tangent. That tangent can also send much of your audience to sleep and it won’t go well after that.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish It’s especially hard to interpret when all posts are written in text speak.</p>
<p>It’s not that I can’t speak in public, I just ALWAYS blank out because of my nervousness in front of everybody, like I prepare what I want to say but then when I’m front of everyone I forget, and just start giggling instead (I always giggle when I’m nervous, I’m wierd I know :/), it’s a really bad force of habit, I really hope I get better at it, and sometimes my voice tends to get low that nobody can hear, but I’m sure microphones will help fix that issue ? Lol</p>