I had an interesting experience that I thought I would share with you today.

My colleague and I were asked to present at a school district today on technology industry in the Pittsburgh region with the intent of helping this district shape their curriculum to industry needs.

It was announced to us that we would “brainstorm” with a few teachers from the district on what they might be able to do to better prepare their students for the real world. However, as we arrived to the school we soon found out that our understanding of “brainstorming” and their understanding of “brainstorming” was quite different. As we walked into the classroom where 25 teachers were waiting, the first question our host asked us was weather or not we needed a projector for our presentation. I will have to say that I don’t get all that nervous about presenting to groups any more, but when you are asked to begin presenting in five minutes with nothing to say, that makes me a little nervous.

My colleague began the presentation talking about some of our initiatives and our organizations but soon ran out of things to say. We simply were not ready for something like this. As he began to lose his train of thought he turned to me for help. Thankfully just as he was losing is place I remembered that I had a presentation that was perfect for what we were talking about. He turned it over to me hoping that I could come up with something to say. Thankfully I did. I was able to locate the presentation quickly and then dive into a discussion that lasted nearly two hours. We were able to tag team our presentation and turn it into something very beneficial to this district. In fact we received an email later in the day thanking us for what a great job we did.

Here is my point. Are you ready for the unexpected in your job? Are you ready for the unexpected in your next job interview? You never know what someone might through your way. Or in our case you never know when you will have to present on a topic at a moments notice. Thankfully my colleague and I talk about this information all the time, we just didn’t have it readily available at the beginning of our presentation. It all worked out in the end because we were able to think on our feet and was ready in season and out.