the two foundations of any engineering bussiness. excel & powerpoint
its not a difficult program to use tbh, just have a play about in it.
transitions:
For transitions avoid using a variety, it makes it look like you hit the random transition button. keep the presentation simple and clean so using the fade transition is best tbh. making a flying text powerpoint just makes you look like a nob.
Custom animation
Staging when text or any object appears in a slide can be done by creating a custom animation. this works well if you know what you are saying and the text comes up on the slide in sync with your rehearsed words. playing with the timing works well for this and gives a very professional appearance. right click the text or object, it should be under that.
design
If you are making something "pretty" remember that you can kind of layer objects using the "send backward" etc commands on the right click.
When inserting images with a solid colour background there is a button on the picture toolbar for making one colour transparent, makes a nice finish on the object as it doesnt look like a white square.
background & fill effect
instead of filling with a single colour you can create a fade from one to the other, a nice clean use of this is fading from a light colour to white in the background, you can choose which way this fades matching it to the layout of your presentation. you'll find this option usually under the colour option for the fill of a shape or background.
Standard templates
i suppose this is personal opinion but when i see someone's used one of these i let out a sigh, most of them look shart and just look like you haven't tried.
thats some stuff off the top of my head