The Effective Hiring Manager

18How to Take Notes

Taking notes is something people seem to find difficult at the best of times. We frequently are asked how to arrange notes in a notebook, what symbols or shortcuts we use, and how we find things again.

When it comes to interviewing, our notes become even more important. It’s not because they’re a legal document, though some people will tell you to be careful what you write because they are. It’s because you need to be able to make a decision about whether to hire based on evidence. The only way to remember what you heard and what conclusions you drew is to have good notes.

What to write and where?

Pre-Print the Questions on Your Answer Sheet

If you use our Interview Creation Tool (see the Appendix), you’ll have the ideal output: a pre-printed sheet with each of the interview questions, what to look for, and space to record your answers.

If your HR department uses competencies or standardized questions, they may provide you with a similar sheet. If no one has given you a set of instructions, and you don’t want to license our ICT, you’ll have to create your own sheet.

Why not just take notes on the next blank page in your notebook? You want to ask the same question in the same way every time. That’s the only way you can be sure that you’re comparing like with like when you review the answers from different candidates. If you ask one candidate “Can you tell me about a time when you influenced the direction of a project?” and another “How have you influenced ...