The question now is: how much do you remember? Is everything the interviewee told you clear in your mind, or has it become a foggy blur? Do you remember whether she said that her reason for leaving her last job was boredom or are you confusing her with another candidate? What was it he said when you proposed that he move to another branch - did he like it but his wife didn't or was it the other way round?
How good, in fact, is your short-term memory or do you need notes to help you make valid decisions?
NOTE-TAKING
There are two schools of thought about note-taking: those in favor and those against. Whether or not you take notes is your own decision, but to help you make up your mind, here are the main arguments for and against.
Against taking notes
The main objection to note-taking is that it inhibits the essential forward movement of the interview. If, after every question, you have to ask interviewees to speak slowly so that you can note down what they say, you cannot maintain a momentum.
The second objection is that you lose eye contact. Unless you are skilled in the art of note-making, you are bound to have to look down while you are writing, which means that you are not able to give interviewees that necessary reassurance through eye contact that you are listening with interest and understanding to everything you are being told.
Thirdly, your own concentration, let alone the interviewees', can be seriously affected, because while they are talking you are busily engaged in writing, and by the time they have come to the end of their reply, you may well have lost your place in the sequence of questions and do not know what to ask next.
An argument for taking notes, as we shall see, is that without them your memory will be distorted by prejudice. The fact, however, is that even when taking notes you may be imposing a bias by selecting what you think is important and leaving out the rest.
The final argument against taking notes is a practical one; to make any sense of them, you have to transcribe some, if not all, after the interview, and everyone who has done this knows it is an arduous task. Even for a fast typist, it can take up to four hours to transcribe one hour of interviewing.
Transcribing is a special skill that not everyone possesses, and for this reason, if for no other, many managers who do not have the right kind of skills or assistance prefer to rely on their memories.
In favor of taking notes
Short-term memories are notoriously unreliable. A few gifted people have total recall, but most of us forget much of what we see and hear within a very short time. Notes are an invaluable aid, and you are in a far better position to make valid and effective decisions after the interview when they are backed up by your notes than when you are relying solely on memory.
Note-taking is useful not only for selection interviewing but wherever it is important to keep some kind of record that can be referred to at a later stage. In appraisal interviewing, having the record of previous interviews can be helpful in deciding what areas of achievement or non-achievement to concentrate on, and what directions to move in. In problem-solving inter views, having notes of solutions arrived at allows you to judge whether or not they have been carried out.
How to take notes
- Always ask the interviewees' permission to make notes. They will seldom deny it, but it is only polite to do so. It is also your way of reassuring them that you do not intend to invade their privacy. If they seem reluctant, blame your need to do so on your bad memory.
- Keep them short. Take down only the points that you may need to refer to later. Verbatim notes are not necessary and, unless you are skilled at shorthand, you are going to have to make interviewees speak so slowly that it will become more a dictation session than an interview.
- Facts are easier to record than feelings. The latter require more thought and this might well distract you from the task at hand, which is to ask questions and listen to what the interviewees are telling you. You can, however, jot down your own brief comments at the appropriate moments. (But see below.)
- Do not take notes when interviewees are emotionally upset. The knowledge that you are recording their anger or distress will only exacerbate the situation.
- For recruiting, use a standard assessment form wherever possible, as this will facilitate your note-taking and give you a much more accurate record of your impressions than mere random jottings.
- If you can't keep up with the interviewee's replies, put down a few words that you can add to after the interview, but at all costs avoid long pauses.
- After the interview, write up your notes as soon as possible. Add your impressions. Unfortunately, most of us cannot retain these in our minds for long, so the sooner you put them down, the better. If you are conducting a number of interviews in one day, try to ensure that you have sufficient time between each to complete your notes.
Good note-taking will ensure that all your interviews are properly recorded so that effective action or the right decisions can be taken.
Keeping a note of impressions of your interviews so that you can compare them with interviews conducted in, say, three or six months' time will also enable you to see how well your interviewing skills are progressing.
