Asking for a copy of questions at job interview

[goldbutton]

I'm currently job searching and have had a few interviews. Some interviewers ask long questions with multiple parts, which I've struggled with. I find myself answering the first part of the question and then having to ask them to repeat the second (or sometimes third!) parts of the question... because I have forgotten what it was! I had an interview recently when I've had to do this repeatedly and it made me feel embarrassed and more nervous.

I have another interview coming up and was thinking of asking for a written copy of the questions to refer to (to be clear, for them to give to me on the day, at the start of the interview). We have already had an informal meeting/tour where I spent 2 hours in a really positive conversation with 2 members of the organisation, one of whom will be interviewing me at the more formal interview.

WIBU to ask this? What would you think of a candidate who asked this? Would you expect to be given a reason, and if so, what is the best thing to say? It's for a small charity and I have not been diagnosed with any neurodiversity or disabilities.

You can certainly try asking but a lot of employers are stuck in their ways.

At my workplace we supply all candidates with all questions in advance.

It's inclusive best practice and it makes for a much higher quality conversation.

Surprising candidates with questions only measures ability to answer questions on the spot and unless that is a requirement of the job it's mad to base who you hire on that ability.

Unless these are skills needed for the job this shouldn't matter and won't get find the best person for the job. Just the best person who can do these things.

I work in the civil service and we were considering putting the interview questions on the screen when interviewing because an interview isn't a memory test! (For a virtual interview).

Some advice an interviewer gave me was that at the beginning of each interview they would ask if they could write down the question.

I also really struggle and I found writing it down helped me.

We provide questions in advance as a reasonable adjustment, but don't do long winded questions, our questions are a single short sentence and follow up questions are just asking for clarification.

Internal candidates will already have been on the competency training and some will have been on the interview training and done interviews using our standard competency questions and should know the business well so have that advantage although we don't often pit internal vs external candidates.

Slightly horrified that anyone is still interviewing like this: I have interviewed hundreds of people and don’t even have a list printed. I go with the flow of the conversation, probe more or less depending on their CV and answer.

I totally agree that cramming multiple points into one question isn't good practice. When I'm interviewing I ask one question at a time, otherwise you're confusing the candidate and/or encouraging them to waffle.

But I totally appreciate that as a candidate you can't exactly say this to the interviewers! So suggest taking notes - you can always ask 'do you mind if I take notes?' at the start of you're worried they'll wonder what you're doing. Don't be afraid to ask them to repeat the question.

I work in arts and heritage too and if a candidate asked I'd give them the questions a day or so in advance. With the understanding that I will also ask relevant follow up questions that aren't scripted. I'm conscious of disabilities and the whole host of social factors that give some people a disadvantage at interview. But also I'm recruiting for a job, not a secret society, so it makes sense to give any candidate the chance to be the best they can be.

I've seen someone on LinkedIn talking about this this week as she has dyslexia - she says that having the questions in advance would make it much easier for her to think through her responses. I assume when she's working, she has workarounds for having to think on her feet but that's not easy in an interview situation.

Giving them out ten minutes before seems like one solution.

But it also assumes that everyone has a set list of questions - that is usually the case in the public sector (though can lead to a very stilted interview) but private sector interviews are usually much more flexible and the conversation develops as you go.

Slightly horrified that anyone is still interviewing like this: I have interviewed hundreds of people and don’t even have a list printed. I go with the flow of the conversation, probe more or less depending on their CV and answer

why? The one time I went to an interview with set questions, it was so stilted and artificial. People are all different, and their experiences are different, so you have to ask different things.

I do this too. I interview people a lot. I always want to get the best out of a candidate, I'm not trying to test them or catch them out. I want to know a genuine answer to a question, not a spontaneous thought under pressure.
Please ask the recruiter if it will help you perform better, they can give you a printer sheet to have on the desk in front of you.
FWIW, interviewers should not ask questions with multiple parts, that's poor practice on their part. It's unnatural to talk about several different things at once.
Good luck!

I know what you mean about the long rambling questions with sub-parts.

I would just try to focus on the first part of the question so you remember this well, then say “ok please bear with me, let me make sure I got all that…” repeat the first part of the question back to them, whilst writing notes down and then ask “sorry what was the next part?” and hopefully they’ll say it more slowly second time and you can jot it down.

If the questions sound unrelated, you could just answer the first part and then ask for the second part etc. But if they’re related you risk starting off with the ‘wrong’ example and going down a rabbit hole.

It would sound odd to ask to see it written down to be honest and they won’t want their questions getting into the public domain.

Not the same but dd1 has APD and so questions in large parts are hard for her to retain. She also had a similar issue with her driving test. She is always open about it and explains that verbal information takes an extra few seconds for her to understand, and if they then talk again while digesting the first question, she can't always hear it. She has passed her driving test and got a job too. She makes notes when in interviews ect.

I think it would be fine to make notes in a notebook

To be fair I wouldn't want to work for a company that didn't think this was fine. Its absolutely standard in a meeting to be able to make notes etc so its not common practice to have to listen to, retain and respond to a huge multi part question in one go without making notes.

Also in standard working life if someone was coming at me with huge multi part questions and thinking I wasn't doing my job properly if I couldn't retain and answer them quickly I would question their communication technique.

I had an interview where they gave me the questions in advance, but only once.

Take in a pen and paper and let them know you'll be making notes because when you get nervous (and who isn't on an interview) you tend to forget the second part of long questions. This is perfectly reasonable.

No one should be asking a 3 part question, that's just poor interview technique.

As an interviewer I have no problems with candidates asking to have some or all of the question repeated. Actually I think it shows that they are confident enough to speak up and want to make sure they understand what they are being asked.
If I had several multi-part questions and the candidate wanted a significant number of them repeated, I would adapt my question asking technique - either to ask the question split up; or perhaps to ask the whole question and then repeat all the individual parts. If you're being asked a long complicated question and the interviewer is not helping you, I think this is very poor.

I give the candidates the questions on a page in front of them. It's not a memory test and I want them to give the best interview they can. Long winded multipart questions are a poor reflection on the interviewer.

I wouldn't mind if you made a note of the question.

Check the rules - I interview a lot and have never had anyone ask for a written copy of the question. Practically we wouldn’t have it to give.

we also don’t allow people to take notes.

it is fine to ask people to repeat th question though.

I've recently had an interview and as one person asked me the question, another would put it in the chat box (this was online so obviously different if face to face). This was really helpful to make sure I answered all parts of the question. I got the job, even when using the written prompts to remind myself of the whole question.

@EnidSpyton in 30+ years of interviewing, I have never been asked for questions in advance, nor been provided with them when being interviewed - and I work as an interim, so change roles frequently.
Also currently suffering with someone (in the role for 20+ years) for whom any ad hoc tasks I explain in great detail, demonstrate to her, provide written instructions and ask if she has understood what I need her to do. With one piece of work I have had to return the blank spreadsheet to her and ask why it doesn't have the data I asked her to copy in to it TWICE.
It is incredibly draining - and I probably could have done this particular task four times over in the time wasted so far.

Can I ask why you don't allow people to take notes?

I interview a lot and I have never even thought to not ask people not to take notes, and wouldn't, how does this even come up?

Also do you take notes as the interviewer? Because I see the interview as a two way process, and if I was being interviewed and they were taking notes of my answers and I was not allowed to take notes of theirs I would find that a tad unfair. I usually take in a written copy of my questions for them when I am being interviewed.

I'm just wondering if you work in a job where there is some security reason for this?

We don’t allow people to bring in paper or refer to notes. If there is a presentation then they are provided a full chart and a pen - but our HR doesn’t allow people to bring in pens, paper or recoding devices such as phones.

I have to say it would put me off!

But also it's poor practice for the interviewer to be asking long, multipart questions. Most people would struggle.

We do of course take notes and the applicant is able to get a copy of our notes after the full process has completed.

we will break question up and repeat as necessary and it would never disadvantage a candidate to ask for a question to be repeated. We will quickly redirect of a candidate seems to have misunderstood the question.

we can make reasonable adjustments if a candidate flags an issue in advance of an interview. However this is usually a sight or hearing issue - I don’t recall anyone ever asking to take notes.

I genuinely would be very put off from interviewing there unless there was a seriously good reason.

When I attend an interview I am interviewing the company and my potential new manager as much as they are interviewing me. I don't ask questions for the sake of asking them, I ask questions because I genuinely want to know the answers, and I want to be able to make notes to refer back to so that if I get offered the job I can recap the discussions and be completely convinced that it is the right fit for me as well as them.

Such a one sided process would make me concerned that the company didn't treat its employees well, see them as people and was too rigid and bound up in procedures without questioning them.

Unless, as I said there was a good reason which was fully explained to me. But I have literally never had an interview arranged where HR have felt the need to tell me in advance I wouldn't be allowed to bring a pen and paper so I can only assume this is a very industry specific thing or a company like Facebook etc where there is strong competition for the jobs that interview questions have been leaked online previously.

When I interview people I always make a point of stating at the beginning that it is fine to ask me to repeat a question or part of a question as many times as they need.

I can't see why doing this would put an employer - in all jobs I have ever had the norm has been to write things down / look things up rather than remember long convoluted sentences.

But also it's poor practice for the interviewer to be asking long, multipart questions

And this with bells on - interview questions should be short, to the point and specific.

I think you have had some poor interviewers to be honest.

When I interview and have multi-part questions, I see it as as much my job to make sure you've covered all the points as mine.

If I'm sitting in on an i/view someone else has prepared, I've chopped a question in two more than once; so the second part is the follow-up. Before I worked out this was OK, I've said 'thanks for that, just as a reminder the second part of the question was x, could you expand on that a little bit?' I wouldn't leave anyone floundering or a competency blank - it's my job to get the best out of you.

It's generally considered poor practice to ask different questions to different candidates. Everyone should be asked the same questions in order to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to demonstrate their suitability for the job.

Standard questions still allow plenty of scope for candidates to talk about their own relevant skills and experience, and of course, it's fine to throw in additional questions in order to clarify/seek more detail etc.

I'm surprised that anyone is still doing the "go with the flow" style of interview. I thought that went out years ago!