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.

And yes,I agree that long, rambling, multipart questions are also poor practice.

Tbh its worse that you take notes and the candidate can't. It sounds like your HR doesn't accept that interviewing is a two way process and you need to sell the company to the candidate as much as the candidate needs to sell themselves to the company.

In many industries its an employees market out there. I was offered 5 jobs when I was last looking for work. I have got to the point where I wont even fill in an application form, if they wont accept a CV as an application I move on. Admittedly some industries aren't like that and I am lucky in that respect but still. I've been working for 20 years now, if I can't be trusted to bring a pen and paper into an interview, or a list of questions to ask then that speaks to a culture of not trusting employees and thats not somewhere I want to work. We are all adults after all.

You seem weirdly angry about this😊. I suppose we all decide where we work - no one is forcing you!

Not angry at all, or acting like you are forcing me to do anything, I just thought we were having a random conversation about interview practice, but whatever, what a weird conclusion to jump to 🙄

But OP said about being given them at the start of the interview, so surely you could collect them at the end- no different to someone recalling the questions and adding them to these sites. In fact (no offense OP) someone who has trouble retaining information is less likely to do this.

OP you can request stuff like this as a reasonable adjustment but they don't have to approve it if they don't feel it's proportionate. Don't ever feel afraid to ask for a moment to process the question or ask for it/parts of it to be repeated.

Notes are taken by interviewers because most HR departments require them in case someone challenges a decision or anyone wants feedback on their performance. Rightly or wrongly I suspect if it wasn't needed for an audit trail most wouldn't need notes and would be able to recall the best candidate fairly easily.

Notes are taken by interviewers because most HR departments require them in case someone challenges a decision or anyone wants feedback on their performance. Rightly or wrongly I suspect if it wasn't needed for an audit trail most wouldn't need notes and would be able to recall the best candidate fairly easily.

I have used notes in cases where there are two excellent candidates and the decision has come down to scoring. Usually though you know who want to hire.

They are useful for giving feedback though which I always offer to unsuccessful candidates.

I've just interviewed for a very senior NHS manager and the candidate asked if she could write down the question as it was being asked. I admit, I've been interviewing candidates in the NHS for 16 years and no one has ever asked to do this, but the panel were totally fine with it. She absolutely aced the interview. By reading her notes she could easily use the STAR model as she was able to think about the scenarios rather than trying to remember the questions. She is now a key member of my management team.

Assuming you don't have any specific difficulties that make it hard for you to retain information...

I think taking in paper and pen and jotting key words down may be ok if it makes you feel more at ease and calm, might even be interpreted as you showing attention to detail.

However I'd still be hesitant to do this if I'm honest as they are likely deliberately including several elements per question to clock who is able to easily retain and juggle information. Better approach is to develop some strategies to help you internally regulate yourself enough to be able to listen and take in the whole question, then to clock when answering if you've covered all parts. Taking a big slow breath before starting to answer a question helps me as it literally gives me the breathing space to think before I speak (otherwise I waffle through nerves!)

And it really is ok to ask them to repeat the question or to ask at the end are there any answers you've given that they'd like you to further embellish on? Good luck 😊

I think the retaining information thing is a bit of red herring. In a real life work situation I would expect someone to take notes if I was giving them a lot of information that I wanted them to remember. In fact I would probably think poorly of them if they didn't.

I guess it might be job dependent but I can't think of a work situation where I have ever been discouraged from taking notes so doing so in an interview shouldn't be an issue.

Why would you refuse to allow people to take notes? So if someone asks the salary range, you won't let them write it down? Please tell us the company name, so we know to avoid it.

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

I assume you work in the public sector? I know from being a school governor that you have to follow a set format, but it's not the case in the private sector. And in any event I don't think being asked the same questions does give everyone the same chance because the same questions are not relevant for everyone.

I've had two public sector interviews - one where they roughly followed a list, but there was plenty of flexibility and two-way discussion. The other, as I mentioned above, was awful. Lots of unrelated questions and it was really artificial, no flow and the opposite of letting me "sell" myself. Funnily enough I didn't proceed. I got the job in the first scenario!

It sounds like your HR doesn't accept that interviewing is a two way process and you need to sell the company to the candidate as much as the candidate needs to sell themselves to the company

So much this. Hopefully the current job market will make companies change their practices.

No, not public sector actually. Standardised questions are just the norm these days.

Asking standardised questions still allows for plenty of flexibility so that candidates can sell themselves. It just helps to ensure that the process is fair and consistent for everyone. HR teams tend to like it also because it helps to reduce the likelihood of stupid interviewers from asking questions that might be construed as discriminatory and protects them against potential claims from unsuccessful candidates. I appreciate that there will be some employers - especially smaller ones - who aren't really up to date with what's considered best practice, and then of course, there will be some who just choose to ignore it.

I’m Civil Service, I am more than happy to share questions.

An interview shouldn’t be a memory test, it should be a conversations where both parties find out about each other. I want people to be their best self, and who’s at thier best when they are stressed?

Also “classic” interviews suite extrovert personality types, and who wants an office full of them (I speak as an extrovert).

Also, I’ll never ask you a question that starts with “tell me about a time when”.. I’m more interest in what you’ll do in the job I’m offering, and what you may have learned to get you there.

I also have no issues with people using notes…

Do u have adhd? Sounds familiar!!

If they ask if u have any special requirements, asking for a written copy of the questions at the time of the interview to reference as you speak is not an issue in my eyes.

I'm a very visual person so this would be a massive help and not much of an adjustment for the interviewer

I wouldn't hand out the questions , however I would be happy to repeat questions ... we all know people are nervous so I don't worry about nerve , you can normally get a gist of people under the nerves anyway

I always write the question down to make sure that I answer it

I've interviewed a couple of times recently where this has been a request (all people in their 20s) and we have offered them. People have also requested time to write notes to help them answer the question.

It has made me wonder how those people will manage 'on the spot' as the job requires a lot of that.

It draws out the process and can be quite frustrating in the absence of disability/ ND.

You can write the questions down when they ask them, I’ve had people I’ve interviewed do that.

@ExtraOnion

Also “classic” interviews suite extrovert personality types, and who wants an office full of them (I speak as an extrovert).

what generalised non-sense is this?

I’ve asked for interviewers to repeat parts of the question before, it’s never been an issue. Sometimes I do it for thinking time tbh!

I do think it depends I the role your are interviewing for.

I would be concerned about people who can’t listen to a question and answer it. But I am Interviewing people who I would expect to be able to stand infront of 200 plus proper, driver a presentation and field questions.

If they can’t cope with questions form four people on a panel it is unlikely they are up to the job I want them to do.

the interviewing process is two way -
in my view if someone panics
at the though of being asked questions then they don’t have the skill set required for the role I am looking for. There will be other jobs out there that don’t require this skill set / but I think it’s okay to say we need a certain type of skills.

this is again where the pandering has got out of hand. If someone can’t cope with being put on spot then there are specific roles that simply will be a poor fit. Why do we need to pretend that isnt the case?

Notes are taken by interviewers because most HR departments require them in case someone challenges a decision or anyone wants feedback on their performance. Rightly or wrongly I suspect if it wasn't needed for an audit trail most wouldn't need notes and would be able to recall the best candidate fairly easily.

We recently interviewed a couple of candidates and coming out of the interview one seemed better because they were more relaxed and chatty but reviewing my notes (I take a lot of notes!) the other actually gave better answers to the questions so I ended up scoring them higher. I think notes are really useful because as the PP said a relaxed extrovert may seem more personable in the interview and create an initial better impression. It also showed the strength of using the same questions, comparing answers to the same question made it much easier to compare my two candidates. Old fashioned free-flowing interviews mean you tend to recruit in your own likeness rather than recruiting the best candidate because you'll continually be reinforcing your impressions rather than asking neutral questions that give everyone a fair chance. Although we interview worldwide and I've found candidates from certain countries aren't so familiar with STAR answers so they need more follow up questions.

Totally agree with this and now often have an initial impression chat with my fellow interviewer then a secondary review of all candidates based on notes