Bring notes into an interview?

[Sophie89j]

Posted on here for traffic as interview is this morning.

I always find during an interview environment my mind goes blank and I have literally no capacity to bring myself back to the question as I forget everything I’ve said along with their question!

Is it acceptable to bring notes into an interview?

Obviously I’d ask first before bringing them in but just wanted the general consensus.

Thanks in advance :)

Yes you can take notes in with you. Good luck.

I have pretty much always done this and comments have included that I was welcome to, it's a good idea, this is not a memory test so notes are fine.

Good luck! I've got an interview on Friday and I might do the same. Let us know how you get on!

I previously haven’t, but did a couple of weeks ago and the whole situation was so much better 🥰 didn’t get the job I went for but got offered something much better suited to what I wanted to do anyway 🙂

Unless you have to talk about or present something technical and needs facts / figures to hand I would have said no, but maybe it depends on the job and work environment.

As an interviewer I'd think you look better prepared than someone completely empty-handed.

I have hidden disabilities and have issues with my working memory. I ask for the interview questions to be given on paper as I arrive. Not in advance as such but just so I haven’t got to hold the question as well as my answer in my head. It’s very helpful for me. It also gives me an idea of how switched on they are about providing reasonable adjustments!

It’s a position within a department in the local authority I’ve been trying to get into for years for career development but I always tend to fail the interview as I get mind blanks. I can have 10 questions regarding the role prior to stepping in that room but as soon as it’s question time my mind goes blank and I have to ask something (due to the law of interviews) however I can never remember what I wanted to ask.
I tend to get off to a flying start with them smiling and enthusiastically writing what I say down then towards the end I tend to only be able to think of what I’d already said and forget absolutely everything that’s relevant to the question at hand. I know if I get the job I would excel as I have been doing similar roles for 4 years and I thrive at the type of environment it depends on, it’s just the interview itself.
Thanks for the responses, I’ll make some notes up with questions I currently have then I’ll just ask them when they call me in if it’s okay, if not at least I’ve had the notes in front of me prior to the interview so might be fresh in my head 🤞

I agree it makes you look better prepared.

A word of caution though - make your notes very concise bullet points to trigger your memory rather than paragraphs.

I once interviewed a lady over teams and it was so obvious that she was reading out her answers and statement etc. she barely looked at the framers and you could see her eyes moving as she was reading. It was really off putting and impossible to build any kind of rapport.

I do a lot of recruitment. Lots of people bring notes. I don't think anything of it. I understand that people are often nervous in that situation so I'm happy for them to use whatever strategies help them.

We genuinely just want to find the best candidate for the job. If having notes helps you to demonstrate what you can do, then crack on!

I've spent the past week interviewing- all the better candidates had a notebook with them, which they used for various purposes. Some jotted their own notes before answering some of the more challenging questions, others had a list ready for their own questions at the end. This was for a senior role at 80k plus. I thought it meant they were prepared and serious. Bring your notes and best of luck:)

2 things.
If it is competency based, practice practice practice. Get it so you know your examples like the words of your favourite song.
Secondly. Take a printed copy of your CV with "notes" in pencil. It might only need to be one word per competency once you have practised

I think it depends on what the job will entail.

If it’s a role that will involve lots of meetings and communications with senior people and/or large groups of people, and a need to think on your feet a lot, I’d be wary of a candidate who felt they needed written notes in an interview.

Thanks for the help guys, I didn’t get the job. The person who did did the interviews is calling me for in-depth feedback this week but basically he said the successful candidate scored higher on their pointing system than myself and during a two part question I only answered the the experience not what skills I have.
They we’re absolutely fine with my note pad and suggested writing down the key parts of the questions in future as I had clearly forgotten the skills part of the question when answering.
I did find the notepad more helpful than usual though and the interview itself went well.

Sorry to hear you didn't get the job but great to hear your notes were useful and sounds like you're getting great feedback. It's all excellent practice for when you land that perfect job.

Sorry to hear you didn't get the job. But as pp said it's all good experience. I hope your feedback is useful. Good luck for the next one!

Reasonable adjustments always should be requested in advance of arrival no?

I bring notes & tend to have two copies of the job description one with my notes on anticipated questions and another for questions I want to ask.

I recently completed a B7 NHS interview (and was successful). I had to present a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation on a subject specified prior to interview then answer approx 9/10 questions from the panel. Just like you, if I don't have a bit of a 'script' I panic and go a bit blank. I literally wrote my presentation out word for word, but practiced loads at making eye contact with each panel member so it looked much more natural.

I also did a bit of research on other B7 interviews and the possible questions they may ask, and found a way to incorporate the buzz words into my presentation which really helped to jog my memory/score some points!

Hope it goes well and good luck.

I think @ThisWormHasTurned meant that she asks (in advance) for the questions to be given to her on paper on arrival, rather than that she makes the request itself when she arrives! I think her point was that she wasn't getting them before the actual interview, which would potentially give her an unfair advantage, but that she still needed this small adjustment to help her through the interview itself.

Bad luck, OP. Onwards and upwards...it is all good interview practice and the feedback might prove helpful.

I've taken notes, and I've interviewed people with notes. I want you to demonstrate you can do the job, it's not a memory test.

To a certain extent it depends on the style of interview and the level of job.
Notes are better for a formal interview for lower middle clerical type job rather than a senior job.
No notes and a great interview will come across better, but a good interview with appropriate notes is better than a bad interview.

It's not a memory test, but we have technical questions which are meant to test knowledge. If someone reads from notes too much on those I would think they do not know the subject.

Also I have interviewed people who were very dry, and stylised reading prepared answers to competency questions. Although probably a useful prompt to avoid going blank, once they went off script I was more impressed

Yep I take a leather document holder with my resume, the job description, some dot points about examples of how I meet the criteria to prompt my answers.

I always use live examples so in this context xxx, I did this xxx which used these skills xxx and the result was xxx.

I have several ready relevant to the job at hand

Copy of job description is a good shout! There was a specific question relating to the personal specifications and what I feel I’d benefit from having more experience or training in, I managed to remember a few things but probably nothing compared to what I could have said if the description was in front of me.