Is it okay to take notes into an interview?

[Nitgel]

I had an interview today and I waffled on and didn't really answer questions well at all. It was a bit of a disaster but okay as I realised quite soon it wasn't the job for me, but it got me thinking, could I take notes into the interview? just examples to frequently asked questions and scenarios? I have been to many interviews and it never occurred to me that it was acceptable to do this but should I start now? i need to change jobs and don't want to mess up again.

As an interviewee I have done it.
As an interviewer I’m happy for candidates to do so.

It’s not a memory test.
As for thinking on your feet - our interviews usually include a scenario / problem to solve that you only get 15 mins beforehand.

I’ve had people ask if they can write the question down and I said yes, that wasn’t a problem.

Notes re fine and can be helpful but they need to be short and easy for you to refer to.

I interviewed a man years ago who had a ring binder and had scripted answers to hundreds of questions. I asked a question and he would leaf through till he found the closest match then read verbatim what he’d written on the page. It was incredibly strange because it wasn’t natural and none of the answers was a brilliant fit to the question. He had written them like “ oh boy yes, I do have a good example of that, in fact you may be surprised by this scenario. Well one day when I was a customer service agent I had a customer who was mightily upset by something, goodness me, yes she was!…..” and then just read it aloud in a flat monotone.

I think notes for competency type questions are a good idea, in fact I think the competency questions should be given to the interviewees as soon as they confirm attendance.

Notes to answer technical questions , No. And I’d go further , if you have a mix of candidates in that some are in person and some on Teams, the people on Teams need to be in a quiet room with a single door which is in the background and may be asked to show the room on their camera at any time.

I have used notes, but more a list of key things I wanted to make sure I included, so at the end I just glanced through and checked that I’d covered everything- especially the questions I wanted to ask. Asked at the beginning if it was ok.

I've interviewed lots of people and don't have a problem with notes, but in most cases people with notes rely too heavily on them and don't listen to the question. They never seem to make their interviews better.

One thing I do is list my examples in the order of strongest and most relevant to weakest and least relevant, so when I'm in the interview I can try to use the stronger examples as soon as there is an opportunity. It doesn't need to be a detailed description, just a one-line memory jogger.

I also try to have at least one 'all purpose' example that demonstrates multiple competencies and can be framed to answer different questions, even if weakly, because a weak answer is better than nothing.

Interviews are a two way process- bit like a more formal meeting. I have always taken notes, printed out a copy of my cv plus the job description, highlighted areas I had queries, wrote down any pre prepared questions about the role & company itself etc.