The arguments against taking notes
First, when you are in conversation with someone, it is polite to pay attention to that person. Taking notes, to these coaches, is impolite.
Second, some job coaches trot out the argument that taking notes makes interviewers defensive, as if you are collecting evidence for a potential lawsuit. The last thing a job candidate wants to do is make the interviewer nervous.
Third, these critics suggest that if a candidate whips out a set of notes during an interview, the recruiter might conclude that the candidate has a problem with short-term memory or with thinking on his or her feet.
“I coach my candidates not to take notes during the interview because if you are taking notes you can’t listen with complete attention,” says Robin Upton, a career coach with Bernard Haldane Associates in Dallas, Texas. One downside, she adds, is that note taking exacerbates the natural human condition of self-deception. “We often hear a question the way we want to hear it instead of the way the interviewer actually asked it,” Upton says. Candidates risk appearing evasive if they don’t respond to the question that’s on the table.
When he is considering applicants for senior management positions, Tom Thrower, general manager of Management Recruiters, a recruiting firm in Oakland, California, prefers candidates who display total professional selfassurance. To Thrower, note taking detracts from an expression of overwhelming organizational confidence. “I’m interested in people with good memories,” he says. “I find it distracting watching applicants take notes.”
The situation, Thrower concedes, is different for people applying for technical positions, such as systems analysts, or financial types such as controllers or budget officers. He expects people applying for these positions to be very detail-oriented-thus it is appropriate and encouraging to see technicians taking notes during the job interview.