Wait for the interviewer to speak
Always be prepared with at least four questions created specifically for each interview. These questions should be carefully crafted to reflect the basic research you have done on the company combined with the strongest aspects of your experience and qualifications. Then, if the interviewer surprises you with “Do you have any questions at this point?” you will be ready to go without fumbling.
Finally, if you are still not sure whether going into an interview with a notebook is an advantage or not, consider this comment from John Hawke, CEO of Howe Barnes Investments, a Chicago brokerage company specializing in community and regional banks. Here he is discussing motivation: “When you want people to move to the next level of performance, go to them with a notebook in hand. Get them to step outside themselves.”
There’s that comment: “Go to them with a notebook in hand.” If you go with empty hands, it indicates that you don’t intend to hear anything worth saving, that you’ve gone into the meeting with your mind made up, rather than to work together to arrive at a decision. Maybe I’m making too much of it, but I believe that going into any group process with a notebook in hand signals that you respect the contributions of the other members in the process and are ready to attend to what they say with your whole being. “Empty hands, closed minds,” visualizes Dale Dauten, a syndicated business columnist based in Phoenix, Arizona, who writes under the title “Corporate Curmudgeon.”