Is it okay to refer to notes when answering behavioral questions?
As an interviewer, would you give negative feedback if a candidate referred to his notes to answer behavioral questions during an on site? My memory isnt the best, so I need an aid to answer these questions to my best ability. The Amazon recruiter said this was okay.
It would probably be treated similarly to a request to have notes for the white boarding parts of the interview.
There are levels of notes... If a candidate had a short list of accomplishments on a 3x5 notecard which they glanced at once and then proceeded to describe a project in detail without checking the notes again that wouldn't bother me at all. If they're consulting their notes for technical details of a project then I'm suspicious that they didn't actually build it.
Did the candidate have a disability? If so, you can’t reject them for using aid.
Everyone has some form of memory disability aka goldfish syndrome ;)
Yes but if the disability is medically recognized, the candidate can sue you for discrimination.
The other answers are not necessarily true. At Amazon, where they ask a bunch of behavioral questions, the recruiter had explicitly mentioned that I could keep flash cards to refer to, for the behavioral parts of the interviews. So, I would recommend that you ask your recruiter upfront.
This. An Amazon recruiter told me the same thing and I plan to fully take him up on it! That’s what they get for asking so many behavioral questions
Good luck there.
I had a L7 candidate do that and appeared pretty stupid.
Did you give negative feedback?
Not just because of that. But in combination with other things, yes. It was a external partner facing role, so cannot afford lacking presence.
You can have notes. As other commenters have said, be discrete and don’t make it super obvious that you are referencing your notes. I have interviewed with notes and interviewed other candidates that had notes, and it was never a problem.
How can it not be obvious when you pause right after being asked a question, break eye contact, and look down at your notes? There’s really no natural way.
Butterss, yes they will see that you have a folder and notes. My point is that you should only reference your notes discretely and seldomly. You’re not hiding the fact that you have notes, you’re just referencing them as needed to recall a data point. You shouldn’t reference notes to recall actions you took, that means you don’t know your shit.
I had a notebook full of notes when I interviewed at Netflix. Including personal info I could dig up on my interview panel. I even told one of the interviewers (a director) that I had that info in the notebook on the table. I didn't really reference them during interviews but did reference them between interviews. She responded that she'd do that too. I got the job, it's been over half a decade. She's still here too. So *shrug* I'd say notes are fine.
I also used notes for my Netflix interview and just moved on to my 2nd round.
If this is a phone interview, how the fuck would they know? If this is an onsite, why the fuck would you bring notes to an onsite?
Calm down with the fuck.
Koalas make good managers. Koalas don’t make good sex partners. Keep koalas the fuck inside offices.