Page 79 - John Kador - 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview-McGraw-Hill (2002)

THE RULES OF THE GAME

ing down only occasionally. You’ll know you’re ready for prime time
when you can record the questions in shorthand and are able to repeat
the questions.

WAIT FOR THE INTERVIEWER TO SPEAK

The most important thing to remember is that you should take notes
only when the interviewer is speaking. You should never take notes or
even refer to them when you are answering questions. Interviewers
want to see how you think on your feet, not how you read notes.
The one exception, as mentioned earlier, is that when the interviewer
asks if you have questions, you can ask permission to refer to your
notes.
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 in-
terviewer 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 com-
pany specializing in community and regional banks. Here he is dis-
cussing 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 out-
side 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 at-
tend 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.”

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