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Research the company before and have the questions in your head. Knowing about the company impresses the interviewer. Do not have a list of question to read from. Do not read or take notes. Take the resume along however do not read it in front of the interviewer. They like someone who can think of their feet.
That's an odd opinion. Don't take notes?
How many interviewers themselves don't read or take notes?
It's not a challenge to test your memory skills. The objective is to get enough information to have a firm understanding of the job and also impart enough information so they can evaluate whether you are a good fit for the position.
Most interviews (from my experience) run at least an hour and are at a place one has never worked before or in a position one hasn't worked in before, so why would you expect to retain an hour's worth of info without taking notes? You wouldn't go to an hour long class and not take notes if what they were saying is important to you.
As a hiring manager I would give you extra points for having a list of questions; even if you had to quickly review the list with me and say something like "Oh good you hit on the Quality Management question I had (or whatever).
Not only would it make me smile but it would show me how you would hopefully prepare for a meeting or project at work.
ALSO would give me the chance to see how you assimilate "new" information and can evaluate if the new information actually answered your question or not.
All work is part of a process and a PROCESS does not mean winging it or doing things strictly by memory. I can't tell you HOW MANY TIMES an RN at my client's Assisted Living Facility gave me "answers" that were WRONG based on perceived "memory" instead of looking at the chart. I would NEVER HIRE HER knowing this unless I was desperate and prior to knowing it I thought she was really on the ball but this lazy HABIT has put my client in jeopardy more times than I can count.
Finding a job is work.
Just don't make the fatal error of asking obvious questions that were already obviously answered. Unless you acknowledge it's a follow up question.
It's also a good way to MAYBE uncover traits of the HIRING manager and if they have an attitude problem, or weird personality, or if they ENJOY talking about the company or job or something. Like being enthusiastic or condescending or slightly eye-rolling etc.
Bring your resumes in a leather portfolio, do not bring a list. It comes off as cheesy IMO. You should ask questions that pertain to what you learned about the job when you were there, many of those questions you write out will most likely be answered when it comes time to ask questions, you do not want to come off as if you did not pay attention or were lazy with it. I like to have the day evolve to the questions portion, and make my questions based off of the daily events. If they showed you the work environment ask in-depth questions about what they showed you. If they showed you some projects, ask project specifics, such as what percentage of X projects they do a year, what your role on them will be and what training they have available to become a greater team player, etc. Reading from a note card is just...well it's cheesy. Show a little character and thought.
I disagree completely. Having a list shows interest and preparation.
Just don't ask stupid questions that have nothing to with the job ("is there a company softball game?").
I don't get the comments about "when it gets to the question portion." Only if you finish with HR should there be a defined time for questions. If the interviewer talks for a long time, they aren't interviewing you. A skilled interviewer will MAKE you talk by asking you questions regularly. (lots of interviewers though are terrible - they just chat with you).
By all means bring a list. A candidate who is careful to make sure all of his questions are answered in the interview is hopefully a candidate who will show the same attention to detail in his work.
I think its totally OK to have a prepared list of questions. It shows that you spent some time preparing and hence really do care about the position. All things being equal, I'd hire the person who had the list over someone who didn't.
Not a problem at all. Just be mindful of the fact that your questions communicate a lot about you as a candidate. Poorly thought out questions can make a candidate seem like they haven't researched the organization or they are greedy, difficult, etc.
Go for it. I honestly can't see how that would be interpreted negatively, unless you had copies of it and distributed the questions to each person who interviewed you, asking for them to write their answers in the spaces below. That might be a bit much.
In my interview next week, I plan to bring copies of my resume, placed inside a flat leather-ish looking folder of some sort.
Towards the end of the interview when it's my turn to ask questions, is it appropriate to open up my folder and ask/read them questions I have prepared in advance? I have a few and since some will be answered during the interview, it'll be easier for me to look through my list that wrote down.
Is this inappropriate or does it look unprofessional in any way?
Will they have paperwork? You bet.
Have a pad that is attached to the leather binder. Ask your questions and put a plus or minus after the question. It will be less intrusive to the flow of the interview. Pay close attention to questions that go unanswered. That means you won't like the answer.
Buy this month's issue of Kiplingers. There is an excellent article about signing away your rights to use the knowledge that you've aquired on the job. And watch out for no compete clauses in the job application.
If they make you an offer ask for the company handbook before you accept their offer. Sometimes no compete clauses are in there.
If you make the mistake of signing a non compete clause, find out how vigorously they litigate a violation.
Someone is nervous enough to make a list, fine. Now it's their turn to ask questions, some of which were answered during the interview, so now this person needs to pullout the list, and go through it and mentally check off the ones they already answered and at the same time fish out the ones they did not answer. It eats up time and makes you look flustered, appearing more nervous to the interviewer.
My advice, practice these questions in a mock interview if you are that nervous. Proceed without a list. Progress yourself and learn interviewing skills, don't always rely on cheat sheets. Good luck OP.
Back in college, one professor was impressed that I prepared a list of question on our projects. He said it showed organization. I suppose he may have had students who would fumble trying to remember what all of their questions were. I'd be more concerned if as an interviewee, you couldn't remember all of your questions, took more time, and looked more ridiculous trying to recall them. There are still a lot of things going on in interviews, so I wouldn't mind having Qs to ask them one less thing to worry about.
Omitting the ones you've already asked... well, time to put some short term memory to use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John-UK
Research the company before and have the questions in your head. Knowing about the company impresses the interviewer. Do not have a list of question to read from. Do not read or take notes. Take the resume along however do not read it in front of the interviewer. They like someone who can think of their feet.
Another thing that didn't occur to me is to ask the interviewer if you can take notes, as a courtesy. They shouldn't mind in most cases. I do wonder about the odd situation if the interviewer didn't want you taking notes, but he can.
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