An Investigation of Interviewer Note Taking in the Field

Although a key component of a structured interview is note taking, relatively few studies have investigated the effects of note taking. To address this lack of research, we conducted a study that examined the effects of note taking in a work setting. As predicted, we found that the total number of notes taken by interviewers and the level of detail of these notes were positively related to the ratings these interviewers gave to job applicants, that interviewer ratings of applicants who were hired were predictive of their job performance ratings, and that interviewer ratings mediated the relationships between note taking and performance ratings (i.e., the number of notes and their level of detail did not have a direct effect on performance ratings). We also showed that, if uncontrolled, interviewer nesting can result in misleading conclusions about the value of taking detailed notes.