Behavior During Interview Forum

[Anonymous User]

What do you guys do during the interview besides sit and talk? Sit with hands folded? Take notes in the padfolio? Something else?

[swc65]

I always end playing with my tie. or I gesticulate wildly, can't help it. Just don't check your phone (ive seen it happen) or stare so hard that you look like a cereal killer (Imma murder me some honeycomb).

edit: I have never taken notes. That's for class, interviews are usually for talking/carrying on a conversation. I can't imagine waiting for someone to finish scribbling and then responding 12 seconds later. Seems like it would get in the way of the convo.

[monsterman]

yeah i would not take notes...

[Jdempewo]

I always take a padfolio but I would never take notes unless they verbally give me there contact information. but even then its just weird. With behavior, I try to come across as casual, but not slouched or overly causal. just relaxed. I am a hand talker so I use a lot of gestures, so I tone it back a bit to not overdo it. I really don't think there is any secret formula, just don't look overly nervous or overly comfortable.

[071816]

taking notes during an interview would be a dead giveaway that you're autistic

[Traynor Brah]

Don't take notes. But it's OK to look at your notes if you can be casual about it.

Because I'm awkward at being a real person, I decided to emulate (PBS) Charlie Rose in most of my interviews. Worked well.

[Companion Cube]

One leg crossed (man style) or both feet on the floor?

[grand inquisitor]

One leg crossed (man style) or both feet on the floor?

full lotus

[Anonymous User]

Don't take notes. But it's OK to look at your notes if you can be casual about it.

Because I'm awkward at being a real person, I decided to emulate (PBS) Charlie Rose in most of my interviews. Worked well.

it's not okay at all to look at your notes

[071816]

Don't take notes. But it's OK to look at your notes if you can be casual about it.

Because I'm awkward at being a real person, I decided to emulate (PBS) Charlie Rose in most of my interviews. Worked well.

what would be the point of looking at notes? what would the notes even say? seems really awkward.

[rpupkin]

Don't take notes. But it's OK to look at your notes if you can be casual about it.

Because I'm awkward at being a real person, I decided to emulate (PBS) Charlie Rose in most of my interviews. Worked well.

it's not okay at all to look at your notes

Agreed.

[Companion Cube]

One leg crossed (man style) or both feet on the floor?

full lotus

Wait for partner to sit then stay standing for entire interview to assert dominance

[Desert Fox]

[Traynor Brah]

It is ok to look at your notes if you have specific, interesting questions that you don't want to forget. I did in essentially every interview and still crushed my cycle. You'd look like an idiot, of course, if you had to look down and read "what is the firm culture like?"

[071816]

I once walked into an interview and threw my jacket on the chair for no reason. Not sure why I didt hat.

how did interviewer react?

[rpupkin]

It is ok to look at your notes if you have specific, interesting questions that you don't want to forget. I did in essentially every interview and still crushed my cycle. You'd look like an idiot, of course, if you had to look down and read "what is the firm culture like?"

Look, I've seen interviewees use notes in a natural way. It happens. But for every interviewee who can pull it off, there are eight who come off as impersonal and nervous. Reading during an interview is not a good look.

So, yeah, I can believe you did well using notes. But I stand by the default advice not to use notes during an interview.

[runinthefront]

You typically don't want to break eye contact during an interview, which is why referring to your notes can sometimes be a bad idea. I brought a padfolio to each interview, but that was just because I would reference i t discreetly while walking to the next interviewer's office.

It's really not a big deal though if you glance down at your notes a few times, as long as it's done naturally. I think others in this thread are generally right--it can be okay but most of the time you just give off the vibe that you're nervous (more because you're "breaking eye contact")

[n1o2c3a4c5h6e7t]

One leg crossed (man style) or both feet on the floor?

I had more success with a leg-crossed, "I'll have fun with this" interviewing style. Don't take or read from notes--that's weird. I actually read from notes in my first OCI interview because I thought I had some really great questions, and the interviewers told me to consider other employers at the end of it lol.

[Anonymous User]

I took notes during some callback interviews and things turned out just fine for me. If I met with an alum of my school and s/he started to recommend courses to take or restaurants to eat at, I would break open the padfolio. I think it shows genuine interest in what s/he is saying.

[rpupkin]

I took notes during some callback interviews and things turned out just fine for me. If I met with an alum of my school and s/he started to recommend courses to take or restaurants to eat at, I would break open the padfolio. I think it shows genuine interest in what s/he is saying.

I'm sorry for picking on you anon, but you're an example of why a "no taking notes" rule is needed. If I suggest that you take admin law, and then you write down "take admin law" on your notepad, you're going to seem pretty damn weird.

By the way folks, you can royally screw up an interview and still get an offer. Just because "things turned out just fine" for you at OCI doesn't necessarily mean that your quirks are worth emulating.

[Anonymous User]

I took notes during some callback interviews and things turned out just fine for me. If I met with an alum of my school and s/he started to recommend courses to take or restaurants to eat at, I would break open the padfolio. I think it shows genuine interest in what s/he is saying.

I'm sorry for picking on you anon, but you're an example of why a "no taking notes" rule is needed. If I suggest that you take admin law, and then you write down "take admin law" on your notepad, you're going to seem pretty damn weird.

By the way folks, you can royally screw up an interview and still get an offer. Just because "things turned out just fine" for you at OCI doesn't necessarily mean that your quirks are worth emulating.

I think your imagination is getting the best of you. This happened twice over eight CBs -- in other words, two times out of approximately 30 different interviews. If an interviewer started telling me to "take admin law with professor A and bankruptcy with professor B and corporations with professor C," I wrote down the names of those professors. Maybe I'm socially awkward and don't realize it, but in the moment it felt perfectly normal. I wasn't writing down "take admin law" every time someone asked me what courses I was taking and then started to make recommendations. You're right that it could have been to my detriment. But in this case I doubt it.

[seespotrun]

Nah, taking notes is weird. You're weird for having taken notes.

[PennBull]

It would take a truly impressive candidate for me not to auto-ding them once they start taking notes during a freakin interview

[Anonymous User]

Nah, taking notes is weird. You're weird for having taken notes.

Same anon. Fair enough.

[kaiser]

I remember keeping my padfolio open since I had a few bulletpointed notes jotted down (i.e. Q's I wanted to hit, particular things about that firm, tidbits about my interviewer, etc.) My initial plan was to jot down any useful responses to my questions, but I realized that it was impossible to do so organically and quickly. It always ended up leading to an odd pause where I had to break both the flow of conversation, along with eye contact. Decided that it wasn't going to work taking notes during interviews.