Taking notes as an interviewer during an interview is standard practice; scripting an interview is not.

The purposes of both are the same:

• to gather data on candidates during an interview as a basis for identifying a successful candidate
• to provide a basis for meaningful feedback to candidates once the decision is made.

That’s where the similarly ends.  Let’s look at some very significant differences between the two.

Typically, note taking is a combination of two activities – writing down what the candidate said, often in short form, and making evaluatory comments in your notes at the same time.  In other words, an interviewer is in the process of making judgments on the candidate as the interview rolls out.

Scripting is very different.  It is a process of recording only what the candidate says verbatim, reveals in body language and facial expression and on how the candidate manages interview time.  In other words, all attention is devoted to the candidate’s performance without making any kind of evaluatory comment at that time.  The focus in scripting is on data collection only.

The actual form of the output from the interviewer also looks quite different.  Interview notes tend to be quite random in form and content and sometimes rather incomplete.  Scripted notes are highly organized in such a way as to provide the interviewer with a more complete set of observations which are just as meaningful a week after the interview as they are immediately following it – and therefore are more reliable in terms of the information recorded.

Most people who script come up with their own symbols to help encode the candidate’s performance.  A statement or “quotable quote” is simply written down as spoken.  A symbol such as { } around a set of words may include observations on body language.  A symbol like ( ) may refer to facial expression.  In addition, a script has a column down the side to note time.  This notation is very helpful in debriefing candidates in terms of how long they took to answer one question versus another and why that may have been exemplary or problematical.  The point here is that you can use your own system in your script to do what you need to do – watch the candidate, listen to the candidate and note time management skills as displayed in the interview by the candidate.

There is no question that scripting takes practice.  It becomes much easier to do as you come to grips with catching verbatim those quotable quotes, using down time in responses to give your hand a break and learning to use your own symbols effectively as guides when you are reviewing and analyzing your script or analyzing it with the interview team.

A well-written script is a powerful basis on which to make decisions.  When discussing a candidate’s performance, if you can use some exact phraseology from your script, identify the time taken to answer, note body language and facial expressions and the time each were noted, you can help your colleagues see the candidate in very specific ways – and the picture of the performance is much fuller as they share their observations in that detail from their own scripts.  It is data-based judgment at its best.

If candidates request debriefings (and they always should be accommodated in that request) you have at your disposal a specific script to back up the decision.  For instance, noting that a candidate started to answer a question at 10:15 and ended it at 10:17 in the context of telling a candidate more detail needs to be added is an important piece of information for candidates in terms of time management.  That is also true if a candidate, in a thirty-minute interview, takes 10 minutes to answer one of the five questions (often they overtalk in response to the first question), the same understanding is underlined.

Suppose candidates respond to a question on what appeals most to them about the position with a vague response like “Company X has a great reputation in the field”.  You can use that statement as a basis to encourage candidates, in the future, to complete an intensive review of the company’s online profile etc. to demonstrate that they have done their preparatory work and are knowledgeable of what the company is all about.  Using their specific response in the context of the indicators you were looking for shows that you were paying attention and had a sound basis for your judgment.  The use of their language as examples goes a long way toward establishing the credibility of the process and the validity of the judgment.

Dr. Dan

Want to practise scripting?  Why not sign up for our interactive Scripting Interviews webinar?  To arrange a customized group webinar on The Art of Scripting an Interview and make scripting a reality in your workplace, contact Jen and Dan at info@bendelservices.com.