Lost in Translation - Interviewing Mechanics

Even the best interviewers can miss key points made by a job candidate. To help interviewers cope with the abundance of information that needs to be captured during an interview perhaps it might be prudent to take a cue from the reporting profession and their practice of note-taking.

The best reporters - and interviewers - are most always the best note-takers. They develop a methodology for taking mental and written notes that over time proves remarkably accurate. Author Ken Metzler, in his book Creative Interviewing offers a few pointers on improving note-taking skills to improve recollection and accuracy.

Organize Note-Taking - to take advantage of key/major points made by the candidate.Note-taking should be a mirror image of the interviewer´s listening methods.(ex. left side of notes page for major points and right side of page for supporting evidence) 

Control the Interview - by asking questions that facilitate note-taking.(ex. asking candidates to list accomplishments in order of importance) 

Develop a Shorthand - because the mind simply cannot digest everything at once. Call it the 5 plus or minus 2 rule....your mind can only digest between 3 and 7 stimuli at one time.(ex. "getting quotes word-for-word is easy when you know how" = "GT7 qts w4w > ez wn u no hw")

Train your Memory - by repeating the most salient points silently to yourself or feeding the response back to the interviewee.(ex. If I understand your comments, you said....would you elaborate on that please?)

Introduce Note-Taking to Respondent - by asking them for some routine information.(ex. email address, cell phone number, address)