As a Interviewer, how do I keep track of Interview impressions?

Question

I'm a technical Lead in a small organization, and I provide technical inputs to HR in the recruitment process. My involvement in the recruitment process is limited to the following:

1. Creating the Job Description and passing that to HR
2. Filtering the CVs after HR has filtered them.
3. Conducting an Initial Telephonic interview.
4. Being in the Interview Panel in the Face to Face on site interview.

HR has a template for steps 3 & 4 which I fill up and submit. But I'm feeling that this does not meet my needs, in tracking the CVs, specially in the following cases:

• HR might accidentally pass on the same CV for a different position.
• I might feel that I person I had earlier interviewed on the phone and rejected for one position might now be suitable for different position.

My attempt at solving this issue, is to record as much information as I can in an Excel Sheet, but I'm finding that unwieldy and end up not filling it half the time.

I'm not asking for software recommendations. I'm asking if there are any tricks or procedures that you follow, which would help in recording this kind of non structured information. While conducting an interview, one notices a lot of things, and very little of that is actually recorded, and formally filled. What about all these other things that come to mind of an interviewer? What do you do with them? How do you make sure that they are useful in the future?

Answer 1

I'm asking if there are any tricks or procedures that you follow

Whenever I review a resume/CV, I write down some notes. In situations where the resume/CV is printed, I simply attach those notes and file them for future reference. In situations where the resume/CV is not printed, I simply write those notes in a Word document, and file them appropriately.

When I conduct a phone interview, I first create a template of the questions I intend to ask of every client, leaving plenty of time and room for other questions that may arise. I scribble some notes down while I'm on the phone, then write them up immediately after the phone interview and file them appropriately.

When I conduct an in-person interview, create a similar template. During the in-person interview I scribble far fewer notes (since it's more important to listen during the interview). I spend more time writing up my notes immediately after the interview, then I file them appropriately.

Whenever HR or others ask for follow-up for a candidate, I have my notes at the ready.

Over the many years I've been part of the interviewing process, this has served me well.