Would you approve of someone using notes during an interview? Whether they're technical questions or not?
My theory is, I'd be able to look stuff up on the job, so if I have something written down it just shows that I'm organized and prepared.
Obviously I'm not talking about something excessive like having a laptop that I google with for every single question, but just some stuff I wrote down.
What do you think?
Possibly okay, but don't read off it! Just put down a few key words to jog your memory.
I have conducted many technical interviews over the years; and it is rare that a reference look-up would be of assistance to the candidate -- I'm usually trying to get an idea of how the candidate thinks in the round. I would look askance at a laptop -- too many meetings where everyone is doing their e-mail rather than concentrating on the matter at hand.
I mostly agree: if somebody's preferred working habits include referring to notes, that's a detail - I'm not gonna ding them for that in an interview, just evaluate how effective and speedy they're being. In my case, that goes for web searching too, btw -- I know web searching is playing a large and increasing role in MY own effectiveness as a developer, so if somebody's wickedly fast and skilled at it, that's gotta count for something. I am going to use a stopwatch (well, my iPhone pretending to be one;-) to accurately report, in my interview feedback, about the timing of their reactions to my questions (including searches in their notes and/or on whatever web search engine[s] they favor).
Having "Notes" during an interview in 2009 sounds a little bizzare. If the notes are on paper, even with a system that a librarian could fall in love with in 1897 (yes two centuries ago) what could be so notable that cannot be looked up either online or a CD or DVD of annotated documentation. I can't see an intervier asking questions that need to be "looked up" unless you are already supposed to know the answer. For example, if you were applying for a job as a sysadmin and you needed to look up the options for grep to ignore character case ....you are not going to be their sysadmin :) Same goes for where the terminators go on scsi cables, or the max run length for a CAT 5 cable.
Absolutely not. Here's what you don't realize. I ask you questions to find one you don't know on purpose. How you respond to questions that you don't know the answer to is more important than how you answer when you do know. Bringing notes to an interview would be absolutely ridiculous. Watching you read answers of a piece of paper tells me zero about what kind of person you are/what kind of employee you would be.
It depends on how you use the notes and why you have them. For example, if you are reading off of the notes and avoiding eye contact, that would be a bad thing. At the same time, if you used the notes for prompting or to remember some points to make in a general question such as a "Tell me about yourself," then it may be effective. Having your questions for the interviewer written down may also be useful for something to use to remember which questions you have and possibly make notes of the answer.
If you didn't feel comfortable looking at the notes, you could use them as a last minute review and then just leave the clipboard or folio or whatever is carrying the notes tucked away so it isn't seen.
If interviewer is competent, crib sheet won't help, because interviewer won't ask questions that google helps with.
If the interviewer is incompetent, crib sheet will probably help a ton.
I bring notes on all my interviews. They aren't techie notes, they're prepped questions and bullet points about their business and things from my past that aren't on my resume to help me answer open-ended questions without hesitating. But the interviewers don't know that -- they can't read them from across the table and have never even really noticed them.