Post interview notes template: the 10-minute debrief

What should you write down right after an interview?

Write down what they asked, what you said, and where the call turned. Then write the numbers you gave and the one answer you'd change. Keep the questions in the order they came, because the order shows what the interviewer was testing and when the conversation shifted. By tomorrow, most of that will have blurred into "it went fine."

Most people write a feeling instead. "I think the second half went badly" can't be acted on. "She asked how I'd price a new tier, I talked about the old one for two minutes, and she moved on" can. The template below makes you write the second kind of note.

Why should you write your notes within the hour?

Memory drops fastest soon after an event. In the experiments Hermann Ebbinghaus published in 1885, the share of study time he saved when relearning a list fell from 58% after 20 minutes to 44% after an hour and 34% after a day. A 2015 replication by Jaap Murre and Joeri Dros found a similar curve (47%, 37% and 32%).

Those were lists of nonsense syllables, so the exact figures won't match your memory of a real conversation. The shape is the part to use. The detail you most need, the interviewer's exact wording, is also the hardest to rebuild from memory later. Write before you call anyone or open your email.

What does the 10-minute debrief template look like?

It has five parts, each with a time limit, so the whole thing fits in 10 minutes. Each part answers one of the questions the US Army asks in an after-action review: what was supposed to happen, what happened, why it happened, and what to change. A printable copy is the free 10-minute debrief template.

Use the times as limits. If you finish a part early, move on. If you run over, stop anyway and come back to it later, because a finished rough page is worth more than a perfect first half.

How do you fill in each part of the template?

Write fast and in short lines. You can tidy it later, and the value is in getting the raw detail down before it fades. Each part below covers what to write and why it's there. The printable version has the same prompts as short lines you can fill in.

The facts (0 to 2 minutes)

Write the company, the role, the round and today's date. Add each interviewer's name and job title, since you'll need them for the thank-you note and the next round. Write what they said about next steps as close to word for word as you can. "You'll hear from us by Friday" gives you a date to act on.

The questions, in order (2 to 5 minutes)

List every question you were asked, in order, in the interviewer's words. Next to each, write one line on what you said. Highly structured interviews are scored against set benchmarks, with planned follow-up questions, according to the US Office of Personnel Management. Mark every follow-up you got, because a follow-up usually shows what your first answer left out.

The moments (5 to 7 minutes)

Write three moments. The first is your best answer and why it landed. The second is the point where you lost the room, which might be when the interviewer stopped writing, cut in, or moved on quickly. The third is the question you couldn't answer well; the signs are covered in how to tell you lost the room.

The numbers you said (7 to 9 minutes)

Write every figure you said out loud: team sizes, percentages, budgets, dates, how long a project ran. Note the story each one came from. If you said "a team of 6" today, it needs to be 6 in the next round too, and the consistency check for whether your story changed between rounds shows how to catch drift.

One fix (9 to 10 minutes)

Pick one answer to rebuild before the next round. Write one thing you'll keep doing. Then write the date you'll follow up if you hear nothing, based on what they told you in part one.

Where does this debrief method come from?

It is a one-person version of the after-action review, set out by the US Army in TC 25-20, A Leader's Guide to After-Action Reviews in September 1993. The guide describes a review that lets people "discover for themselves what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses," held "during or immediately after each event."

The method works for one person as well as for a team. A 2013 meta-analysis in Human Factors by Scott Tannenbaum and Christopher Cerasoli pooled 46 samples covering 2,136 people. Debriefs improved performance by about 25% over control groups, and the effect was similar for individuals and teams. The full method is in what an interview debrief is and how to run one on yourself.

What should you do with your notes after the round?

Read them before each next step. Before your thank-you note, read part one for names and anything they said that you can refer back to. Before the next round, read parts two to five and rebuild the answer you picked. If the answer is no, part three gives you a specific question to ask when you request feedback.

Each of those has its own guide. The thank-you email after an interview guide has templates you can send tonight. The guide to preparing for round 2 using what happened in round 1 turns your one fix into a rehearsed answer. If you were turned down, asking for feedback after a rejection shows how to use your notes in the email.

What if you can't remember what you said?

Write what you can and leave a blank where the memory is gone. A blank is still useful, because it shows you which answer to rehearse first. If you want the exact words next time, the only reliable source is a recording, made with everyone's consent and asked for at the start of the call.

Prept does this from a recording, as analysis after the call, never during it: it transcribes a round you recorded with consent, quotes each moment where an answer lost its shape, and gives you the words to say instead. The free tier includes one interview hour with no card, so you can get your first interview debrief on your next round.