Can you request a copy of notes made during interviews you went through?

Question

I recently went through a bunch of interviews for FAANG positions and I&rsquo;m wondering if CA law allows someone to request copies of notes made by interviewers regardless of any NDAs signed.

Jugurtha · Accepted Answer

Knee-jerk reaction reading this: "already a pain in the ass before even getting in the door".
Again, knee-jerk reaction.
What are you trying to accomplish? If you want the notes badly enough to try to resort to laws to force them to give them to you, you may get the notes, but that may be the last time you'll interact with that organization. You probably will not work with them ever again. Are a few scribbles of someone drawing boxes, circles, smileys, and maybe even dicks worth it?
If you're not after the notes, but want the notes in order to improve, then you may have a better chance of asking nicely for feedback to improve, or even asking nicely to get the very notes, who knows.
If that is the case, then we have an "XY Problem": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
You want feedback to improve, (X), but you're asking on how to resort to CA law to request copies, (Y).

muzani · Answer

I always do this after getting a rejection. They always give something vague like "you're awesome but too junior for us". A good time to request it is when they ask you to fill in a feedback survey.

yuppie_scum · Answer

You can request it, they don&rsquo;t have to provide it

b20000 · Answer

it&rsquo;s surprising how this very important issue relevant to all of us engineers gets very little attention here on HN.

Can you request a copy of notes made during interviews you went through?

I recently went through a bunch of interviews for FAANG positions and I’m wondering if CA law allows someone to request copies of notes made by interviewers regardless of any NDAs signed.

I always do this after getting a rejection. They always give something vague like "you're awesome but too junior for us". A good time to request it is when they ask you to fill in a feedback survey.

You can request it, they don’t have to provide it

it’s surprising how this very important issue relevant to all of us engineers gets very little attention here on HN.