How to share interview notes with hiring managers: what to send, where, and when
On this page
- What should you share: a summary, your notes, the transcript or the recording?
- What goes in the summary for a hiring manager?
- When should you share notes: before or after the hiring manager's interview?
- Where should you share interview notes: ATS, email or Slack?
- How do agency recruiters share interview notes with a client's hiring manager?
- What should you leave out of notes you share?
- Can you share AI-generated interview notes?
- How do you get hiring managers to actually read the notes?
- Questions people ask
Share a short written summary in the hiring record, not your raw notes, transcript or recording. It should give the evidence for each must-have with one or two of the candidate's own words, the gaps the hiring manager should probe, and the logistics already settled. If the hiring manager interviews next, send the evidence and gaps but hold back your rating until they have formed their own view. Post it where your ATS actually shows it to them and tag them so it arrives by email: in Greenhouse, for example, a note is visible only to Job Admins and Site Admins unless you tick Add to Interview Kit, as of November 2026.
This page covers the sharing itself: which format, which channel, when, and what to leave out. For what to write in a brief between rounds, see interview handoff notes between rounds, and for turning notes into three to five probe items, see how to brief the next-round interviewer.
What should you share: a summary, your notes, the transcript or the recording?
Each format answers a different need, and the default should be the smallest one that lets the hiring manager act.
| Format | What it is good for | The risk | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary with quotes | Deciding whether to interview, and preparing the interview | A summary can drift from what was said; check each quote | Send it every time |
| Your own notes | Context when the manager asks "what exactly did they say about X?" | Shorthand, impressions and asides read badly out of context | Keep; share an excerpt on request |
| Transcript | Checking a disputed answer word for word | Long, unedited, includes your side and every tangent; may contain protected information | Share timestamped excerpts, not the file |
| Recording | Settling a dispute, with the candidate's consent covering it | Widest exposure, hardest to control once copied | Do not send; listen together if needed |
The access model behind that last row, role by role, is in who should have access to interview recordings.
What goes in the summary for a hiring manager?
The hiring manager reads it for two decisions: whether to spend an interview slot on this person, and what to use that slot for. Lead with those.
- The recommendation in one line: advance, hold or decline, and the main reason.
- Evidence against each must-have, one line each, with a short quote and a timestamp where you have one. "No evidence yet" is a valid entry and often the most useful one.
- Claims to verify: numbers, scope and "I led" statements that the manager is best placed to test.
- Settled logistics: notice period, location or schedule, pay expectations asked lawfully, and anything else the manager should not ask again.
- What the candidate wants to know that only the manager can answer.
Five to fifteen lines is enough. Filled examples for a recruiter screen going to a hiring manager are in the handoff notes guide.
When should you share notes: before or after the hiring manager's interview?
Both, but different things. Before the hiring manager interviews, send the recommendation, the evidence and the gaps, so they can prepare and skip repeated questions. Hold back numeric ratings and adjectives about the person until the manager has interviewed and submitted their own feedback; a number in their head before the interview pulls their judgment toward it. The reasoning, and how to set your ATS so interviewers cannot see each other's scorecards early, is in independent interview feedback before the debrief.
Timing: write and submit your own scorecard first, then send the summary the same day, and at least a working hour before the manager's interview. Notes sent the night before a 9 a.m. interview are often read in the lobby, if at all.
Where should you share interview notes: ATS, email or Slack?
In the hiring record, with a notification. A summary that lives only in a direct message is invisible to the next person who takes over the role and is easy to lose when someone leaves. The catch is that ATS notes are not always visible to hiring managers by default. Check how yours behaves:
| ATS | Who sees an ordinary note | How to get it to the hiring manager | Source (as of November 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | Site Admins and Job Admins on the job, unless "Add to Interview Kit" is checked; private notes are limited further | @mention the manager: "Any user mentioned will receive an emailed copy of this note." @mentions can also go to Slack | Candidate note; @mentions |
| Ashby | Notes sit on the candidate profile, not the job, so followers from earlier or closed job considerations may see them; "Is note private?" limits a note to admins with private access | At-mention the manager, and tick "Create a task for" to turn the note into a task | Candidate feed |
| Workable | Comment visibility can be restricted by user type, not by individual, or by a Confidential zone for pipeline stages; candidates never see comments | @mention a hiring team member; they get a Workable Inbox notification, plus email or Slack if they turned those on | Leaving an internal comment |
| Bullhorn | "Notes are visible to other users" of your Bullhorn account; it is the agency's own system, so a client's hiring manager usually has no login to it | @tag colleagues or choose Email Notification recipients; clients get the submittal instead | Managing notes in Bullhorn ATS |
Two cautions from those pages. Ashby's notes follow the candidate, so a note written for one role can be read by a hiring team from another; write it so that would be fine. Greenhouse says candidate notes, including private ones, can be pulled through its Harvest API by any key with access to the activity feed, so "private" limits the screen, not every integration. Slack and email are fine for the alert; keep the content in the ATS, and paste it rather than attaching files that live on in inboxes.
How do agency recruiters share interview notes with a client's hiring manager?
Through the submittal, not by forwarding notes. The client cannot see your ATS, and agency notes usually hold things that must stay internal: rate negotiations, other clients the candidate is talking to, and candid asides. Build the submittal from the notes, matched to the client's must-haves with the candidate's own quotes, and send it only after the candidate has agreed to be submitted for that role. The structure is in the candidate submittal template. If the client asks for the recording or transcript, the rules on what the candidate agreed to are in can recruiters share interview recordings with clients.
After the client interviews, the flow reverses: get the hiring manager's feedback in writing, quote it accurately to the candidate, and log it on the record.
What should you leave out of notes you share?
- Protected characteristics and anything that hints at them: age, health, pregnancy and family plans, religion, national origin, disability, and the like, even when the candidate raised them. If they came up, note only that the topic was raised and not pursued.
- Opinions without evidence: "great energy", "not a culture fit". Write what was said or done instead.
- Anything you would not want the candidate to read. Under the GDPR, candidates can ask for a copy of the personal data you hold about them, which includes interview notes (Article 15), and California applicants have similar rights under the CCPA, covered in CCPA and job applicant data.
- Pay negotiating positions, unless the manager is handling the offer.
More examples of what not to record, and how to rewrite it, are in what not to write in interview notes.
Can you share AI-generated interview notes?
Yes, once you have checked them. An AI summary is a draft: confirm every quote, number and negative against the transcript before it reaches the hiring manager, because a fluent but wrong sentence is more persuasive than a messy correct one. Share excerpts rather than the full transcript, and make sure your consent wording covered the tool. If your note taker exports straight to email or Slack, edit before you send. Interview Signal, which we make, exports the scorecard as notes shaped for Greenhouse, Lever, Bullhorn or JobAdder to paste by hand, or to email or Slack, and in a panel it shares only the questions each interviewer marked as asked, never scores or transcripts.
How do you get hiring managers to actually read the notes?
- Put the decision in the subject line or first line: "Advance: [Candidate], [Role], interview Thursday 2 p.m."
- Keep it to one screen. Anything longer goes below a line marked "detail".
- End with one ask: confirm the slot, add a question, or say no today.
- Use the same order every time, so managers learn where to look.
- Agree the format and turnaround in your recruiting SLA with hiring managers, so feedback comes back as reliably as notes go out.
Questions people ask
Should I send the hiring manager my full interview notes or a summary?
A summary. Hiring managers act on a short written brief: the evidence for each must-have with a few of the candidate's own words, the gaps still open, and the logistics already settled. Raw notes carry shorthand, half-formed impressions and details the manager does not need, and every extra copy is one more record the candidate may be entitled to see and you must retain or delete.
Should recruiters share their phone screen rating with the hiring manager before the interview?
Share the decision, not the score. The hiring manager needs to know you recommend advancing the candidate and why, but a numeric rating or adjectives about the person anchor their own interview. Send the evidence and the open questions before their interview, and compare ratings in the debrief after everyone has submitted feedback.
Why can't my hiring manager see my notes in Greenhouse?
Greenhouse's help center says candidate notes are visible only to Site Admins and Job Admins on the job unless the Add to Interview Kit box is checked when the note is added, and private notes are limited further to users with private-note permissions. A hiring manager with a lower permission level on that job will not see an ordinary note, but anyone you @mention receives an emailed copy of it.
Can I share the interview transcript or recording with the hiring manager?
Only if the candidate was told it would be shared and your retention rules allow it, and usually it is better not to. Send quoted excerpts with timestamps instead, checked against the audio, and keep the full transcript or recording with the person who owns the role. If a decision rests on one answer, the hiring manager can listen to that passage with you.
How should agency recruiters share interview notes with a client's hiring manager?
Through the submittal, not by forwarding notes. The client's hiring manager cannot see your ATS, and agency notes often hold rate negotiations, other clients and candid comments that should stay internal. Send a submittal built from the notes, with the candidate's quotes and the client's must-haves, after the candidate has agreed to be submitted, and keep the raw notes in your own system.