Best Response to "Are You Interviewing Elsewhere?"

Are you interviewing elsewhere? That is such an intimidating question to answer. That's one that I think someone could just like choke on that. Why is that question so intimidating? There's a fear that if you say yes, then they're gonna say, well, fine, go be with them, we don't want you.

Okay, so I hear that a lot, but the answer is always yes, I am interviewing with other companies. And you know why?

Why?

Companies want candidates who are wanted. Yeah, like, that is actually— you're not cheating on the company by interviewing elsewhere. It actually is almost like a question of, why aren't you getting any other interviews if you aren't interviewing elsewhere? Companies want people who are in demand because those are the people who are talented. The answer is always yes. Yes, I am interviewing other places. And sometimes they want to know if the types of roles you're interviewing for are similar or different because they want to understand how sure you are about your career trajectory. Make sure that if you are interviewing vastly different roles, don't tell them that. You want to say, yep, I'm interviewing for other roles. If you are interviewing for a company that they might have heard of— we've had some clients where they'll be like, yeah, yeah, well, I'm in the interview process with Nike right now. That is even spicier because they're like, oh, okay, like you're interviewing with a big dog. Okay, so it'll actually make you more appealing in the interview. What if you're not interviewing with another company? If you're actively job searching, you are one moment away from interviewing anywhere. You already have applications out there. So I'm in, I'm in process right now. I'm early stages, I would say that.