EmploymentScape Chief Executive Officer, Harrison Barnes discusses how to tackle the question of other interviews in your current interview.

According to Harrison, one of the most important questions that you may face in an interview is regarding interviewing with other companies. While it is not very often that employers ask this question, how you handle this, will to a great extent decide whether or not you receive an offer from the employer posing the specific question.

Not answering the question will convey the idea that you will similarly hide things when you are working for them. It does not help in building a bond of trust and understanding with the employer. Hence the question, if posed, must be answered. However, Harrison advises on two important rules that must be kept in mind when answering the question.

First, before sharing any information on other employers you are interviewing with, you must convince your current interviewing employers that they are your first choice employers. If an employer thinks you are actually looking to go to the most prestigious employer and that he is not so prestigious, the employer is most likely not going to make you an offer. You need to give the employer compelling reasons for hiring you. Employers need to be convinced that though you have offers at other prestigious places, you have a ton of reasons to join a less prestigious place.

Second, how you justify your reasons for interviewing with other employers will have a direct bearing on your hiring prospects here. You could be either not interviewing anyplace at all, you could be interviewing with less prestigious employers, you could be interviewing with more prestigious employers or with a mix of both. In any of these situations you would need to justify your moves. You would need to convey convincingly that you consider the current employer as the best fit for you and one that would help meet your career goal of upward mobility.