Hi,How should one respond to the ever-dreaded question - "Are you interviewing with other companies? Which ones?". If i say no i'm a loser wanted by nobody, and if i say yes they may think i might not accept if they make an offer. Plus if they ask for names of companies where i'm interviewing, what should one say? Any assistance would be grately appreciated. Thanks!-kb

A good answer would be - "Yes I am. I would prefer not to discuss individual companies but they are all within business consultancies that specialise in marketing".This answers the main reason for the question which is to establish that you are committed to this type of business and role and that your applications reflect a focused career objective. No reason why you should discuss other applications specifically. If pushed you should just say that you feel that they are confidential between yourself and the companies.

after being asked this at several interviews, with a genuine interest to know why they asked it, and with particular arrognace on my part I asked the interviewer "why do you want to know?".Answer wasso that they would know if they are under any particular time frame by which you needed an offer.

KB - from my interviewing days at Roland Berger I would say that you never ever want to be the one to bring up the fact that you are already well down the selection process with other firms. This invariably comes across as "so I'm really in demand and you guys are going to have to do something pretty special if you want to lure me away from the other firms showing an interest". This doesn't sit very well with the fact that most consultants who are interviewing you will believe they've achieved great things by working for the firm they currently work for. An interviewee that effectively challenges this view just puts one's nose out of joint. (Remember that those who do the interviewing are likely to be those that are still enamoured with their firm, as no-one wants to have you interviewed by someone who wishes they were no longer there).This of course doesn't answer your question, which is what to do if the interviewer brings the question up. But I needed to say the above to give you the sense of context.If the interviewer brings the question up then it is a feather in your cap to be being chased after by a number of other firms. This reinforces the consulting firm's decision to interview you - and should make them want to hire you more (think of the parallel of lots of football clubs wanting to sign the same player)The key thing is that you have to give the impression that of all the firms you're talking to, theirs is your preferred option (or close to it). Because the final consideration is that no firm wants to make a job offer to someone they think will turn it down - because this would mean putting other candidates on hold (not good, you potentially lose them by doing this).In terms of mentioning specific names, this is more tactical. If you're interviewing with all sorts of different firms (big and small, full service and strategy) it can give the impression that you don't really know what you want. Equally if you're interviewing with a top firm and tell them you're interviewing with a rung of second tier firms, this can devalue your candidacy. So in conclusion, feel free to share that you're interviewing with other firms but then use discretion when disclosing who these firms are.Hope this helps. Rgds, Tony

I would add that there a big downside to mentioning any names is that they may later ask the question again at a subsequent interview weeks later. You really don't want to admit being rejected by anybody. Even though we all get rejected any mention of this positions you as someone elses reject.

I always say something along the lines of 'I have applied to a small selection of firms that I feel are well-suited to me because' and then i talk about what is important to me in an employer. Then I say, 'xxx (the place i am interviewing at) is fantastic because on top of all of this it also offers/has/does xxx too'.

Just to confirm what others have said, when we ask that we are mostly looking for evidence that the candidate understands the consultancy market and has a clear view of what kind of firm they want to work for. It often produces answers inconsistent with canned responses regarding why they want to work for us.