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Is that line a euphemism for something else...like we're second thinking this interview and don't call us we'll call you?...
I've even gotten that line when I've done walk in apps and not from ads,I'm like who else are you interviewing when you didn't even advertise for the job?...
I don't often get interviews,but when I do they usually go well(I think at least). On the most recent one,I was listening to what the guy was saying about how difficult some other applicants were...so I thought I had it in the bag. But alas the way my luck goes,superman interviewed after me
From experience, when you hear that statement that usually means that they are not serious about offering you the job. If they were then it would be no need to mention other people at all so that's why it's usually a bad sign. That's the interviewer's way of quickly putting in your mind that it's a slim chance you will get the job since there is a lot of competition.
Every job I was offered since 1999 I never heard that other people were being interviewed. I only heard that when I didn't get the job.
By giving that response, it's implied that they're not going to get a straight "yes" or "no" answer regarding if they got the job or not on the spot. If you say you're interviewing other candidates, you apparently haven't made a decision, thus you can't make a job offer to me. Just as well, if you say you're interviewing other candidates, if I wasn't chosen, it could simply be because another candidate was better qualified, not necessarily you saw me and discovered I was black or Mexican and said "h*** no!!!" Of course, there would be no way for me to prove it, as I wasn't given a straight answer.
i would think that the vast majority of the time, interviewers would not be prepared to say "yes" on the spot, anyway, and most interviewees wouldn't ask if they've go the job in an interview, right? i mean, that's a pretty ballsy move.
it's true that a lot of interviewers probably could say "no" on the spot, for good reasons or not so good ones.
if i was interviewing someone, and they asked me if i was going to hire them, if i thought they were a good candidate my honest answer would probably be "maybe, but i have to see how these other interviews go first". i don't see that as sneaky or dishonest. saying "we're interviewing other people and then we'll let you know" is essentially the same thing.
it is mildly sneaky/dishonest if you already know you're going to be rejecting the person, but kind of understandable because who wants to reject someone to their face? it's a lot easier and less uncomfortable to send them an e-mail later.
if someone's counting, i was told about other people interviewing (in the "here is our timeline" sense) in the phone interview for the job i just got. maybe at the first in person interview too, i forget. and i was told that there were 200+ applicants at a job i was offered but turned down the last time i was job hunting. i think other interviews came up in the first phone interview for the job i turned down this time around too. i don't know exactly how many interviews i had where other applicants were mentioned but i didn't get the job, though. several, certainly.
i would think that the vast majority of the time, interviewers would not be prepared to say "yes" on the spot, anyway, and most interviewees wouldn't ask if they've go the job in an interview, right? i mean, that's a pretty ballsy move.
it's true that a lot of interviewers probably could say "no" on the spot, for good reasons or not so good ones.
if i was interviewing someone, and they asked me if i was going to hire them, if i thought they were a good candidate my honest answer would probably be "maybe, but i have to see how these other interviews go first". i don't see that as sneaky or dishonest. saying "we're interviewing other people and then we'll let you know" is essentially the same thing.
it is mildly sneaky/dishonest if you already know you're going to be rejecting the person, but kind of understandable because who wants to reject someone to their face? it's a lot easier and less uncomfortable to send them an e-mail later.
if someone's counting, i was told about other people interviewing (in the "here is our timeline" sense) in the phone interview for the job i just got. maybe at the first in person interview too, i forget. and i was told that there were 200+ applicants at a job i was offered but turned down the last time i was job hunting. i think other interviews came up in the first phone interview for the job i turned down this time around too. i don't know exactly how many interviews i had where other applicants were mentioned but i didn't get the job, though. several, certainly.
I never said anything about the interviewee asking the employer if they got the job.
However, I do believe employers makes the statement in question to prevent that question from being asked in the first place, to give the interviewee a indirect but placating answer to the question we all know they're wondering (Did I get the job?). Otherwise, the interviewee would follow up with more direct questions that would probably put the interviewer in, at the very least, an uncomfortable position.
well i feel like we're getting into semantics here, but my point was if it's uncommon for interviewees to ask if they've gotten the job (and i believe it is), why would interviewers feel the need to say something to prevent it?
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Otherwise, the interviewee would follow up with more direct questions that would probably put the interviewer in, at the very least, an uncomfortable position.
this is just a guess but i'd say that at least 90% of the time, they wouldn't. that's just not generally accepted interview etiquette. they don't need someone to stop them.
i honestly think that the majority of the time it's either an honest advisory about where the employer is in the process and what the timeline is going to be, or just the interviewer being chatty without thinking about it. maybe sometimes it's a safeguard against something that's not likely to happen anyway, or as other people have posited, a way to alert the candidate that they're probably not getting the job due to all the competition. but i doubt either of those are usually what is going through the interviewer's head.
well i feel like we're getting into semantics here, but my point was if it's uncommon for interviewees to ask if they've gotten the job (and i believe it is), why would interviewers feel the need to say something to prevent it?
this is just a guess but i'd say that at least 90% of the time, they wouldn't. that's just not generally accepted interview etiquette. they don't need someone to stop them.
i honestly think that the majority of the time it's either an honest advisory about where the employer is in the process and what the timeline is going to be, or just the interviewer being chatty without thinking about it. maybe sometimes it's a safeguard against something that's not likely to happen anyway, or as other people have posited, a way to alert the candidate that they're probably not getting the job due to all the competition. but i doubt either of those are usually what is going through the interviewer's head.
The question in the OP is do you think the phrase "We're also interviewing other people" is a euphemism. Technically, it can be without a doubt used as a euphemism. It's a phrase to use when you want to give an interviewee a not-so-offensive answer to a question without giving them a straight answer, to avoid further confrontation. So if you know you're not going to hire someone after interviewing them, are you going to tell you "You didn't get the job" and risk the possibility of retaliation on the spot, or are you just going to tell them "We're also interviewing other people" to get them out of your office/building?
Now can it be an honest advisory? Perhaps. Maybe a decision hasn't been made. But according to a Harvard Review Business Study, 63% of all hiring decisions are made within the first 5 minutes of the interview. If that's true, chances are the interviewer has already decided if they will choose you for the position or not at the end of the interview, regardless of whoever else they interview.
The reason it's uncommon for interviewees to ask "Did I get the job?" is because chances are (for legal and political reasons) they won't get a straight "yes" or no" answer. Of course, at the same time, good interviewers already knows the interviewee wants to know if they got the job. So even without the interviewee asking the question, they may still give them the response "We're interviewing other candidates" anyway. In the interviewer's mind, they think they're doing right by giving the interviewee an answer despite not giving them a straight answer. Meanwhile, the interviewee has no choice but to accept the answer that the interviewer is interviewing other candidates (they can't disprove it).
The question in the OP is do you think the phrase "We're also interviewing other people" is a euphemism. Technically, it can be without a doubt used as a euphemism. It's a phrase to use when you want to give an interviewee a not-so-offensive answer to a question without giving them a straight answer, to avoid further confrontation. So if you know you're not going to hire someone after interviewing them, are you going to tell you "You didn't get the job" and risk the possibility of retaliation on the spot, or are you just going to tell them "We're also interviewing other people" to get them out of your office/building?
but you don't have to tell them either thing. you can just say "thanks for coming in, we will let you know", and then let them know later. it's not like you can ONLY say "you don't have the job" or "we are interviewing other people". again, the only reason i see to use the phrase the way you're saying people do is to head off interviewees from saying "are you hiring me?" but that doesn't often happen, so it seems like a weird thing to worry about.
i've heard people cite that harvard business review study several times, but when i google it i only find blog posts, etc referring to it, not the actual study. i have to wonder about that because seriously, when someone is interviewing 10 people, they decide THAT often that, say, the first or second person they interview is the person they are hiring? they're not going to wait to talk to the rest of the candidates and see if they change their mind?
i can see that hiring managers often make the decision of whether or not this is a person they want to hire in the first 4.3 minutes or whatever. but that's not the same as walking out of the interview knowing that this is the person you are going to hire. hiring managers can end up with several good candidates to choose from, especially in the economy.
What would be the point of telling someone you are interviewing others if that's the person you want?
1. because you want to give the person an idea of your timeline (ie we are interviewing for the rest of this week and contacting people for second interviews/offering someone the job next week).
2. because you just said it and you didn't really think about it.
what's the reason to NOT tell them? do you think interviewers think they are going to scare a good candidate off if they mention that there is more than one person interviewing? there is almost ALWAYS more than one person interviewing! unless it's an internal hire and the interview is just a formality, you'd have to be pretty stupid or have a pretty tiny and crappy group of applicants to only be interviewing one person, at least in the first round. what's the big deal about acknowledging the truth?
i mean, my job search and the job i was offered have broken almost every one of your "rules". i must be the most statistically unlikely person ever to exist. or maybe, just maybe, your rules based on, what was it, EIGHT job applications in a year (and how many interviews)? maybe they're not exactly tried and true.
Over many years of hiring I would end the interview with something along the lines of, "Thanks so much for your interest. I've a few more people to see but I enjoyed talking to you and I'll definitely be in touch one way or the other within a week." It seemed a perfectly normal thing to say, nobody ever looked at me even slightly sideways for saying it - and I ALWAYS called EVERYONE back as promised, whether they were the successful candidate or not.
When I've been in the applicant position it's been said to me similarly many times and I've never given it a second thought either negatively or positively. Some things are just very simple and not everything has to be analyzed to death.
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