It's that time again! Time for our Tough Interview Question of the Week. If you didn't get the chance to take a look at last week's question, you can find it here.
As you know, this is the time when we break down a tough interview question, tell you what traps to look out for and come up with a great strategy for answering it effectively.
So, here you have it, The Tough Interview Question of the Week:
Question:
The interviewer asks you to reveal confidential information about your present or previous employer.
Why it is a a trap:
This question is really a no-win situation. On one hand, they may be testing you to see if you are someone who can be trusted with company secrets. Especially if your job will be handling sensitive information, they would want to have an idea of your integrity. On the other hand, they may be upset if you refuse to give them any information and become upset or refuse to give you the job, thinking that you may not be “loyal” to them if they were to employ you.
The best answer:
Keep in mind that, while it is definitely a shady business practice, some less than ethical companies will advertise job openings and interview their competitor's employees with the hope of running across an unhappy employee who is willing to give them confidential information that will help them get ahead in their industry.
But then again, the company may be trying to determine if you can be bullied into giving away trade secrets. So, what should you do? When you really think about it, it is pretty easy. Never, ever, ever give away anything that you feel is confidential. This is an interview, and you don't owe them loyalty. They haven't given you anything other than a small bit of their time to come in and talk with them.
You should be calm and say something like “I want to be as open as possible with you, but I also have to respect the privacy of the company that trusted me with their information. I am sure that you would also hope to trust your employees to keep your confidences when they were looking for a new positions.” This will give you a great lead-in to mention some of your best accomplishments at that company, while still not revealing anything secret.
The question is easy, because in any situation when you are battling with your integrity, always let your integrity win. Being a person with strong values and strong ethics is never the wrong choice. Your personal integrity is more valuable than any secret information they might gain or any job you might be offered. And honestly, if this is going to be a deal-breaker for them, and if they won't hire you because you won't give them any information, do you really think that they would hire you after they got what they want? Hardly. More than likely they would see your reluctance as confirmation that you did, in fact, possess valuable information and would want to keep you close hoping to pry it out of you eventually.
If the interviewer gets upset or won't let it go, don't give in. Just know that either it is all a set up and there is no job, or they are testing you to see if you will cave under pressure. Whichever one it is, you can feel good knowing that you are someone with strong ethics.
What do you think about this question? Are there other questions you would like to see answered here? Let me know in the comments.
Are you looking for a job in Manufacturing? Be sure to visit ManufacturingWorkers.com
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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