Interviewer: "Where else are you applying and do you have any offers?"

[bant]

i ask this question all the time during undergrad and lateral recruiting and deem it as perfectly acceptable/ethical and pretty common in my experience. i work in a niche area of finance and am very interested in what other paths the candidate is pursuing and why.

this also provides me with insight into competition/convertability (and timeline of an exploding offer).

 

[ramuman]

Originally Posted by GreenFrog

True. Then again, reinsurance is such a small, niche industry, that I don't know what kind of answer would have been optimal. Would it have been good if I mentioned that I was applying for all the reinsurance firms? (which I haven't). And his saying that I seem like a finance type obviously means that he doesn't think Reinsurance and finance are the same industry (which they really aren't, but I'd argue they're slightly more similar than they are different). I did tell him I was mainly interested in consulting (I think, don't remember exactly). And as a client-advisory firm, I want to say (or hope) that consulting is fairly similar to what the firm does.
In your situation I'd try to determine what you actually do want to do (besides land a job) with as much specificity as you can and then you can tell your interviewer "I want to do this, and I'm looking at companies that work in that direction." Not verbatim and add your twist, but you should at least sound like you have a coherent objective. Like gdl said, this company and interviewer might not care (and this is likely the case at many entry-level jobs), but from the top down: - You should care what you want to do career wise. - You want this to determine where you want to work. - You should be able to communicate this to an interviewer. If it matters to them or not is something you won't know, but why take a chance?

 

[taxgenius]

Originally Posted by Concordia

My old firm used to ask that-- at least, where else I was looking. Part of the motivation is to see what you're really interested in. Someone coming into a consulting firm can say that they're totally driven by long-term process and non-conflicted advice to institutions. If every one of their other choices is retail brokerage you might not think they were a great fit.

Exactly.

 

[yjeezle]

Originally Posted by GreenFrog

So that, combined with him saying I sound like a finance type.. I dunno. Feels like a ding.

don't think it's a ding. if they say that kind of stuff in the future counter it by playing to your strengths and associating that with the job description.

ie. "it may seem like i look like a g candidate, but i think that x,y,z activities helped me understand and gain x,y,z skills, which I think are helpful for q industry."

something like that.