You tell your boss that you have to pop out for a medical appointment but you’re really going to an interview for a new job. You thought you got away with it until the hiring manager for the new role calls you out on it. This week’s KIQ wants you to be honest.
It’s not uncommon to make up an excuse to give to your current employer when you have an interview for another job during the working day. It’s just a white lie, you tell yourself, but this could easily backfire.
Hiring managers are aware that people usually lie about this sort of thing and may spring this question on you: “Where does your boss think you are right now?”
What they’re really asking is this: “How easily tempted are you to lie?”
Honesty is a fundamental quality employers look for in potential employees and even white lies matter in the grander scheme of things. If you have fibbed to your current boss, chances are you’ll be embarrassed and flustered when you answer this question — not a good look for a prospective employer.
There are two ways to approach this issue, according James Reed who authored a book dedicated to interesting interview questions:
- Take the whole day off if you’re going in for an interview. That will avoid awkward questions from your current boss and when the hiring manager queries you about what you told your employer, you can be truthful.
- Tell your boss that you have an appointment and be vague about it. Omitting details of your whereabouts isn’t quite as bad as an outright lie.
How would you tackle this question? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
3 responses to “Killer Interview Question: Where Does Your Boss Think You Are Right Now?”
If your employment situation allows it, just be vague. Most employers respect your privacy and won’t press you for details when you say you “have an appointment”, and just make the time up later. I can imagine not all employers are that flexible or respectful when it comes to time off though. Also a lot of employers have multiple rounds of interviews and they’re normally at fairly short notice, so sacrificing multiple days leave just to make time for 1 hour interviews where you might not even get the job isn’t something I’d want to do.
The correct answer should either be, “At a job interview, they’re one of my referees,” or – less desirably – “I took the morning/afternoon/day off for personal time; they don’t know I’m interviewing.”
Duh, the correct answer is to just lie to them as well, say your boss knows you’re at the interview.