TRAPS: Whenan interviewer presses you to reveal confidential information about a presentor former employer, you may feel it’s a no-win situation. If you cooperate, you could be judgeduntrustworthy. If you don’t, you mayirritate the interviewer and seem obstinate, uncooperative or overlysuspicious.
BEST ANSWER: Yourinterviewer may press you for this information for two reasons.
First, manycompanies use interviews to research the competition. It’s a perfect set-up. Here in their own lair, is an insider fromthe enemy camp who can reveal prized information on the competition’s plans,research, financial condition, etc.
Second, thecompany may be testing your integrity to see if you can be cajoled or bulliedinto revealing confidential data.
What todo? The answer here is easy. Never reveal anything truly confidentialabout a present or former employer. Byall means, explain your reticence diplomatically. For example, “I certainly want to be as openas I can about that. But I also wish torespect the rights of those who have trusted me with their most sensitiveinformation, just as you would hope to be able to trust any of your key peoplewhen talking with a competitor…”
Andcertainly you can allude to your finest achievements in specific ways thatdon’t reveal the combination to the company safe.
But beguided by the golden rule. If you werethe owner of your present company, would you feel it ethically wrong for theinformation to be given to your competitors? If so, steadfastly refuse to reveal it.
Rememberthat this question pits your desire to be cooperative against yourintegrity. Faced with any such choice, alwayschoose integrity. It is a far morevaluable commodity than whatever information the company may pry from you. Moreover, once you surrender the information,your stock goes down. They will surelylose respect for you.
OnePresident we know always presses candidates unmercifully for confidentialinformation. If he doesn’t get it, he grows visibly annoyed, relentlesslyinquisitive, It’s all an act. He couldn’t care less about the information.This is his way of testing the candidate’s moral fiber. Only those who hold fast are hired.