What lie are we talking about? Saying you’re actively interviewing when you’re not.
This isn’t a question candidates are always asked, but agencies and families sometimes want to know if you’ve had any other interviews recently or if you have any upcoming ones?
Some candidates prefer to bet on honesty, others feel they don’t owe the interviewer full transparency and try to be strategic.
So, is it okay to say you’re actively interviewing even if it’s not true?
It is never a good idea to lie when your lies can have consequences and can harm your job search, such as lying about your experience or faking your references, sooner or later someone will find out that you lied…
But when you say you’re actively interviewing when it’s not true, no one is going to check to see if it’s true, so it’s very unlikely that this kind of lie will ruin your job search.
Why do some candidates think it’s a good idea to pretend they’re actively interviewing? They want to make it clear to the potential employer that they are in demand and may not stay on the market for long. They also want to make it clear that they are serious about finding a new job. When candidates lie about being actively interviewing, they just hope it will help them get hired.
Lying is wrong. But technically, you don’t really want to lie, you just want to signal your confidence and show that you’re a desirable candidate (and yes, also add a little urgency to their decision).
Lying about being actively interviewing when it’s not true can’t hurt you. Bringing up another interview may even move the process forward. So why not use this tactic if it can help speed things up?
Obviously, this doesn’t work every time, and you shouldn’t overdo it either. If you say you had another interview earlier in the week and you might have another one next week, that’s plausible and that’s fine. But if you say you have interviews every day this week and next, it’s going to be hard to believe you… If you decide to try this tactic, be sure to remain credible.
Employers know you’re exploring other options anyway, and a candidate will never be disqualified for having other interviews. And after all, employers also often lie to candidates by telling them at the end of the interview that they still have plenty of other interviews to conduct before they can give an answer, when that’s not always true!
So if you like strategy, it’s really okay to say you’re actively interviewing when you’re not.
However, after an interview, when they have not heard anything, many candidates send messages to the recruiter who arranged the interview or to the employer, in which they claim to have another job offer that they wish to accept, and in which they explain that they need an answer immediately in order to be able to accept or decline the other offer… Most of the time these candidates lie, they have no other offer, they are just tired of waiting for an answer and want to force the employer to give one. Never do this, this tactic doesn’t work to get a response after an interview. When it’s too obvious that you’re lying, it backfires. If you have indeed received another job offer, accept it before it passes you by. If you haven’t heard back from an interview, don’t wait for an answer; just keep looking!
