Why does it matter? It actually is a big deal!
If you are the candidate you already know that you need to be very cautious on what you say about your current or recent employer.
But if you are the interviewer, you also need to be careful that you don’t reveal confidential information by accident.
And if you are the person training someone to interview, this needs to be a real point of discussion.
Go to the company’s site map and look at the geographies of existing divisions. Maybe they are already in Japan with plans to be in Vietnam, Malaysia and China in the next five years. The interviewer cannot tell you that.
Or maybe the company has active R&D and Product Development divisions. Maybe they will be extending the current portfolio of products to remain competitive. This is confidential and should not be revealed to you as a candidate.
So what to do?
If you are the interviewer you are representing the company. What is public information? What is not?
If you are the candidate you are trying to read between the lines about future plans the company might have.
But don’t put the interviewer in an awkward position to have to say “Actually, there are plans in the works, but I am not at liberty to share with you now.”
Do you need help on issues like this for interviewing well? We should talk. There is NO CHARGE for a consultation.
