If an employer asks this at an interview, what should you answer if you’re not currently interviewing somewhere else? Should you be honest and simply say no or is there a way to frame the answer to make it seem you are in demand elsewhere?
“I’m currently in the hiring process of a number of firms for similar positions including competitor 1, competitor 2, and 3. However, I would like to reiterate that your company would be my first choice due to the excellent career opportunities available.”
Firstly, “hiring process” is a very vague term. Simply having gone to the competitior’s website is enough to say you’re in the hiring process. And the second sentence moves focus away from that. The follow-up question is more likely to be, “Why us?” or “What career oppportunities?” for which you should have an answer depending on the firm.
They are asking to see what kind of constraint may or may not exist for the next step, offer, etc.
If they ask you to define hiring process (you have to prepare for all types of question), what would you respond?
In general, I would not expect an interviewer to try and “catch” your words like that. In my experience, they want you to do good just as much as you want to do good. However, in the odd case that they do ask you, you can say, “I’m going through interview phase right now. I expect to hear back in the next few days.” As long as you don’t affirm that you’ve received an offer (unless you have), you can say whatever you want. You don’t want to sound cocky, that’s all.
In fact, it’s perfectly fine to say that since you were so focused on what you wanted to do, you’ve only applied to their firm. In the scenario that you get rejected, you will adjust your goals and apply to x, y and z firms.
It really depends on the situation.