help on this interview

[apn]

I have a phone interview tomorrow for a role which involves identifying objectives for institutional clients, designing portfolios, interacting with operations and the client in making sure their needs and portfolio objectives are correctly aligned. Meanwhile I today saw another opportunity with the same co for a manager due diligence position which is more interesting and which I would like to do. Can I ask the HR manager about the position tomorrow at the end of the conversation. Is this acceptable or would this show that I am not interested in the current position and hence would reflect badly on me? Need help from this forum. Thanks

 

[skahammer]

This is a tough one. The dept you're interviewing with could be very proprietary about recruitment prospects or not -- and you have no way of knowing which is correct.

My instinct is that asking general questions about the other position is all right -- as long as you start out asking them in a "Finding out about the firm" tone. Then you have to scrutinize the answers you get to determine if you can push on to actually express your interest in the other position, without screwing up your current opportunity (your "bird in the hand"). Remember, quite possibly the firm won't consider you for the other position, in which case you'd be risking your current opportunity for nothing.

If it's just a phone interview you're having, I probably wouldn't be inclined to push it very far. I'd much prefer trying to express this other interest face-to-face.

A contact within the firm -- a fellow alumnus, a friend of a friend, anything -- could really help you here. Any chance of that?