A friend of mine used to interview staff for positions working with disabled kids being kept at home. Often staff were required to take positions contrary to the parents in the interest of the child. To evaluate how they dealt with this kind of stress he would ask them in the interview, “Who did you vote for in the last election?”
The answer he wanted was, “Does this have anything to do with the job?” or maybe, “It’s none of your business.” Any answer along those lines would be met with a smile and and acknowledgement, “Yes you are quite right.” He felt that the people he didn’t want were so put off that they interviewed poorly.
I always find it bizarre that they ask me what my current salary is. I always reply “I’m looking for a figure between X and Y”. Sometimes they want to know “No, what salary are you earning right now?” And then I ask “Well, what salary are YOU earning right now?” I don’t get those jobs, but by then I’ve decided I don’t want them. They’re entitled to know the previous companies and dates of employment that I’m willing to disclose, my academic and professional credentials, and no more. We arrive at salary figures by negotiating them, not by cribbing off my previous employer. If they don’t get that, then they don’t get me.
Um, yeah. That’s pretty much why what the judge said was stupid. He wants to hire a woman because woman are more detail oriented. Just like saying he wants to hire a Chinese because Chinese are good at math. So instead of finding someone who’s good at math, he finds a Chinese. :smack:
But anyway, I know judges who only hire females, and it ain’t because they’re more detail oriented. So it doubles the facesmack.
The most inappropriate questions I’ve ever been asked was during a phone interview for a personal assistant position. The guy doing the interview explained that he was a freelance writer, and he was looking for someone to handle his correspondence, organize his files, run occasional errands, etc. Then he asked, “How tall are you and how much do you weigh?” :eek: I said, “I’m not comfortable answering those questions, and I don’t think I’d be comfortable working for you. Good-bye.” Then I hung up and thanked my lucky stars I hadn’t met the weirdo in person.
ETA: I see that The Surb has already addressed the legality of asking about family status.
Another one that bugs me is needling questions about gaps in employment. As an interviewer, you get to assess whatever employment-related experience and qualifications that I offer you. Beyond assurances that I wasn’t in jail, undergoing rehab, or working for a competitor, you aren’t entitled to know anything about why I occasionally choose not to work or how I use that time.
I’m a consultant in the IT industry. In the past fifteen years, I’ve worked fifteen different contracts, doing everything from help desk to software rollout to web infrastructure support.
“What do you want to be doing in five years?”
How the fuck should I know? I’ve never done the same thing for more than a year and a half.
As a hiring manager I always explore gaps in employment. Here’s why. I need to know:
Why you became unemployed. Were you fired, laid off, or quit? If you were fired or laid off I’d need some reassurance that I wouldn’t want to fire you myself (layoffs in a bad economy don’t raise a flag with me, but a layoff in a healthy company signals housecleaning).
Why you remained unemployed. Was this by choice or did it take you 9 months to find another job? Why didn’t anyone want to hire you?
How long you’ll stick around. Did you go off hiking the Appalachian Trail because you just got bored of working? That’s great, but how long will you stay with me before you decide it’s time for another adventure? I usually want to hire someone who’ll be around longer than it takes to save up for their next vacation.
I’ve hired people who have had gaps in employment for all different reasons, it’s just that it’s a flag that I need more information.
Well, yeah, there are better ways to handle this. “Attendance and punctuality is very important in this job, upon penalty of firing. Is there any external situation or conflict that would prevent you from being 99% present and on-time to this job? If so, what are these, and how can we agree in advance on scheduling arrangements”
I once managed a department of tech support engineers. Our director, who was a devout Christian, implemented a 24x7 on-call pager rotation, saying “And I’m serious… 24x7 means 24x7, you arrange your schedule around it during the week you’re on, and there will be no exceptions except for church.” Instantly, everybody got religion… one guy became a Pentacostal and had to attend church meetings Tuesday, Thursday, and twice Sunday. Another became an Orthodox Jew and could not work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Baptists had Wednesday and Sunday meetings. With me being an atheist, I had to cover an overnight shift nearly every goddamned day.
The exception was ended, and I made sure to tell every interviewee that if they could not pull off a 24x7 pager shift for one week every 6 weeks, not to bother to come back. I did not have to ask them a lame question like “Do you go to church?” Keep it focused on the needs of the job; there is literally no other good way to handle it.
Once I had an interviewer close the interview by asking me two questions:
What kind of car do you drive?
What is your favorite (alcoholic) drink?
It was like she was trying to figure out if I’d fit into the company’s party scene, I dunno. She kind of asked them tongue-in-cheek, but she really did want to know the answers. It was so long ago I can’t remember if they made an offer or even what the company was.
Oh come on. Any smart applicant knows what you’re digging for and knows how to serve up a unverifiable, favorable response. How do you know they really hiked the Appalachian rather than being rejected for job after job because they were unqualified? How do you really know whether they were caring for an elderly relative or not?
Just before one interview, the only other candidate came in and said “Oh! If I’d known you were applying for the job, I wouldn’t have turned up. You’re the best!”
However at the interview they asked:
Are you married?
Do you intend to get married?
Since you have to relocate, will you sign a contract to buy a house within 6 weeks?
I got the job, but left after 3 months (with a whopping 3 months extra salary in compensation).
At a computer programming job, the interviewer asked “We must have such and such expertise. Can you do that?”
It hadn’t been on the job description, so I answered honestly “No. But I’m a quick learner.”
He looked at me carefully. “You’re the first person who’s said that. Thank you for being honest.
I must apologise, because we should have told everyone we needed that. Let me pay all your travelling expenses for today, because we have wasted your time. And I’ll recommend you to our company anytime we have a vacancy.”
Well I think that I’ve been asked one approaching that.
I had a good school education but when I left was totally unfocused,didn’t know what I wanted to do so was in a bit of a limbo.
As a result I came under the attentions of the youth employment service and was sent much against my will for an interview for a labouring job in a factory.
The first (and as it turned out only )question was …
So,why do you want to work in an aluminium products factory then?
Because its always been my lifes dream to have a mindless, boring job that somehow involved aluminium.
I’ve been asked what I’d bring to a departmental potluck–which didn’t bother me as it was part of the chatting with people who I would have worked with from time to time but weren’t really involved in the hiring process.
No offer, but I was so unqualified for the position (if only in my own head) that it wasn’t even funny.
Employers will often try to negotiate with you on salary expectations, but few would think to offer less than what you (claim) to have earned in your previous job. Except during a recession…
And they don’t tend to check with previous employers.
Dumbest interview question I’ve ever had is:
“You have been given the task of painting a room. However, you haven’t been told what colour to paint the room, and you discover three colours of paint: red, green and blue. What do you do?”
…to which I basically panicked. I figured it was a trick question so I said I’d mix the paints up; that way you could use 3 tins worth without painting the room multi-colours.
Afterwards, I thought I’d fucked up, because a single tin would be enough for most rooms, and my solution meant painting the room black!
But it turns out the problem has no solution. It’s just meant to be psychologically interesting what your response is :dubious:
The last job I held (this summer, lasted 3 1/2 months; was nearly suicidal after the 2 month mark) asked all sorts of illegal questions on the application form.
Sex, marital status, age, no. of children, spouse’s job. When I got the application, I almost backed out of the position entirely, but it was the first job offer I’d had since I made the switch from being a COBOL programmer to a .NET developer. I should’ve paid attention to my instincts.
Plus, the job description was for a database (SQL Server) programmer, but the job itself was for a C# .NET developer. My boss was nice enough, if a bit scatterbrained, but the company as a whole was incredibly, mind-blowingly immature. Backstabbing, whining, fear of the big boss, comments that were borderline sexual harrassment. (I worked for a major corporation for nine years and had never dealt with anything even remotely like that).
The job I just mentioned asked that. So I told them what my salary at my last job was…or rather, what it would have been if I’d been working full time. (I was working 25 hours/week as an hourly employee). They ended up giving me a few grand over that.
