Working in an office hasn’t been so bad. I’ve learned many important business skills. For example, I’ve learned how to interview people.
There are good ways and bad ways to interview people. Questions that may naturally spring to an interviewer’s mind can be the wrong ones to ask. Sometimes, those questions can even be illegal. It’s the hiring manager’s responsibility to understand the difference between a good and bad question.
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s easy to misunderstand which is which. Therefore, today I’d like to discuss the difference between good and bad interview questions.
Bad Question: How old are you?
This seemingly innocuous question is actually forbidden by law. It could lead to a charge of age discrimination.
Ask Instead: Do you like to watch reruns of “The Golden Girls”? OR: What were you doing when General Robert E. Lee surrendered?
Bad Question: You have an interesting name. Are you Muslim?
It is unlawful to ask about an applicant’s religious background.
Ask Instead: Compare and contrast Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ with The Koran. Hypothetically speaking, which do you think is least likely to be deemed blasphemous and hurled into a pit of fire by the One True God that rules us all?
Bad Question: Are you married?
It is not legal to ask about an applicant’s marital status.
Ask Instead: Can you please hold up both your hands? IF RING IS VISIBLE: So, who gave you that?
Bad Question: Who takes care of your children?
You may not use a candidate’s personal commitments as a reason to disqualify him or her from employment.
Ask Instead: Are you comfortable with a working environment in which those who stay late and work long hours are more likely to get promoted?
Bad Question: What organizations do you belong to?
It’s not legal to inquire about personal affiliations that may lead a hiring manager to disqualify the candidate based on political or other grounds.
Ask Instead: After we finish this interview, I’m heading off to meeting of Men Who Shave Their Legs, Cook Dinners, and Save Whales. Would you care to join me? Why or why not?
Bad Question: Do you have any disabilities?
Disabled people are a protected class, and this question may not be asked.
Ask Instead: Do you get to park very near the supermarket and other public establishments? Why or why not?
Bad Question: What are your sexual preferences?
This is a personal and highly inappropriate question.
Ask Instead: Do you like to have sex with geese? (No one could possibly take such a ludicrous question seriously, and therefore the applicant will likely laugh, feel at ease, and cheerfully volunteer actual preferences.)
I interviewed a man to join our staff yesterday, and although I don’t have hiring authority, the decision to hire hinged on my approval. I wish I’d read your questions first. Not having your wisdom, I asked whether he was an extraterrestrophobe (he’s not) and whether he is careful to keep his politics out of the workplace (he is) and why he wears a beard just like mine. (he has no tact)
Haha, that is too hilarious. I’ll have to try some of those sometime.
And you shouldn’t make fun of Men Who Shave Their Legs, Cook Dinners and Save Whales. I’ve been hanging out at their meetings lately in the hopes of meeting someone nice…
While as a second year law student I have no intentions of hiring anyone anytime soon, I guess I should start having intentions of being interviewed soon. This post helps me with my employment law class and to know what questions I might expect as a potential. Thanks for the heads up!
So are all these questions actually forbidden? And is it ok to ask them as long as you already know you have no intentions what so ever to employ the person in question?
[end of serious question]
I’m forwarding this memo to Human Resources directly.
Flip, sure, as long as you have a special fondness for being sued.
how ‘bout that time they asked me if I wet my toothbrush before or after putting toothpaste on it? then gasped when I said, “both”? do I have a case?
An employer once told me, after I had been at the job about 3 months, “Oh, I would have never hired you if I knew you had a 4 month old baby.” Gee, thanks.
Don’t make me report you to the D.O.L.
The Dirty Old Latinos? Or the Denver Olfactory League?
“Do you like to have sex with geese?”
Uh, you aren’t allowed to ask them if they’ll have sex with you!
I was asked once if I made my bed that morning and I replied that I didn’t because someone was still in it. I got the job.
If it’s a guy, is it okay to ask if he enjoys, on occasion, having a penis in his mouth? Is this too specific? What about if you have your penis out when you ask?
The devil truly is in the details, I think.
sometimes Greg, I just have to love you. This is, in fact, one of those times.
Thanks, Greg. Wonder if it’s the same thing here… then I could perhaps make a living suing people instead
Oh, Geese - you crack me up. You seem like you must be a boss fo some kind and yet you’re funny. I’ve never had a funny boss.
Yes, Greg is the boss.
I have a strange urge to either break into “Born in the USA” or give paternal advice to Alyssa Milano. But you’re not wrong...that is, if this was Bizarro World.
you only have to be careful about the geese question if you are actually interviewing a goose. But remember, a goose in the workplace is considered harassment. Heh, I said ass. I can say that, can’t I?
Does Bizarro boss Greg have a sinister goatee so you can tell him apart from mild-mannered manager Greg? Does he look like the bastard child of Han Solo and Ming the Merciless?
Earlier this week, a potential employer said this in the course of interviewing me:
“One thing that does concern me is that you are so young...”
While perhaps flattering, I am in the 25-40 age bracket, so that comment, regarding a job as a secretary, lands somewhere between surprising and unlawful.
“the 25-40 age bracket”.... could you be ANY more specific about your age?
Re: CW’s comment. Why is it only okay to ask that question if it’s a guy? What would (could) be the implications if you asked that of a woman?
Just asking.
At my last job, I had to answer a 1,000 question online personality profile. One question I remember struggling with: “Do you feel like smashing things?” I had to answer: Never/Sometimes/Always.
I said “sometimes” and got the job.