Direct and Personal Questions at an Interview

Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

MugsGame said:
You would probably win a small settlement at tribunal.
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In the case of Noonan vs Accountancy Connections, the claimant was awarded €10,000 for age discrimination during the recruitment process. Hardly a small sum...
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

Hi Vanilla, the interviewer on the first round was there and his boss who is based elsewhere. No one from HR was present at any stage.

He seemed like a nice, friendly guy, said I would have all his assistance/support if I was successful. Which I will need because even though I have the experience/background this will be a tough position, I've done my research.

I suppose my main question is would they have asked a man all those questions ?

I'm understand they don't want soemone to join and be gone in 6 months time but sure that could happen to anyone, male/female, single/married so thats why I object to the questioning.

They consistently spoke about the challenges and factors I will come up against, and that to be honest is why I want the job...I want a challenge, I could not emphasize this to them enough.

Decision time is on Monday, fingers crossed I get it. If I don't I'll be asking for interview feedback without a doubt.

Thanks everyone.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

Would they have asked a man the same questions?

I suppose it depends on the intent behind the question. If it was time filling, getting to know you, without an agenda, maybe. If the interview was a very focused one without this kind of interpersonal chat, then I doubt it.

I wouldn't necessarily let these questions stop me from taking a job unless I felt that the working environment would be discriminatory. Sometimes people say the wrong thing but they might not actually be bad to work for. As I said I've had some un PC bosses in my time but they were fine to work for. As an interviewee you are an unknown quantity to be assessed in whatever objective manner they can. While I think they were wrong to ask those questions I wouldnt condemn them for it immediately.

When you start working for someone there is more of a personal relationship between you and management and more of give and take. I say all this and I do still believe that many women are discriminated against in the workforce. I do believe that it's getting better. Perhaps I should be saying to you to stand up for your rights and take a case against them to stop this kind of thing happening again. But at a very practical level if you want this job and whilst in the job you won't be discriminated against then you do have to make a practical decision.

It might well be that if you do take the job and you have a good working relationship with this person in the future that you could steer him away from this type of questioning in future interviews.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

Hi DreamerB,

just seen your post thanks. I was pretty appalled myself.

I agree with your suggestion and I deffo without a doubt will follow it through, Whether I get the job or not.

My job will include recruit and select and I'll be managing it and intend to educate them on their questions etc. If I don't get it I will still send in a letter outlining how I feel about it and await their feedback.

Either way I'll draw attention to it.

C.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

ci1 said:
My job will include recruit and select and I'll be managing it and intend to educate them on their questions etc.
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Oh what delicious irony! Maybe they were trick questions to see if you'd tell them they were wildly inappropriate :p .

Seriously, hope you get the opportunity to commence their re-education :) .
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

At a recent interview I was asked what my father an siblings did for a living.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

If I was asked that I'd be very tempted to reply that they all died in a car accident!

ci1, were you asked if you play sports?
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

KalEl said:
Only my opinion but I think you are being over sensitive.
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You are in no way being oversensitive. It is most definitely NOT OK to ask these questions. It's frankly astonishing that anyone at a large international company would ask these. If you don't get the job you will most definitely have a case for discrimination.

Even if you do get the job, however, you should probably be wary. It's possible of course that you were simply interviewed by an incompetent interviewer, but again this could itself be cause for concern. E.g. would you want to work for a company that uses incompetent interviewers to hire your colleagues?

Oops - just noticed that part of your job would be that. Interesting that they would want you to do this if you have little or no experience of same? (I assume this because you were unsure of whether the questions were inappropriate or not?)
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

Ok go easy but I haven't been for an interview for years, 'n years 'n years but do you not put your date of birth and marital status on your CV anymore? Seem like very stupid questions to ask someone if it's the second intereview stage, you'd think they would at least read the CV or Application Form before interviewing!!
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

they did ask if I had hobbies yeh...one of them happens to be martial arts, they kinda just looked at each other baffled.

He just was not aware of the seriousness of the questions he was asking I don't think. I was actually waiting on him to ask if I was gonna go and get pregnant...it seemed thats where he was leading, thank God he didn't.

In my previous job I interviewed, but there was not a high turnover of staff, therefore I did not interview of lots of people, but I have done workshops and courses in management and interview techniques are covered so I have the relevant and appropiate questions and things to look for in my industry.

Whats really pi**ing me off deep down is that despite knowing the questions were not appropriate I let him away with it. I should have pulled him up or asked relevance of the questions to the job but I didn't simply because I thought it would jeopardise my chance, that maybe I would come across as awkward or cocky.

but as I said either way they won't get away with it.

C.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

Vanilla said:
Would they have asked a man the same questions?
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Last time I went for an interview (admittedly back in the early nineties) I was asked if I had children, how many, what ages, etc. When I replied, the (not very old) woman on the panel rolled her eyes and said sure I was barely more than a child myself! (I was then in my late twenties. Maybe I 'looked younger', too! ;)) One of the men present also ventured helpfully that 'that must keep me busy'...

Anyway, I got the job and have been there since. I get the feeling that a lot of these inappropriate questions are attributable more to benign ineptitude — a throwback to when 'these things were simpler'? — than to anything sinister or intentionally discriminatory. However, I'd certainly follow up if the outcome isn't positive! Discrimination doesn't have to be shown to be intentional for it to be against the law.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

I just think if you actually want the job rocking the boat isn't necessarily the best approach. If it was me, and I was asked something inappropriate like my sexual orientation I would weigh up the pros and cons of how I answer. Would I just answer the question and make a mental note that the interviewer is a fool? Or do I kick up an almighty fuss about the inappropriateness of the question? If I wanted the job, I'd do the former.
Having said that, I admire your principles.
Best of luck whatever you do.
 
Re: Personal Questions at an Interview

ajapale said:
How about this for an inappropriate question?
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Now that is bizarre...I remember being asked at an interview whether I lived at home. Was that inappropriate? I did at the time and so I said yes. The partner doing the interview said that was good and carried on.
 
The questions were intrusive, but the company wanted to gauge if you had ties, and would stay with the company.

Career driven because you are single - they are afraid you may meet a man and may relocate & leave your job

If you live at home/rent - they think you may be afraid to take a risk and buy your own house. They could think you are 'bad with money' and not able to save. They could also think you spend weekends getting pissed and are fit for nothing on Monday morning

Also, if you live at home, they may try to get away with paying you a low salary, as you wouldn't have household bills.

If you have a house - good, because you have to work to pay your mortgage, and will stay in your job, be committed etc

If you are married/partnered - good, because you won't have a holiday romance and leave your job to be with your new love.

When I was being made redundant from a job a few years ago, they gave us CV/ interview coaching. I had always put 'single' and my age on my CV. (I was about 30 then). The career coach told me not to put my marital status on my CV, as the interviewer could think 'single people have no ties, and may move jobs more readily than marrieds'. In fact, I would have thought it good to say that I'm single, as I wouldn't be taking time out on maternity leave with babies.
 
In 1999, I was interviewing for a very large multinational IT company. Towards the end of the 4th interview of the day, the interviewer very casually asked me if I had kids. I guessed at the time that he was just being chatty (I'm a bloke, btw), but my immediate reaction was to tell him that he couldn't ask me such questions. He responded that he could ask anything I like, but I didn't have to answer. So I answered that I didn't, and was kicking myself that my contrary manner would cost me the job.

Anyway, I got the job (possibly partly because contrariness or at very least assertiveness was very much a requirement in that environment), and after a couple of years, the interviewer in question was promoted to the HR department to be responsible for all recruitment!

But I'm really surprised that this kind of stuff is still happening, particularly in large companies. You would certainly have grounds for a discrimination claim, or you could take a constructive approach and just drop a line to the HR director letting him/her know about their dodgy interviewers.
 
I would have thought that regardless of the reasons behind why the interviewers would ask the questions, if they are discriminatory they shouldn't be asked in the first place!
 
mo3art said:
I would have thought that regardless of the reasons behind why the interviewers would ask the questions, if they are discriminatory they shouldn't be asked in the first place!
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Surely questions alone are not discriminatory? I would have thought a problem only arises if the decision on who to recruit is based on the information gleaned from those questions.
 
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