You’re laser-focused, the pitch is word-perfect and then the prospective employer or recruiter asks a question that makes you uneasy.
The two most common inappropriate questions that caused candidates unease include ‘Are you currently employed?’ and ‘What is your current salary?’
But questions that raised eyebrows include: ‘Do you have school-aged children?’, ‘Where did you go to school?’ and ‘Are you married?’
Candidate should speak up if they feel uncomfortable which would be an indication an employers’ values “do not reflect yours”.
That means, give the job a big miss.
An interviewer is within their rights to ask how you deal with stressful situations.
But, they cannot ask if you suffer from mental health issues.
The difference is the intention behind the question and its relevance to the role.
In most cases, it would also be unreasonable for an employer to ask a candidate:
- If you are in a same-sex relationship
- What your age is
- What your ethnic background is
- What religion you practice
- If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant soon
- Who you vote for
- If you have a specific physical or mental disability
There are exceptions.
If a person applied for a role that required a lot of heavy lifting, it would be lawful and reasonable to ask the candidate whether they had any physical barriers that could prevent them from completing this task.
So, in this case, it may be reasonable to ask if the candidate has a specific physical disability or if they might be pregnant.
Additionally, it would not be considered discrimination in all cases if, for example, an interviewer asked a candidate if they practiced a certain religion where the candidate was applying for a job at a faith-based school.
You are within your rights to return an interviewer’s question with a question of your own and ask them to outline briefly how your answer to their question might be relevant to the job.
In extreme cases, you are within your rights to take legal action against a prospective employer if you believe you have been discriminated against during the interview.
You might like to look at this link for more insane interview questions:
https://www.boredpanda.com/most-ridiculous-job-interview-questions/
For example:
“How good of a liar are you?”
“Uh… I’m an honest person. Not a great liar.”
“Well, we need you to be able to sell a product that you haven’t used before.”
“So you believed me when I said I was a bad liar?”.