By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady
In a recent Advisor, we warned you away from 25 “forbidden” interview questions. Reader feedback ranged from “I didn’t know that” to “Everybody knows that” to “Are you sure you’re right?” to “I’m sure you’re wrong.” Today we sort it all out.
Too Simplistic
Regarding our list of forbidden questions, one reader said, “This is a bit of an insult to anyone in HR with any experience.” Well, we know that experienced HR professionals will find some of our articles too basic or simplistic. We do have a large audience, however, and many of our readers are fairly new to the profession. (Interestingly, the “forbidden questions” issue had a higher than normal readership, and we received feedback from people thanking us for steering them away from questions they didn’t realize were off-limits.)
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Can You Ask if People Are Under the age of 65?
One reader wrote to question the acceptability of asking whether a person was “under 65.” That was in response to our statement that while you can’t ask candidates how old they are, you may ask, “Do you meet the state minimum age requirement for work?” and “Are you over 18 and under age 65?”
The reader’s question was a good one. It turns out that the information about permissible age questions was inadvertently taken from an earlier edition of BLR’s HR Audit Checklists, and it has been removed from the current edition.
The reason is that although asking if a job candidate is under a certain age is not forbidden in certain circumstances, in most cases it should be avoided. The question would be permissible when interviewing for jobs with mandatory retirement ages, including state and local police and firefighters (55-60), federal firefighters (57), federal law enforcement and corrections officers (57), air traffic controllers (56, if hired after 1972), and commercial airline pilots (65*).
Again, these are very limited exceptions, and in the great majority of cases, it would be inappropriate to ask a candidate if he or she is under the age of 65.
‘Tell me about your organizations’–Our mea culpa
Other readers wondered why they shouldn’t ask question #9, “Do you want to tell me about any of your memberships relating to the performance of this job?”
Again, readers got it right. This was supposed to be the example of an acceptable question. The forbidden question should have been, “Tell me about your clubs and organizations,” as that broad question is likely to elicit information about the candidate’s ethnic, cultural, and religious background that you have no business purpose for asking about. We apologize for the confusion.
How long do you plan to work for us?
Another reader questioned why she couldn’t ask a candidate, “How long do you plan to work on this job?” Our expert defended the question, saying its inclusion on the forbidden list is intended to prevent the solicitation of protected information such as pregnancy, medical conditions, and family/lifestyle issues. In addition, with older candidates, it could raise questions about age discrimination.
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‘I kicked myself’
One reader wrote to share a personal experience: “I thought you might enjoy a question I was asked in an interview: ‘If your husband was asked to sum you up in one word, what would that be?’ My answer revealed that I was unmarried, and I kicked myself for being so gullible.”
Your Turn
As always, readers, thank you for the feedback. If you would like to share your best interview questions (the ones you’ve found elicit the most meaningful information) or worst questions (the ones you’ve encountered that are illegal, illogical, or embarrassing), or even your most humorous interview questions, send them in, and we’ll compile them in a future column.
Again, thank you for your feedback.
The HRDA Team
[*The mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots was raised from 60 to 65 in late 2007. We originally reported the lower number. Thanks to an alert reader for the heads up.]
I have found over the years that it is a good practice to try and determine if the one being interviewed can “think on their feet” and problem solve. One of the ways I have attempted to solict this information is by asking these questions:
1. You have told me why you should be selected or offered a postion with my company. Give me one reason why we should not offer you a position. (Although you may see some strange looks this can tell you several things first how well do they believe in themselves and can they think in a positive way.) How would you answer the question?
2. Tell me how many quarters stacked on their edge it would take to reach the top of the empire state building? (This may appear to be a trick question. I have received several responses that range from I do not know to one. The interest is not in the actual numbers but to find out if the one being interviewed can solve a simple math problem and expalin how they would do it.) The mathmatical annwer if I did my math correctly would be approxmiately 17,457.6 quarters.