When you ask appropriate interview questions, you can ascertain whether your candidate is a good cultural fit and an excellent job fit for the position you are filling. This emphasis on candidate fit heightens the probability that the candidate will succeed in your organization.
Illegal Job Interview Question Topics
In order to protect job applicants from discrimination, several topics should be avoided during job interviews. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other laws keep employers from asking most or all interview questions that are related to a candidate’s:
Age Medical information Height and weight Race, ethnicity, or color Gender or Sex Citizenship Religion Disability Marital or family status or pregnancy
Especially in the course of a comfortable, informal interview during which participants are relaxed, don’t let the interview turn into a chat session that might encourage the candidate to reveal personal information. For example, avoid conversations that start out with you sharing the challenges of helping your kids with their homework after dinner.
What Are Illegal Questions to Ask in an Interview?
What arrangements are you able to make for child care while you work?How old are your children?When did you graduate from high school?Are you a U.S. citizen?What does your wife do for a living?Where did you live while you were growing up?Will you need personal time off for particular religious holidays?There is a large disparity between your age and that of the position’s coworkers. Is this a problem for you?Have you experienced any serious illnesses in the past year?
If you find your discussion straying off course or eliciting any information that you don’t want, bring the discussion back on topic by asking another job-related interview question.
What to Do When Candidates Offer Unwanted Information
If a candidate offers information, such as, “I will need a flexible schedule because I have four children in elementary school,” you can answer the question about whether your company offers flexible hours and any qualifications that your policy requires for eligibility. Do not, however, pursue that topic further. Another candidate told his interviewer that his favorite spare-time activity was reading the Bible. In the next question, he was asked to discuss why he left his most recent job. The interviewer wisely steered the conversation away from the potentially illegal topic.
Prepared Interview Questions
Using a prepared list of interview questions will help you ensure you select the most qualified candidates for the job. You will want to prepare questions that explore the actual job skills and experience you have identified as essential for the position. Prioritize these skills and experiences and explore them with the candidate. Your reference checks will also provide insight into the knowledge and skills of your candidates. If you already have a working knowledge of the job and the types of qualifications and employees that are successful in the job, you can try to find out from references if the candidate has:
Behavioral characteristics that employees who are effective in the job display Can handle the specific requirements of the position The necessary qualifications
Situation: Let the interviewer know what the specific situation was. For example, where you were working at the time. or what you needed to accomplish in that scenario.Task: Let the interviewer know what you needed to accomplish in that scenarioAction: Describe the steps that you took to achieve your goal.Result: Let the interviewer know what you accomplished or what you learned.
