09/08/2012
When one prepares for a job interview, one keeps in mind the most obvious questions like:
- What is your greatest weakness?
- What is your greatest strength?
- Describe your work style.
- How do you handle stress and pressure?
- What are your salary expectations?
Sometimes, however the questions can be different- in fact intrusive and inappropriate. The interviewer at times it seems wants to put the interviewee in a figurative electric chair and make him/ her the receiving end of a volley of outrageously annoying questions.
The first question the Editor of a magazine had asked me was, “Are you married?” I replied I was unmarried. He then enquired as to how old I was. He replied, “You are 33 and yet not married! Are you divorced but hiding it?” I replied that I was never married and actually couldn’t understand why he was asking me bizarre personal questions. Undeterred he told me, “I am trying to figure out due to what defect guys go on rejecting you.” I had a leg injury at that time and was walking with a very slight limp. “Now, I have understood the reason. What is wrong with your leg? You must be disabled from birth and are trying to hide it. In this condition it will be tough for you to get a boyfriend. This is a blessing in disguise for your career- if you had a boyfriend you would be very unmindful in your work.”
The Editor of yet another publication snapped at me, “Your CV is incomplete. Please learn how to make a complete CV. I am giving you the format for an ideal CV.” That CV format had the most infuriating questions asking for my age, height, weight, caste, religion, health problems, zodiac sign, time of birth, place of birth, whether I was manglik, bank balance, investments, previous criminal record if any and what the professions of my mom, dad, siblings, uncles, aunts and grandparents were. On getting to know that my late father was a doctor, he said, “Get me some proof that your dad was really an MBBS doctor and not a quack. Had he been a real doctor how come he had a fatal heart attack at 48?”
He told me that the interviewee’s religious, social, financial and family background were of utmost important. He also needed to know if I was in jail before. Also he had hired an in-house numerologist and prospective employees would have to give their birth details so that they could make their horoscopes. I heard that they would even make their employees wear ‘lucky’ gem stones and would insist that they even change their names for numerological reasons. Right in front of me, the bearer was breaking coconuts on the office computers. The Editor explained, “The computers are malfunctioning. So we are doing a puja so that they start working.” He then asked, “Will you be joining your colleagues in pujas like these?”
I told him that I refused to work in an office like this. He tore my CV and shouted at me, “Get lost!”
While leaving the office, I heard him tell the next candidate that he mistrusted the community from which he hailed. The candidate who was in badly need of a job was pleading, “I know I am a Muslim photographer but .....”
A friend who had gained weight because of an ailment was asked at an interview, “Why are you so fat? Do you go on eating all day and never ever exercise?” She was then warned of all the obesity induced diseases that she could have. She wasn’t given the job with the reason, “Sorry, for a health magazine we only hire someone who is health conscious and can keep her weight under control.”
My hairdresser friend who had recently separated from her husband was asked at a job interview, “So how are you doing after the separation? How are your kids coping?” To intrusively gauge her financial status she was asked, “Where do you shop- at Oberoi Mall or Lokhandwala Market?” (One needs to be affluent to shop from Oberoi Mall whereas the middle class may prefer Lokhandwala Market.)
The United States of America has a very strict decorum on what questions can and can’t be asked by the prospective employer. The interviewer can’t ask questions on any of these topics: age, birthplace, being physically challenged, marital/family status, political preference, national origin, race and religion. Any interviewer breaking these rules can face a law suit.
If we are badly in need of a job we are sometimes afraid to firmly tell the interviewer that he/ she has crossed his line. The needier we are for a job, the more may a sadistic interviewer harass us.
We should learn how to put our foot down when we are asked harassing questions. After all an interview should be an amicable face to face interaction in which the interviewer is trying to gauge the prospective interviewee’s caliber without intimidating him/ her. If the interviewer has been objectionable we have every right to retaliate and lodge a complaint against him/ her. After all the interviewee’s chair should not be a figurative electric chair!
