A candidate is worried about potentially illegal questions

Q: Last week, I had an interview with a smaller company in Cambridge. I feel like their questions were odd and asked a lot about my private life.  One interviewer asked if I was a citizen, and one asked if I had daycare arranged.  There was also a joke, but not part of the interview. I couldn’t hear all of the joke, but I think it was about candidates and if there were lots of women interviewing.  When I left, I knew this wasn’t the company for me.  It was almost all young men.  There is nothing wrong with that, but I am not sure I would have fit in with all the comments and what I think the culture might be like.  Their website also has all young men.  I looked online and I think some of the questions that they asked may have been illegal. What do you think?

A:  It sounds like you had a difficult and stressful experience. You have good instincts.  Based on what you shared, it was likely that the questions that you were asked were illegal and should not be asked during the interview process. 

Let’s start with the citizenship question.  Candidates should not be asked about US citizenship unless it is a requirement of the job. Some government jobs (or government sub-contractor jobs) require US citizenship. However, the vast majority of jobs do not require US citizenship.  Instead, an interviewer may ask whether you can work legally in the US or not. There are many candidates who can work legally in the US but may not be US citizens. Companies need to make sure that candidates are able to work in the US lawfully but an employer should not demonstrate a preference one way or another. Very few roles in US companies require that their employees are US citizens.   

Questions about childcare should be avoided. It’s none of their business if you have childcare arrangements. An employer can ask if you are able to work specific hours, or if you have planned time off. However, if they ask these questions, then these questions should be consistently asked of all candidates.  For example, it is acceptable to ask: “Are you able to work Saturdays in December since that is our busiest month?”  Or “Do you have any planned time off between now and the end of the year?”  The focus should be on the business, productivity issues and scheduling challenges not your childcare arrangements. 

Small businesses sometimes struggle with hiring and retaining talent. Often the leaders of these businesses have not been trained in how to interview job applicants.  Hiring talent effectively includes asking appropriate, job-related, and legal questions during the interview process.

Sometimes companies don’t realize that their hiring managers are representing the company so poorly and unprofessionally.  It sounds like you would not have been happy there even if you had been offered a job.

I have had a friend experience similar questions. She wrote an email to the CEO of the company.  She did not receive a response but hopefully she alerted the CEO, and he took action.   You could do the same, but it would be your choice whether to do so or not.