What’s The Worst Thing You’ve Been Asked In An Interview?
Everyone’s got something.
Job interviews are stressful and horrible because they’re essentially like mini-dates, but for your livelihood and financial security instead of love. There you are, in a scratchy sweater and weird shoes, smiling while an HR person checks their phone surreptitiously between questions about the resumé you’re both looking at. If you have a job interview and you’re worried about what they might ask and how you should handle it, Google’s got you: Googling “interview questions” brings up 35,000,000 results.
One could say that all interview questions are “bad” because an interview can feel like a re-enactment of a conversation like you’d see on Unsolved Mysteries more than anything else. But, as per CNBC, there are three interview questions that definitely shouldn’t be asked.
3 interview questions that’ll catch you off guard (because they shouldn’t be asked)
Here they are:
- “Your impressive education background must’ve cost a pretty penny”
- “Where are you originally from?”
- “Do you and your spouse want kids someday?”
The first is a not-so-subtle fish about your personal finances. The second is a probing inquiry about your race and, as CNBC sees it, possibly whether or not you’re legally allowed to work in the country. The last could be an attempt on the interviewer’s behalf to get information about you that, if hired, could be used against you. Or it’s just a friendly way of making conversation, though that is not the kind of thing I’d ask someone I had just met.
These are bad questions to be sure, and questions that you shouldn’t feel like you have to answer. I thought long and hard about the worst thing that I’ve ever been asked in a job interview and couldn’t think of anything as egregious as these examples, though I suffer from interview-induced blackout syndrome and have since forgotten everything I’ve ever been asked in a job interview as a result.
What’s the worst possible thing someone could ask you in a job interview? Was it about your weight? Your hair? Where you went to school and why that was a good or bad or fine choice? What do you even do in a situation like this? How do you handle it?
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