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Normal for recruiters to ask for last 4 of your social / dob on first call?
- liquidcool 10y agoAbsolutely not. I hire engineers, for myself and others, and the last thing I want to know is how old you are. Are they insane? I can't think of an easier way to set yourself up for an age discrimination lawsuit. Also, for third party recruiting, I've never asked for anything related to an SSN. The hiring company may ask for that for a background check, if it is contingent on an offer, but not from me. I'm wondering if this another situation where the recruiter is not in the country the job is in, because someone wanted to pay pennies on the dollar.
- blunte 10y agoFYI, it's legal to ask for age in Europe. And in any case, if you give your bachelor's completion date, they can do the math to approximate for most people.
- cm2187 10y agoI don't think it is legal in the UK. I mean it might not be illegal as such, but it would make the employer a sitting duck in an age discrimination lawsuit.
- bshimmin 10y agoIn the UK, it is "against the law" (from the "Overview" page) to discriminate by asking for a DOB: https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recrui...
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoThat page says discrimination during recruiting "may" be illegal, and that you "shouldn't" discriminate on age. It should say "is" and "mustn't" if it's certainly against the law. My main problem with gov.uk is this fault to make clear the position of its advice in respect of the law, IMO it should link the appropriate legislation/caselaw as citations to prove the position it contends.
- daurnimator 10y agoIt is okay to discriminate for some jobs if the position requires it e.g. you can't be a bar tender if you're < 18.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoYou can't work full-time under 16yo, so all jobs require age verification??
- teddythetwig 10y agoIn The Netherlands it is extremely common for applicants to put a picture of themselves on their resume... I find this pretty messed up.
- staticelf 10y agoOne fucked up thing about my home country Sweden is that it's totally legal with age discrimination and even the state is doing it all the time. For example, at specific jobs in the government you get extra holidays if you're above a certain age. Why they think older people deserve more holiday is beyond me. It has nothing to do with how long you've worked there since a 29 year old that has worked there in 10 years wouldn't get as much vacation as a 40-year old that recently was hired. It has nothing to do with experience. Just age. I can say as a young developer, I have felt this age thing several times at companies. They just don't give you the same salary or take you as serious because of the age. It doesn't matter how skilled you are or how much value you provide to the company.
- geomark 10y agoThat's kind of interesting, sort of reverse age discrimination. Although, does that mean they tend to prefer younger hires since they will take less time off work?
- gcp 10y agodoes that mean they tend to prefer younger hires since they will take less time off work? Yes, that's usually how that works. Note also the salary aspect the OP already pointed out: they can get away with paying a younger person less, because this discrimination is industry wide and extremely entrenched.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eveningcoffee 10y agoSalary discrimination looks like a different issue. But again, you should worry more if it was reversed as you can see that your life experience is valued and not regarded as wasted. But I do not consider this healthy for the society if the disparity is too big. It is hard for me to say if this is justified. Perhaps you could talk with more people about this (in neutral manner) and see why is it actually like this?
- 10y ago
- imsofuture 10y agoNo. Or maybe, for an awful recruiter. Just bounce.
- walrus01 10y agoOh, hell no. That's a scam.
- pmiller2 10y agoNo. Run, don't walk away. There's no need to reveal that information until you've at least got a firm job offer.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- sangupta 10y agoMust be a scam
- sofaofthedamned 10y agoI've had this recently in the UK where the client is Capita, who do insist on it.
- blunte 10y agoAnd just like companies that insist on using the truly horrible painful Taleo system for their job interface, I just say "NEXT" and find a better opportunity.
- sofaofthedamned 10y agoA million times yes! Especially when you can't right-click a job into another tab. Where do they find these people, and who keeps paying them?!
- walshemj 10y agoDid they ask for NI no as well?
- sofaofthedamned 10y agoVery good. To clarify - they wanted the last 4 digits of my NI number (in one case they asked for the entire thing) as well as DOB. In one instance the agency asked for the full NI number, probably because it's easier to ask/parse than the last 4 chars for some people, not due to Capita requirements.
- DanBC 10y agoAre there any public examples of this? I'd be interested in taking it forward to regulators. The tiny bit of searching I've done so far have Capita including text similar to "We're an equal opportunities employer". I know a couple of politicians who'd be interested too.
- sofaofthedamned 10y agoTo clarify - this was for contract positions, i've no idea whether it's the same for perm. It's hard to see online as it's the recruitment agency who ask for it as they have to then input it into Capita's systems. But certainly any contract role for a government agency in Blackpool is likely to be the DWP, they recruit through Capita who definitely have this requirement.
- jakebasile 10y agoScam. Block their number/email.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- danaliv 10y agoRun like the wind.
- petters 10y agoNo The interview training at my company mentioned age as one of many things we were forbidden to ask about. SSN? It was so obviously disallowed it was never mentioned.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hoodoof 10y agoPhishing.
- withdavidli 10y agoIf you're in the US the most common time for that info to be collected is at the offer acceptance stage. This is usually a form you fill out for their HR system. This might be different depending on the country. I've seen CVs that have SSN/DOB/Marriage/Picture/Driver License because where they are located that's normal info to have on there.
- unwind 10y agoI totally didn't get this, but inferred from a comment: "dob" in this context means "date of birth".
- jablan 10y agoalso: social apparently meaning social security number. some American thing obviously.
- throwaway2016a 10y agoNo, DoB is always Date of Birth. SSN is Social Security Number. But in the US you can really easily get DoB from the SSN.
- Kiro 10y agoWhat does last 4 refer to in this case?
- dmatthewson 10y agoThe last 4 digits of his SSN. The last 4 are often used as a default password for financial accounts and to verify identity over the phone. Along with the date of birth (dob). It's a bad idea that it's used so much for security, but it is. It's a good thing for scammers to have and asking for it and the dob in this context is a huge red flag.
- magoon 10y agoPreying on job seekers is abhorrent. Try to find out who they are so that you can report them.
- sharemywin 10y agoSome candidate submission systems at larger companies use that info to get a unique id so recruiters don't double submit candidates. At least that's what the told me. Not sure if it's true or not.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- JSeymourATL 10y agoEmployers, like your phone company and gas company, use your SSN to identify you in their databases because it’s a unique number. It’s the lazy vendor’s way to track customers, and the lazy HR department’s way to track job applicants. And it’s frankly irresponsible. > http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/7696/wanted-hr-exec-with-the-guts-to-not-ask-for-your-ssn http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/7696/wanted-hr-exec-with-the...
- dczmer 10y agothere is no reason for the SSN digits unless you actually get a legitimate offer. there should be no reason to even ask your DOB at this stage, but that's slightly less worrying. but most of all, i've never gotten a job from a recruiter that was worth it. they are trying to get a commission and that is all. apply directly for jobs YOURSELF. stay away from 3rd-party recruiters.