4 ms·

The meat of the article: After you have narrowed the pool of applicants down to those with the skills, experience, and knowledge to do the job, ask each candid

The meat of the article: After you have narrowed the pool of applicants down to those with the skills, experience, and knowledge to do the job, ask each candidate one question: What do you do in your spare time? [...] people are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them. Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success. Understand a person's obsessions and you will understand her natural motivation. The thing for which she would walk to the end of the earth.

cperciva 18y ago
What do you do in your spare time? IANAL, but I've heard warnings that this question might be illegal since (a) it isn't directly related to an applicant's ability to do a job, and (b) it is likely to reveal information about the applicant's marital status, children or lack thereof, ethnicity, and/or religion.
- astrec 18y ago
  It's not illegal to ask a question which in answering, the applicant may offer such information. Illegal: Are you a U.S. citizen? Where were your parents born? What is your native language? Legal: Are you authorized to work in the U.S.? What languages do you speak? Illegal: Are you married? Do you have, or plan to have children? Have you ever been divorced? What do you do for child care? Legal: Are you willing to relocate? Are you willing and able to put in the amount of overtime and/or travel the position requires? Illegal: Are you a U.S. citizen? What is your religion? Are you practicing? Legal: Does your religious affiliation, if any, interfere with your working in this position? Illegal: How old are you? Legal: Are you over 18? The very first interview question I ask is "Tell me about yourself".
  - cperciva 18y ago
    It's not illegal to ask a question which in answering, the applicant may offer such information. In all of the examples you give, the "legal" question is askking something directly relevant to whether the applicant is able to perform a job. What someone does with their free time may give you some insight into how well they would do a job, but it's far less directly connected.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      You can't ask questions about: * Marital or family status (ask a working mother about this one if you want your blood to boil) * Age, apart from legality to work * Sex or, in most places, sexual orientation * Citizenship, ancestry, race, or national origin, apart from legality to work * Disabilities of any kind * Home address Most questions that would be reasonable in normal conversation are OK in a US interview, so long as they don't pertain directly or indirectly to "race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age". You are not strictly limited to questions that directly pertain to a candidate's ability to do the job. In most private business settings, you can legally choose not to hire someone for any number of subjective reasons. Not staying up late to work on open source projects is certainly one of them. On the other hand, if you have a strong preference for someone who codes in their spare time, and you care about not being a douche, you should mention that preference in your job requirements. It's not cool to waste people's time.
    - astrec 18y ago
      Indeed, but that doesn't make it illegal.
  - arockwell 18y ago
    Why can't you ask if someone is a US citizen? I thought certain jobs (e.g., DoD contractor needing security clearance) required citizenship? Or are you only allowed to ask about that in specific circumstances?
    - cperciva 18y ago
      From what I've read, you're apparently supposed to ask "do you have a security clearance" and "are you eligible to get a security clearance" -- i.e., ask the specific question you need answered rather than asking a more general question from which you can infer what you want to know.
      - tptacek 18y ago
        A 5 second Google search will show you that there are plenty of jobs that overtly require US Citizenship. For example, all TSA screeners must be US Citizens. This is kind of a diversion from the real discussion. It's unlikely that anyone reading this board can legally ask interviewees about their citizenship.
    - astrec 18y ago
      Where citizenship is a condition of employment by statute, that condition is usually exempted under anti-discrimination legislation. For example, my little brother is an aerospace engineer designing for the JSF project - "Are you a citizen?" was pretty much the first interview question.
  - tokenadult 18y ago
    Legal: Are you authorized to work in the U.S.? Correct. It is possible to be authorized to work in the United States without being a citizen. Asking about citizenship directly can be illegal because it can be a proxy for excluding recent immigrants who have green cards (permanent residency status) but not citizenship.
- gaius 18y ago
  That's something I've had to deal with (I work for a gaming company) - we always ask if the applicant has any objections to working in this industry (tho' we don't ask why they object). It's a bit weird sometimes, I remember one candidate we asked and he told us a long story about how his father-in-law had lost all his money gambling and how his wife would never let him work in that industry and we're like, so what are you doing here wasting our time? We've also had people quit (after a few months on the job) saying they didn't feel comfortable working in this business... How could anyone not know that upfront?!

cperciva 18y ago

What do you do in your spare time? IANAL, but I've heard warnings that this question might be illegal since (a) it isn't directly related to an applicant's ability to do a job, and (b) it is likely to reveal information about the applicant's marital status, children or lack thereof, ethnicity, and/or religion.

astrec 18y ago
It's not illegal to ask a question which in answering, the applicant may offer such information. Illegal: Are you a U.S. citizen? Where were your parents born? What is your native language? Legal: Are you authorized to work in the U.S.? What languages do you speak? Illegal: Are you married? Do you have, or plan to have children? Have you ever been divorced? What do you do for child care? Legal: Are you willing to relocate? Are you willing and able to put in the amount of overtime and/or travel the position requires? Illegal: Are you a U.S. citizen? What is your religion? Are you practicing? Legal: Does your religious affiliation, if any, interfere with your working in this position? Illegal: How old are you? Legal: Are you over 18? The very first interview question I ask is "Tell me about yourself".
- cperciva 18y ago
  It's not illegal to ask a question which in answering, the applicant may offer such information. In all of the examples you give, the "legal" question is askking something directly relevant to whether the applicant is able to perform a job. What someone does with their free time may give you some insight into how well they would do a job, but it's far less directly connected.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    You can't ask questions about: * Marital or family status (ask a working mother about this one if you want your blood to boil) * Age, apart from legality to work * Sex or, in most places, sexual orientation * Citizenship, ancestry, race, or national origin, apart from legality to work * Disabilities of any kind * Home address Most questions that would be reasonable in normal conversation are OK in a US interview, so long as they don't pertain directly or indirectly to "race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age". You are not strictly limited to questions that directly pertain to a candidate's ability to do the job. In most private business settings, you can legally choose not to hire someone for any number of subjective reasons. Not staying up late to work on open source projects is certainly one of them. On the other hand, if you have a strong preference for someone who codes in their spare time, and you care about not being a douche, you should mention that preference in your job requirements. It's not cool to waste people's time.
  - astrec 18y ago
    Indeed, but that doesn't make it illegal.
- arockwell 18y ago
  Why can't you ask if someone is a US citizen? I thought certain jobs (e.g., DoD contractor needing security clearance) required citizenship? Or are you only allowed to ask about that in specific circumstances?
  - cperciva 18y ago
    From what I've read, you're apparently supposed to ask "do you have a security clearance" and "are you eligible to get a security clearance" -- i.e., ask the specific question you need answered rather than asking a more general question from which you can infer what you want to know.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      A 5 second Google search will show you that there are plenty of jobs that overtly require US Citizenship. For example, all TSA screeners must be US Citizens. This is kind of a diversion from the real discussion. It's unlikely that anyone reading this board can legally ask interviewees about their citizenship.
  - astrec 18y ago
    Where citizenship is a condition of employment by statute, that condition is usually exempted under anti-discrimination legislation. For example, my little brother is an aerospace engineer designing for the JSF project - "Are you a citizen?" was pretty much the first interview question.
- tokenadult 18y ago
  Legal: Are you authorized to work in the U.S.? Correct. It is possible to be authorized to work in the United States without being a citizen. Asking about citizenship directly can be illegal because it can be a proxy for excluding recent immigrants who have green cards (permanent residency status) but not citizenship.
gaius 18y ago
That's something I've had to deal with (I work for a gaming company) - we always ask if the applicant has any objections to working in this industry (tho' we don't ask why they object). It's a bit weird sometimes, I remember one candidate we asked and he told us a long story about how his father-in-law had lost all his money gambling and how his wife would never let him work in that industry and we're like, so what are you doing here wasting our time? We've also had people quit (after a few months on the job) saying they didn't feel comfortable working in this business... How could anyone not know that upfront?!