Job interviewer asks 29-year-old female applicant if she has children despite the fact that asking that is illegal: 'I have been asked if I have kids every single job interview.'

Who is training these interviewers?

Job interviews are a tough nut to crack. As the interviewee, it feels like the interviewer has all the power, and you have to read their cues and say whatever they want to have a shot at the job. You feel like you have to answer every single question, no matter how silly or pointless. "Are you a morning or a night person?" obviously has a right and a wrong answer when you're interviewing for a job that starts at 8 AM. In job interviews, you have your four STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories rolling around in your head, and you have to be incredibly strategic about which answers you give to which behavioral questions.

Job interviews feel like the wild west because it feels like the interviewer can ask you any question, but that's not true. There are a lot of questions a job interviewer can't ask you. They can't ask you if you are an American citizen, where your accent is from, whether your parents were born in this country, or if English is your native language. Job interviewers can't ask you your age because it is illegal to discriminate against workers 40 and over in the hiring process. They aren't allowed to ask about your religion, but they can ask if you can work on weekends. They can't ask you if you're married or have children, but they can ask if you can work overtime.

via Ahmet Kurt (Unsplash+)

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
Just because job interviewers are technically not allowed to ask you about your marital status and children doesn't stop them from doing so, especially to young female employees. They are the demographic that's more likely to be discriminated against for having children because companies don't want employees who are going to go on maternity leave imminently.
My job interviewer is asking about children

via u/Bananajeansgirl
via u/Bananajeansgirl
via u/sacrebluh
via u/Full_Response8449
via u/SomeSamples
via u/inmykaleidoscope
via u/Bright_Upstairs3900
via u/IAM_LordTobias
via u/Visible-Bag-3376
via Sebastian Herrmann

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
via u/Sample-quantity
via u/salsafresca_1297
via u/donksky
via Christin Hume

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}