Job application demands candidate tell them their parents' professions when they were 14: 'Do they want our parents' resume too?'

Ally Perry • Writer and Editor

Jun 29, 2026 7:45 PM EDT

Have you ever felt like a job application has become a little too personal?

As the standard required for a completely ordinary email job seems to be getting higher with every passing day, the process of applying for even the most unimpressive of roles is undergoing rapid change. The kind of work that would once be agreed on with a five minute conversation and a firm handshake (or so the Boomers say) is now a multi-stage extravaganza with all kinds of steps designed to make you fail.

A lot of companies these days are big on 'getting to know' their applicants, and at times, this can mean making requests or asking questions that are uncomfortable and even inappropriate. In an age where an increasing number of employees value a separation between their work and personal lives, it is especially startling to be faced with a potential employer who wants to go poking around in things that could easily stay private. Understandably, a lot of job applicants would consider that a major red flag for how the experience of working for the company is going to be. Crossing boundaries like that before you even so much as score an interview raises some serious questions, and they aren't the kind an employer is likely to appreciate.

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One job applicant was stunned to find a question on the job application they were filling out, wondering what its relevance could be to the role that they were applying for. The employer wanted to know the occupation of the main breadwinner in their family home when they were 14 years old.
While some had theories as to why this may have been of interest to a company, many others felt it was simply another example of taking an interest into the lives of potential employees too far. Most people just want a dependable salary, not the feeling that a hiring manager is staring into their soul.
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In today’s episode of application questions asked:

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