Dear Annemarie

During a few recent interviews, I have been asked ‘inappropriate’ questions by interviewers about children and my age. I thought these types of questions were illegal?

– Sharon.

Dear Sharon,

Unfortunately, I’d have to say that quite a few of our subscribers have been asked inappropriate questions, namely women, around age and children.

Funnily enough, the ‘age’ question stretches from younger women through to more mature aged women. I had one woman contact me a few weeks ago, furious that a recruitment agent had contacted her and after the initial introductions etc, one of the first questions was about her age. The recruiter sounded extremely young on the telephone and the candidate was quite shocked by the question and asked the recruiter what relevance her age had to her being able to perform the functions of the role properly. Of course the recruiter couldn’t answer the question and as you can guess, the candidate had no further contact.

As you may be aware, here in Australia you cannot discriminate against so many things, including religion, age, gender, political affiliation – and the list goes on. A company/recruiter needs to be extremely careful about what they state in advertising the role right through to interviewing the candidate. So if a company needs to find out pertinent information from a candidate, it’s how they frame and structure the question that can make a huge difference.

Several months ago I was working with a client who worked in the construction industry as a Workcare/OH&S Safety Inspector. Now that industry is a male dominated industry to say the least, however she had far more experience and qualifications than many of her male counterparts. So we put together a strong case right from the outset. We knew that the interview panel would probably have concerns about her working within this industry (which can get pretty rough and tough) so rather than leaving this potential concern unspoken and leaving any doubts and concerns in the minds of the interviewers, she brought this discussion to the table herself and presented examples and situations of how she (as a woman) had handled herself, even in the thick of confrontations with angry construction workers etc, and how she had continued to make significant contributions in the industry. Bringing this out openly was a strategic move on her behalf and the fact that she was a woman no longer was an issue.

Perhaps her story may provide some insights on how you could approach this situation?

All the very best Sharon. Drop me a line at info@a-e-c.com.au and let me know how you go.

Annemarie