Answering Illegal Interview Questions - Part 1

Summary

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Career Tools Podcast Summary

Episode: Answering Illegal Interview Questions - Part 1

Hosts: Sarah & Mark
Date: April 23, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode addresses a common concern among job candidates: illegal interview questions. Hosts Sarah and Mark aim to clarify what constitutes an illegal interview question, how candidates should respond if confronted with one, and whether encountering such questions should impact your willingness to join that organization. While illegal interview questions are a frequent topic of anxiety, the hosts stress that true malintent and legal violations in interviews are far less common than many believe. The discussion focuses on practical action—how to handle these moments with professionalism, compassion, and strategic focus.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Hype vs. The Reality of Illegal Interview Questions

• Frequency & Perception ([01:30]–[02:25])
  • Illegal questions are talked about more than they actually occur.
  • The concern is amplified by the media and candidate vulnerability during interviews.
• Example: Salary questions are now illegal in some US cities (e.g., Philadelphia), but most candidates won’t face numerous illegal queries.
  • Mark: "The intent to actually discriminate is incredibly rare. A lot rarer than people think." ([02:25])

2. Why Most “Illegal” Questions Happen

• Clumsy Interviewers over Villainy ([02:25]–[03:02])
  • Poor training and awkward attempts at conversation are the main cause.
  • Real discrimination is very uncommon.
• Sarah: “It was an interviewer that did not get proper training or someone who was just trying to make conversation, but it just landed so badly that it was embarrassing.” ([02:25])

3. The Candidate’s Strategic Priority: “Win the Interview”

• Process Perspective ([03:02]–[03:46])

  • Getting offers is separate from deciding whether to accept them.
  • Don’t let an uncomfortable question derail your ability to progress and secure options.

• Mark: “There are two parts of interviewing. There's getting offers and then there's taking offers. And you should be trying to get as many as you possibly can.” ([03:02])

4. The Law is Not Black-and-White

• Legal Complexity ([04:14]–[09:00])

  • Rapid, ongoing changes in federal, state, and municipal law.
  • Even HR experts and lawyers struggle to provide definitive answers about legality in every situation.

• Recommendation: Don’t pin the outcome of your interview on your legal interpretation in the moment; few laypeople can reliably make that judgment.

• Mark: “It’s really rare for a lawyer to give a straightforward answer to the very straightforward question. Is that question legal?” ([07:06])

5. The Mental Trap: Overthinking the Moment

• Impact on Performance ([09:00]–[10:30])

  • If you get stuck deliberating whether a question is legal, you lose focus, second-guess yourself, and may underperform in the rest of the interview.

• Sarah: “You can't be good at whatever you're trying to answer with that negative self talk, that negative dialogue in your mind.” ([09:21])

6. Assume Positive Intent

• Default Stance ([10:30]–[22:33])
  • Don't immediately assume the interviewer has bad motives; most are just untrained or making awkward attempts at connection.
  • Building genuine rapport requires assuming good faith.
• Illustrative Example: The case of a manager asking about childcare due to a past negative experience, when what he really wanted to know was about reliability and communication. ([15:27]–[17:49])
  • Solution: Reframe the underlying concern and answer accordingly.
• Memorable Quote:
  • Mark: “Part of success in interviewing is developing a relationship with the interviewer quickly so that she can imagine working with you.” ([10:30])
• Podcast Shoutout: "Assume Positive Intent" episode is frequently cited as a favorite by their community. ([18:19])

7. Clumsy Small Talk and Cultural Context

• Examples of Innocent Questions ([18:52]–[21:45])

  • Questions like “Where are you from?” are often attempts at icebreaking, not a probe into protected status.
  • Mark’s Personal Approach: He asks “Where are you from?” of everyone as an icebreaker and to build connection through shared experience.

• Mark: “The fact that where you're from potentially is a trigger doesn't mean the person who's asking it thinks it's a trigger.” ([21:45])

8. Guidance: How to Respond to Potentially Illegal Questions

• Action-First Recommendation ([23:18]–[25:52])
  • Don’t freeze or confront—answer simply, then move forward.
  • Don’t derail the interview or call out the interviewer unless it’s part of a broader pattern of real discrimination.
  • Show grace—expect that you will also make mistakes and hope for forgiveness.
• Mark: “Whatever you do, bat that fear, uncertainty, doubt, lack of assumption of positive intent out of your head and answer the question no matter what the question is.” ([23:18])

9. Everyone Makes Mistakes—Forgive and Move On

• Recruiter Stories & Forgiveness ([25:52]–[30:02])

  • Recruiters have endless stories about odd candidate behavior—mistakes are normal for both sides.
  • As a candidate, you'll want interviewers to forgive your oddities; so reciprocate when they bungle a question.

• Sarah: “If your interviewer speaks without thinking, please forgive them as well.” ([29:00])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Mark: “The intent to actually discriminate is incredibly rare. A lot rarer than people think.” ([02:25])
• Sarah: “It was an interviewer that did not get proper training or someone who was just trying to make conversation, but it just landed so badly that it was embarrassing.” ([02:25])
• Mark: “It’s really rare for a lawyer to give a straightforward answer to the very straightforward question. Is that question legal?” ([07:06])
• Sarah: “You can't be good at whatever you're trying to answer with that negative self talk, that negative dialogue in your mind.” ([09:21])
• Mark: “Part of success in interviewing is developing a relationship with the interviewer quickly so that she can imagine working with you.” ([10:30])
• Mark: “Assume Positive Intent... it’s mathematically the right choice.” ([22:06])
• Sarah: “If your interviewer speaks without thinking, please forgive them as well.” ([29:00])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:30 — Main questions for the episode introduced
• 02:25 — Discussion on how most “illegal” questions are due to awkwardness, not discrimination
• 05:08 — The challenge HR faces in keeping up with ever-changing law
• 09:00 — The negative impact of overthinking during interviews
• 10:30 — Advocating positive intent and relationship-building with the interviewer
• 15:27 — Wendy’s story about reframing a potentially illegal question
• 18:19 — Reference to “Assume Positive Intent” episode
• 21:45 — Mark’s icebreaker example and the impact of benign questions
• 23:18 — Core guidance: answer, don’t confront or dwell
• 25:52 — Recruiter stories highlight the universality of mistakes in interviews
• 29:00 — Final guidance: forgive mistakes from interviewers as you hope yours will be forgiven

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Takeaway Guidance

• Don’t fixate on legality in the moment—you probably don’t have all the facts, and even experts struggle to make quick, definitive calls.
• Assume positive intent; most interviewers are not malicious, just untrained or awkward.
• Answer the question and move on, even if it seems off; don’t confront or “call out” the interviewer unless there’s a deliberate pattern of clear discrimination.
• Focus on building rapport and winning the offer—you can always turn it down later.
• Forgive mistakes (on both sides)—expect grace for your own, offer it to interviewers as well.

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The next episode (Part 2) will continue this discussion with further actionable advice for candidates navigating tricky interview questions.

Transcript

[Sarah]

Welcome to Career Tools. This is Sarah and I'm Mark. Today's podcast Answering Illegal Interview Questions, Part 1 of 2.

[Mark]

As always, our content has been crafted by humans Me and now certified by Proudly Human. The questions this cast answers are what interview questions are illegal? What do I say when I'm asked an illegal interview question? Should I leave an illegal interview?

[Sarah]

If you want answers to these questions and more, keep listening. You've been listening to Career Tools and applying the guidance, and it's working. But here's the honest truth about career Individual contribution only takes you so far. The next level almost always involves leading people. And leading people, well, requires a completely different skill set than the one that got you here. That's exactly what a Manage youe Tools license prepares you for. Full access to the Manager Tools library, full show notes for every new Manager Tools and Career Tools episode delivered straight to your inbox, and everything you need to become the kind of leader your future team deserves. Don't wait until you're already in a management role to start preparing for a management role. Visit us [e-mail] memberships to find out more. All right, so Mark, we get asked about illegal interview questions a lot.

[Mark]

Way more than reasonable or normal, and

[Sarah]

way more often than we've ever seen examples of any legal interview question being asked in real life.

[Mark]

I'd be willing to bet that's because the business press knows that anything about illegal interview questions on the person who's being people who are being interviewed feel weak relative to the strength of the interviewer. And so they want to know anything that's being done that potentially is skewing the game even further against them. And people are naturally interested in justice, so they don't want things being illegal. Although there have been in the last 10 years or so a couple of more illegal interview questions added to the mix, like salary, for instance. I know Philadelphia, certainly, but I think there are other municipalities, at least in the US and I think more so in Europe, where you cannot ask about salary. But once everybody shares that stuff around.

[Sarah]

Exactly. And folks, most of the time when someone tells a story about how they were asked an illegal interview question, what actually happened was a clumsy interviewer. I mean, it was an individual who tried to say something but didn't express themselves very well. It was an interviewer that did not get proper training or someone who was just trying to make conversation, but it just landed so badly that it was embarrassing. And the intent to actually discriminate is incredibly rare. A A lot rarer than people think. It Is.

[Mark]

Yeah. So today we're going to walk you through what to do, not how to feel, not what the theory is, although we'll touch on some of that. What to do if you find yourself on the receiving end of a question that doesn't feel right. How to think about it, how to handle it, and how to make sure you still walk out of there with the offer. And you may choose if someone makes you an offer, but they've asked you a string of illegal questions and they're actually illegal questions, you may choose not to accept it because it's an indication that they're willing to do illegal things. Totally fair. But remember, there are two parts of interviewing. There's getting offers and then there's taking offers. And you should be trying to get as many as you possibly can.

[Sarah]

That's absolutely it. Okay, so our outline today. We're going to start by talking about being careful because you might not be right about what's illegal. Then don't assume ill intent, at least at first. Then answer the question. Don't call them on your error.

[Mark]

Don't

[Sarah]

interview close. And some guidance on what's illegal and what's not at the end.

[Mark]

Yeah, exactly. Okay, let's start with. And we want you to be careful about. You think you know what's right and what's illegal. And you may not be right unless you're an HR legal expert. And I would like to suggest to you that there's probably a hundred listening that are. But that means there are a hundred thousand who are not. You could be wrong about what's a legal or an illegal area. Please, please, please see past this moment where you think the law is suddenly involved in your interview. And don't let the success of your interview rest on your reaction to a question that you can't be 100% sure is legal or ethical. Okay, don't do that. Win the interview. Use that. Find out whether or not later. But win the interview and don't overreact.

[Sarah]

Yeah, and that's absolutely it, folks. HR law is a fast and constantly evolving area, as Mark mentioned. I mean, there's, there's constantly being new rules added and other rules taken away. For example, HR departments in the United States must navigate over a hundred mandatory labor law changes annually. And if you do the math on it, folks, that's two a week and then no time for holidays in the US Each of the states on top of that have their own laws. And in the first part of this year, 2026 alone, the state of California is implementing 58 new employment law changes.

[Mark]

Yeah, let's go back. Actually, Sarah, you said HR departments in the US must navigate over 100 mandatory labor law changes annually. What we mean by that, it's not clear from that, from that sentence. That's federal.

[Sarah]

Federal, yes.

[Mark]

That's national. That's not state and local. I mentioned Philadelphia. They were one of the leaders in the. You can't even ask what somebody's salary is. Which actually is a very specific law generally. That's not the way the laws are written. The laws are not written to prohibit the asking of a question. And we'll get into that here a little bit later.

[Sarah]

Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, I mean, you're right. You're right. That's federal 100 plus. Each of the states has their own laws. On top of that, on top of that, there's case law from legal cases and tribunals. The number of hiring law cases also goes up during certain events, like recessions, for example. So those.

[Mark]

You wonder why? You wonder why?

[Sarah]

So, yeah, those cause a bunch of additional case law. I mean, folks, it's. It's constantly changing. It's hard for. And I'm sure those, those HR professionals that you mentioned earlier, Mark, it's hard enough for them to keep up. Never mind the layperson, never mind the rest of us.

[Mark]

Yeah, look, okay, so they change a lot. It's rare for a lawyer, actually, for lawyers who are supposed to know this. And by the way, the California bar exam, I think it's. California and New York are the two hardest ones in the country. California's bar exam. And we have some great law schools here. Stanford, ucla, usc, and also Bolt hall at Cal Berkeley. Fantastic. And I don't mean to leave your school out. You may also have one. Those are the four that are most well known. The pass rate is 64%. And those are from kids, you know, from people who went to really good schools. In many, many cases, it's hard. And, and so it's really rare for a lawyer to give a straightforward answer to the very straightforward question. Is that question legal? Okay. And they're not trying to mislead you or work up their billable hours. It's not black and white. There are interpretations. In fact, sometimes lawyers say this is black and white letter law or black letter law, meaning it's actually written this specific way. But if that were the case about all laws, folks, about interview questions, about everything else, we wouldn't have as many lawyers. Shakespeare would be happy because the law would be black and white. And it's not and having an advocate, a good lawyer, makes a difference. Sometimes it's just in the way they position their arguments and so on. So, but, but the point is, if the lawyers, if even the lawyers can't say without knowing all the circumstances, it's unlikely you, you do. We don't mean to suggest though, that you're not made uncomfortable by something, but let's not let your discomfort cross over into, I know, it was a legal violation. So now, folks, we're not telling you this to say we know better than you and you're probably wrong. Okay? What worries us is not whether you think a question is illegal or not, it's what happens next.

[Sarah]

Exactly, folks. The problem is what we see is candidates hear a question, they're not sure about the question, and so they spend 30 seconds, which is a really long time.

[Mark]

People think in an interview, when you're the interviewee, you think 5 seconds is 2 minutes, 30 seconds is the end of an interview.

[Sarah]

Exactly. So you wait 30 seconds, you're, you're thinking, which is super long to yourself and everyone else in the room because you're trying to noodle on this. You're, you're thinking, should I answer? Should I not answer? Should I say I think this question is illegal? Is that going to harm my interview? What's going to happen? What do I do? Eventually what happens is the candidate works out what they're going to do and they say something. And then the remainder of the interview they spend with a second track going on in their head that's constantly second guessing themselves, saying, I can't believe they asked that question. Should they have asked that question? Should have I answered that question? Did I do the right thing? Did they do the right thing? Is this bad? And you can't be good at whatever you're trying to answer with that negative self talk, that negative dialogue in your mind. And so candidates do poorly at the remainder of the interview. And going back to our previous point, you're not even sure whether or not it was an offside question, and now it's just derailed your success, which seems unreasonable.

[Mark]

Exactly. Yeah. Okay, so that's the first bit. All right, now, second item on the agenda on the outline. Don't assume ill intent, at least at first. Okay? Again, you may be wrong if you think the question is illegal and you ascribe ominous intent to the interviewer. You're putting up a barrier between you and them that prevents the relationship from developing. It prevents you from being. Your very best part of success in interviewing is developing a relationship. With the interviewer quickly so that she can imagine working with you. And if you're thinking along these lines, you're essentially keeping that relationship from forming, building. So the person has a good warm feeling about you when they get done talking to you.

[Sarah]

Mm. And, folks, you might just be talking to a clumsy, poorly trained, but well meaning manager. How many times, how many times, Mark, on this show have we talked about the fact that managers aren't trained? People who are interviewing candidates are rarely trained. So most managers being egregiously poorly trained as interviewers, end up fumbling things. And that's part of why HR wants to do the interview, why HR wants to make the offer.

[Mark]

And here's where we get into the gray area. A man is interviewing a woman. The woman is clearly pregnant. She's eight months pregnant, as a gentleman would do to a lady. When are you due? How exciting, right? And the woman interviewee takes that as, oh, he's pointing out my pregnancy. That means he might discriminate against me because I'm pregnant and I might need to get hired and immediately go on maternity leave. No, my job as an interviewer. The laws around interviewing. First of all, I didn't ask you a question, but the laws around interviewing don't preclude me from being a gentleman. I mean, I might even say, you know, that chair is not well padded. Give me a moment, let me go to the next cube, and I'll grab an Eames chair or a Aeron chair rather than the little stick figure chair that I have in my office that nobody sits in for more than 15 or 20 minutes because I do my one on ones in the conference room or whatever. And now suddenly we have an incident and the interviewee is mistakenly going, oh, is that, can he say that? Can he even notice? Should I? I. I don't know. And there's that second track that you were talking about.

[Sarah]

Yeah, that's exactly it. And folks, again, HR wants to get between you and your candidate as hiring managers. And the reason they want to do that is because training is hard. And rather than train you, they'd rather protect the hiring manager by stepping in the middle, because they're better at handling these kinds of conversations. They're better at not sticking their feet directly into their mouth immediately. Now, does this excuse the bad question? Not necessarily. But we would suggest that grace is what we ought to offer an individual who is standing right in front of us and is poorly trained and is trying to build a relationship and is just fumbling around naively, not knowing maybe what they're causing for you candidate in

[Mark]

your head, which, by the way, if you get a tough but fair behavioral interview, you're going to want a little bit grace from them. When you think, oh, darn, I haven't prepared an answer to that one, give me a moment, you're going to want that same thing in return. And look, when we've discussed the kind of discriminatory issues that might come up if somebody were thinking about asking illegal questions. When we talk to managers about why they want to ask these questions in the gray area, it's not because they have some sort of problem with a group of people like a pregnant woman. On the other hand, they may have had an experience with an employee in the past and the background of this candidate is similar to that employee. And they don't know a better way to get at the information they need. So they may be clumsy about it, but that doesn't make it illegal. You might even say, mark, Sarah, it doesn't have to be illegal. I just don't like the. That they were even getting into that area. That's a completely reasonable thing for you to feel. And we recommend you lock that down, lock it away, finish the interview, win the offer, and then if you decide you have a choice, if it's the only offer you get, make an adjustment and say, can I come back in and meet a couple other people? Without saying, I thought the person that I was interviewing with was a bigot. So that you can determine whether or not they are one out of a hundred or whether they're one out of two.

[Sarah]

Yeah. So, folks, an example to kind of illustrate a little bit of what we're talking about here, when Mark says, usually oftentimes a manager asks a question because they've had a bad experience. So some of you know Wendy, Wendy on our team who was here for a really long time, Wendy once worked with an individual, a hiring manager.

[Mark]

Wendy was an HR recruiting expert for IBM and Procter and Gamble and was a genius at it. Still is.

[Sarah]

And this manager was adamant that he should be able to ask women about their childcare arrangements. So Wendy talked to him and discussed the potential legal implications, not just for the company, but for him personally. And he decided that maybe he didn't want to ask that question. And then he followed that up with, rather plaintively, it's just this one time I had this woman work for me and she was forever leaving work to pick up the kids. She'd leave work undone, our customers were hanging. And then she'd not tell me that she'd left, so I couldn't pick it up for her. So, folks, you see from the example, the manager wasn't concerned about childcare at all. What he was really concerned about was whether or not the candidate had rigor in communicating with her manager when she was absent. What her conscientiousness was, her dedication to serving her customers. It had nothing to do with childcare, but the manager, the individual with experience tied to child care, to these negative things that he had seen. So as a compromise, Wendy asked the manager to instead ask, when you've had to leave the office unexpectedly, what steps have you taken to mitigate the effect on your team and your customers? The hiring manager then asked the question, and the candidate answered the question well and got the job, and voila. Childcare is a non issue. But also the hiring manager sometimes needs that. That help. Right, like that, that. Let's connect these two things together and let's create a question that gets to what you're really concerned about.

[Mark]

Yeah. Your interviewer, unlike in this situation, may not have someone to help her work through from an illegal area to a legal one. Folks, think about what is being asked and what the manager's real concern could be. You know, we have an entire podcast. It's in our hall of fame. When we ask members of our community, what's your favorite podcast? It's always mentioned by 10, 20, 30% of the group, and it's called Assume Positive Intent. I think it's your favorite.

[Sarah]

It is my favorite.

[Mark]

It's your favorite. Yeah. I mean, think about what's being asked, what the manager's real concern could be. Answer the question, Assume Positive Intent. And perhaps actually it's just a simple misunderstanding. You know, it's a misunderstanding, but it's kind of a gray area. You need to bat that aside because you need to be ready for the next question. You've got to be on your toes the entire time. You don't need that second track playing in your head, as Sarah said earlier, taking you away just a minute or two at a time from the goal. Don't take your eyes off the prize.

[Sarah]

Absolutely. And folks, we alluded to this a bit earlier. There's another reason the interviewer might ask a stupid question. They might just be trying to make small talk to make you feel at ease, like you come into the room.

[Mark]

When do you do?

[Sarah]

Yeah, exactly. When do you do? Have you got a family? And questions like that are not necessarily a veiled question about your commitment, but genuinely a clumsy attempt at making a personal connection. Because we want to make a personal connection. Like asking, where are you from? Might not be a question about your ethnic origin, but an attempt to find something to talk about. Do I need to make any arrangements for you? Is probably not a comment about your disability, but rather a concern about making you feel comfortable in this space. And they. They don't know what you might need.

[Mark]

Yeah. I ask almost everybody, where are you from? I ask it in every interview. I also ask it in personal life. And the reason why I do is because it's one of my standard icebreakers. And the reason I do so is because I have been there. I promise you, wherever you're from, I've been there. Unless you're from Antarctica, I've never been there. You name a major city, I flown into 20 airports in the world that are now closed. You name a major city in the world, I've been there. Okay, okay. Not Pyongyang, which is the capital city of North Korea. Okay. That's a closed society. But people say, like, I'll be talking to somebody. Hey, where you from? Irrespective of how they look. And they say, chicago. And I say, where? And they say, chicago. I know, I know, I know, but I mean, where Chicago? And they say, oh, just outside the Loop. I said, well, my favorite restaurant is. One of my favorite, top 10 favorite restaurants in the world is Hugo's, Frog Bar and Rusty. Oh, my gosh, I love Hugo's. And I said, and I've been to mini games at Wrigley Field, which is a nice little place on the Upper west side. You know, when people say Atlanta, I say, where in Atlanta? They look at me kind of funny and they say Meretta. Or they say Social Circle. They say Alpharetta. Or they say, whatever. And I say, yeah. My mom went to North Avenue Presbyterian School, which is now Westminster. My dad went to Druid Hills High School and then went on to Emory. My mom went to Geor Tech. I used to spend summers in Alpharetta, Georgia, riding horses. And my mother's father sold the land to the developer that became Perimeter Mall. That's where my mom used to ride horses. And their mouths just hang open. And I say, I used to spend my summers also at Social Circle, Georgia, where my dad's dad had a cattle ranch. And I was a kid from la. And that kind of stuff is great, but I don't get anywhere near there if I don't get to ask where you're from. The fact that where you're from potentially is a trigger doesn't mean the person who's asking it thinks it's a trigger.

[Sarah]

Trying to trigger you. Trying to trigger you. Yeah. Yeah. So essentially, folks, what we're saying is jumping to a conclusion about a question may cause you a misstep in your interview. And therefore, again, we recommend you assume positive intent, since most of the time, most of us are not doing things on purpose to hurt other people.

[Mark]

Yeah. If the world is getting better all the time, how can we default to assuming negative intent? I'll tell you why people do it in an interview. Because of the risk. Because you might not get the job. Because you're. You're the weaker of the two parties. Because you're vulnerable. That's why. But the fact is, the world goes around on positive intent, and it's way easier. It's mathematically the right choice to assume positive intent.

[Sarah]

Yeah, just math, people. Better communication builds better relationships, and better relationships build better teams. John McManus put it perfectly after completing his MT Disc assessment. He said it helps improve communication, which builds better relationships. And in most jobs, it really is all about the people. So anything that helps with relationships is vital. After all, you've heard us say it before, folks. We've got to work with the people because all the jobs with just trees and dogs are gone. So purchase your MTDISC assessment by visiting us at manager-tools.com MTDISC that's manager-tools.com MTDISc

[Mark]

all right, next. And this is the big guidance. Okay, we mentioned the fact that some questions can be illegal, but that's relatively rare. When people talk about illegal questions, what they mean is you cannot discriminate against a person based on an answer that touches upon protected parts of the human condition. Okay? So it is not the question. It is using the answer to the question to discriminate in your hiring practices. That's pretty standard in the first world, right? So first guidance, whatever you do, bat that fear, uncertainty, doubt, lack of assumption of positive intent out of your head and answer the question no matter what the question is. If you're asked if you're married and you are, say yes and put a little icing on the cake. Tell them the age of your kids, if you have kids. If they ask about pregnancy status, tell them what yours is. Yes, this is a stupid question for in the interview itself, as opposed to someone who is clearly eight months pregnant and walking around with her hands on her lower back the way every woman who's within two or three weeks of delivering does because there's a lot of back pain in pregnancy. And it's a stupid question. If you get asked, are you pregnant? It's wrong. It may be actionable, though we can assure you it will be miserable for you to actually action it. But here's the thing. You'd want them to forgive you some of the stupid mistakes you're going to make in the interview. And you will. If you interview with me, you're going to make stupid mistakes because I ask tough questions and then I probe and probe and probe and probe. I'm not trying to find your weaknesses. I'm trying to understand you. And if I understand you, I'll probably find your weaknesses. Now, virtually everybody who works here, I interviewed, and virtually all of them. No, actually all of them, including me, have weaknesses. But I want to know what those weaknesses are. So we recommend you give a little bit of grace in this area in the same way that when I was interviewing you, I would give you a little grace. I've identified the weakness. I understand it now, and I don't care about that. If somebody told me their weakness was communication, I wouldn't hire. But if somebody told me their weakness was when I have a lot of projects, I get a little bit irritable. I would think to myself, welcome to the crowd, brother. So do I. So I just want to understand it.

[Sarah]

Yeah. And folks, that's the really weird thing, if you will, about interviews. Every recruiter, recruiters like Mark, recruiters like Wendy, every one of them have hundreds of stories about the really weird things the candidates do and like the strange answers they give to questions. But, folks, there aren't any candidates walking around out there. Whoever talk about confess to opening the wrong door for their interview, tripping up the stairs, giving some weird answer.

[Mark]

A guy gets up from a. I mean, if you're in a hotel room, he gets up off the couch when I say, okay, thanks, and we'll let you know. And he thought he did badly. So he walked. And the door to the closet looked just like the door to the hallway. And he goes into the closet. He knows he's in the closet, but he decides he's too embarrassed to admit that he walked into the wrong door. And I finally opened the door and says, you got to leave through the hall. It didn't bother me. It didn't bother me at all. Another guy was standing outside in the hallway. He was smoking a pipe. This is a long time ago. Was in San Francisco. He was smoking a pipe right indoors, which you could do back then. And he was very early for his interview. I got the next guy that I was going to interview. And this pipe smoker is still outside in the hall of this very nice hotel. I think it was actually the Fairmont in San Francisco. And the guy before him did so poorly. I was done in 15 minutes, and I dismissed him. I walked outside. I figured I'd bring the next guy in. And he says, oh, I thought it was not for 15 minutes. I said, it's up to you. You can wait if you want, but I'm ready to go. So he says, no, let's go. And he comes in and his pipe is gone. No problem. And we start talking, and suddenly he starts furiously patting the right side of his sport coat that he has on because he has put his lighted pipe into his pocket in order to be, quote, on time for an interview, when, in fact, he was early and he had caught his coat on fire. Another time, I'm in an interview, and there's a couple of chairs and a couch, and I'm going to be sitting in one of the chairs. So I say, hey, to direct the candidate to where he's supposed to go. I say, pick up the couch. And he goes over to the edge of the couch, and he picks it up, which I thought was funny. I mean, there's a little bit of humor in that. But that only lasts one second, right? And then you put it back down. He didn't. He didn't put it down. He says, if I have to interview like this, I will. And he said. I said, no, you can go ahead and put it down. He's like, no, I'm kind of liking it. I'm like, okay, now you're weird. So, yeah, I had a guy come in. This is years ago, before Apple pioneered white headphones. He had a walkman. This is 1987. 88. Yeah. Somewhere in there, he's got a Walkman in his jacket pocket, and he's got headphones on and actually with a wired thing across the top. So they're not just buds with wires. They're, you know, a headpiece. I don't know what you call that. And he's listening to music. And I say, hey, do you want to take that off? He says, no, I can hear you fine with it on. Oh, come on.

[Sarah]

Do you see? Okay, so, folks, and then the point of this. The point of this story is recruiters have tons of these kinds of weird stories, but no one's out there wandering around telling us all about the weird stuff that they did. And all the recruiters can't be interviewing all the other candidates. It doesn't make sense. You might be the person who says a weird thing, or trips over their words, or walks into the closet, or pushes over a flip chart stand when you're giving a presentation. And if you are, and you could be that person, you'll want the interviewer to forgive you. So what that means is if your interviewer speaks without thinking, please forgive them as well. Thanks for joining us folks, and we'll join you again next week as we continue this topic. Now, help us help others and tell your friends. And of course, follow rate and review our podcast. And remember, five stars only.

[Mark]

Five stars only, please. Sam.