Have you already completed your military service? How old were you again? Do you live alone or with your partner?
These questions might sound harmless, but they violate your rights as an applicant.
The recruiting party is responsible for taking care of the job seeker's rights. Still, we hear unfortunately many experiences from interviews where completely inappropriate things were asked.
Therefore, we wrote the job seeker's rights in an easy-to-understand format so that the applicant knows what may and may not be asked. We also give advice on how to act if the interviewer asks an inappropriate question.
Legislation itself does not protect anyone
Today's job interviews are constantly changing into a more conversational model. The downside, however, is that an engaging conversation easily slips into a gray area of topics that are in no way relevant to the role.
Your answers to inappropriate – and illegal – questions may affect the decision of the recruiting party more than you realize, and as a result, you as a job seeker feel the impact.
”It has been studied that unconscious biases affect the evaluation of the applicant and the recruiting decision. I believe that when it comes to an especially sensitive and personal topic, such as sexual orientation or religion, biases categorize people even more radically. Therefore, these topics have no place in the recruiting process,” says Anna Alppinen, our recruiting team lead.
Fortunately, there is legislation designed to protect the job seeker from inappropriate questions. Since legal sections themselves do not protect anyone, especially if they are not known, we prepared a clear checklist for you about your rights as a job seeker.
Which questions are not allowed in a job interview?
Questions concerning the following topics are generally prohibited:
- Political stance or activity – e.g., which party do you support?
- Age – e.g., how old were you when you graduated?
- Relationship – e.g., do you value your relationship over your work?
- Living arrangements – e.g., do you live alone or with a partner?
- Parents and children – e.g., in what field are your parents? How many children do you have?
- Race – e.g., where are your roots? Where are your parents from?
- Religion – e.g., did you attend confirmation school?
- Illnesses – e.g., do you take medication regularly?
- Sexual orientation – e.g., who are you dating?
- Labor union – e.g., which labor union do you belong to?
- Pregnancy – e.g., are you pregnant? Are you planning to have children?
- Military service – e.g., have you already completed your military service? What is your military rank?
Are there exceptional situations where the above may be asked?
Yes, but rarely. If the question relates to the specific characteristics of the work and performance in the job, some questions are allowed. For example, you can be asked about military service if the role requires military service to be completed. Such a role could be, for example, with the Finnish Defense Forces.
Political stance, on the other hand, is a relevant question if you are applying for a job at a party office, for example, and questions related to health are allowed if they relate to performance in the work.
”A good rule of thumb is that if a question feels completely irrelevant and inappropriate for the role, it probably is. As an applicant, you always have the right to ask the interviewer why that information is relevant to the company and refuse to answer if you wish,” Anna advises.
How to act if my rights are trampled?
You can always refuse to answer if you feel the question is inappropriate or you know it violates your rights. Because challenging the interviewer or not answering might feel uncomfortable, we listed a few different response options you can use:
- I do not feel the question is relevant to the role, so I choose not to answer.
- I do not understand how this is relevant to the role. Could you clarify why you want to know about this?
- I have understood that questions related to X are not allowed in a job interview. Would you like to rephrase the question or move to the next one?
Everyone deserves a recruiting process where questions remain professional.