Adam
Alex
Benjamin
Emma
Gill
Jade
James
Rebecca
Ronnie
Job Interview Discrimination in North America
In the USA and Canada, employers are NOT ALLOWED to ask you about a lot of personal details and issues that may be standard for employers in other countries to ask. If you want to get a job in North America, you need to know what is acceptable in an interview. You need to know this so that you do not bring up these topics either. If you do, you could put your interviewer in a bad position, and it could make you seem unprofessional. Pregnancy status, gender, sexuality, age, religion, social background, and more – we don’t talk about these in interviews!Levels
Lesson Topics
27 COMMENTS
Ronny, thanks a lot for this lesson! The information is really interesting and useful. As for Russia almost all of these questions are discussed during the job interview. Most of them is the base of our resume, for instance, age, education, family, gender, marital status, photo, family plans, etc. The resume without these points will not be considered. Frequently candidates are rejected because of their age or having little children. The law doesn’t allow rejecting these categories of people, but practice shows the opposite.
Interesting information. Thanks for sharing it with us, Ronnie!!
Than you very much.
valuable information I caught from this lesson.
Oops, I forget to ask you something important that may happen these days. Maybe Ronnie or someone else living in North America can answer this question (EngVid moderator i.e.¿?): is it discriminatory if an interviewer ask you whether you´ve been vaccinated against Covid or not??And/Or whether you´ve had the Covid before or not??
Thanks in advanced ;)
This is a very new issue, and there are different laws in different states, provinces, counties, and probably even cities. There may also be different rules if you work in healthcare or in schools, where it is normal to require proof of vaccination. If you are a member of a union, the union will probably negotiate requirements with employers.
An employer/interviewer can probably ask if you have COVID symptoms or have potentially been exposed to COVID. They cannot ask if you have had COVID in the past.
They probably cannot ask you if you are vaccinated at the interview. But they can probably say that new employees are required to prove they have been vaccinated. They might also say that if you have not been vaccinated, you must get regular COVID tests, to make sure you aren’t sick.
However, in some places, it is the opposite: employers/interviewers are not allowed to require vaccinations or ask you if you are vaccinated. So you should look up laws for your specific area.
Here are some articles about this: one from Canada and one from the US. I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for this detailed explanation.
It´s always a pleasure for me to leave a comment here to liven up the debate and add new ideas or questions.
I am pretty sure these questions are being asked in North America for the simplest job interview. Even if volunteer job.
I do not understand why you have removed my comment.
If you have not commented here before, I have to manually approve your comment first. Now, your comments should show up right away.
Employers can ask some of these things, if it is related to the job. For example, you will often see job ads saying things like “Must be able to lift 15 kg”. There are also many employers that break the rules. For volunteer positions, I think the rules are different because people are not being paid.
This lesson is very helpful. I too was shocked when my marital status and photo were required for a job in the Middle East.
May I ask you if you like to work?
No, this is a prohibited question.
Have you ever really been in a job interview?
Question prohibited.
OK. We will write to you. Thank you for your visit
Thanks Teacher!
Thank you
I’m very happy to learn this
Thanks
All those questions are also required in Mexico! I’d like to say a couple of things to interviewers when they ask all the silly questions about one, but you have to be strong, haha.
You know Ronnie, I live in Ukraine, and in this country everything that you say is allowed, and the indication of age and gender, and a photograph, etc.
Thank you so much for the lesson!
you are a good teacher thanks!!!
Thank you so much for the lesson !
How come! OMG, that something really bad and awful!
How they can keep them childs save or protected without money from job salary?
I’m Shoked like Ronnie!
I Really dont undertand this bad companie’s Behavior!
Thank you, Ronnie, for useful information!
Thanks a lot, Ronnie, for this very useful information.
I think these personal questions in an interviews asked is because many resume is not concise, but its very unprofessional ask them about their status,
i’m glass to hear that. It was a pleasure to hear about your ideals, thank you
That’s very useful! Thank you Ronny.
Ronnie, thx!
thanks