More and more managers are getting their team involved in the interview process and this is smart in many ways. The candidate has to get along with the team, but it also involves people who don’t necessarily know the questions that you’re not legally allowed to ask in an interview, such as:

Are you pregnant?
Are you married?
Do you plan to get married?
How many kids do you have?
How old are your kids?
Do you plan to have kids?
What are your child-care arrangements?
What does your spouse do?
What’s your spouse’s name?
Things can get conversational and relaxed in an interview, especially if, as the interviewer, you’re enjoying it. Natural, innocent curiosites can rise, but there are some you need to keep in check, and for good reason.

Employers are not allowed to discriminate against applicants because of their family status. Let’s say your boss is worried an applicant might be planning on having kids and doesn’t want the hassle and expense of a maternity leave. You’re not legally permitted to help your boss decipher this.

A lot of people assume that well-established, big companies have an interview process that safeguards against illegal questions, but the reality is different. Many people in the interview process receive no training or guidance on sensitive issues like illegal questions. So, if you’re adding on to your team and want a coworker to be part of the interview process even just a quick note listing illegal questions can be of big help.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.