Today is the day for your dream job interview. You have read all the industry papers, researched extensively on all subjects relating to the position, googled everyone interviewing you so that you knew some of their interests, practised interview questions, analyzed your body language in the mirror, and changed 5 times before setting off in the morning. You are confident. You are prepared. You are ready.
You sit down opposite your interviewer. You flash your well practiced winning smile. They respond encouragingly by leaning forward. You answer 4 of their questions intelligently, seemingly impressing them. Then they start to ask you a line of questions that you were completely unprepared for. “Are you married”, “Do you want children”, “Are you close to your family?”, “How serious are you and your boyfriend?”, “Will you two be looking to get married in the near future”, “Will you move if he moves for work”, “Have you two started talking about having children in the near future”, ”How old are you?”, “You will need to include a picture of yourself on our resume in the future”. These are all questions that you will face when interviewing in France. In 2008. At first I was indignant when I heard that these questions were asked at a friend’s recent interview. How could they ask such questions? So blatantly sexist and biased.
Then I started looking into the situation a bit more. This is a socialist country, with incredibly high taxes and with incredibly stringent rules about firing someone (essentially you can’t without great cost to the company). Employment laws are largely in favour of the employee and most companies would rather pay their employees overtime than hire another person to do the job. This is something that France is struggling with at the moment, especially new graduates. What was meant to help and protect the people, is actually hurting.
So I am at a stalemate with my thoughts on this. I still feel as though these questions are incredibly descriminating but I am possibly less indignant. Comments are welcome.
1 Comment so far
Leave a comment
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
While in another Commonwealth country I would cringe during interviews when the partners at my firm asked questions of candidates along those lines.
I’m now in Southeast Asia and it’s much more overt here, with ads typically specifying age ranges at the very least. I suspect you are unlikely to make better interview progress by embracing questions along the lines you have identified, as hard as it may be to not take them personally at first. As unusual as it may seem, this interview process can work both ways as the questions are being asked to determine whether you will fit in with the employer’s environment (in the context of the social framework of the country) – no one wins if you take the job and hate it.
This is a nice blog – all the best with the produce over there.
(And BTW it’s “side effects”)
Comment by Chris June 30, 2008 @ 12:54 pm