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19 Oct 09 How To Handle An Illegal Question At An Interview

Interviewers frequently ask illegal questions during interviews.  Whether this is intentional or not, your answers could impact how you are received, which in turn can impact whether or not you get the job.  How you handle these scenarios is just as important as how you answer the legitimate interview questions.  Knowing what to do is of vital importance in any interview.

The first thing you should do is figure out the nature of the question.  An illegal question does not refer to a question that is criminally liable, but rather just a question that an interviewer is not allowed to ask.  Questions like these are from topics that cannot legally have a bearing on whether or not you get a job.  Such as questions about race, sex, age, health, disabilities, and religion.  Any of these could be mentioned unintentionally in the forming of a question, but all are illegal for an interviewer to ask you.

It’s necessary for you to understand that in most cases an illegal question comes up as a mistake from the interviewer.  Oftentimes these are asked with no intention to discriminate against you.  But rather these are attempts by the interviewer to be friendly, or to relate to you.  This way the can get a better feel for how you would fit in with the company.  But usually through inexperience, instead of doing that through legal means, they accidentally slip into an illegal pitfall by asking you a personal question.

In this case you have two polite options for answering the question and moving the interview forward.  The first option is that you could answer the question.  But in answering, make sure that it’s a question you feel completely comfortable answering, and preferably answering n brief.  Then try to move on to a different topic.  The second option is to essentially ignore the question and move the interview forward by focusing on a different work related topic of yours.

Either option works well, and will keep an interview’s flow without making for an uncomfortable situation on either side.  Try to stay professional and courteous, with a positive disposition, as you always should during any interview.  If you can follow that model, and not flinch under the pressure of an illegal question, you’ll be just fine.

Tags: Age Health, Answering The Question, , , , Health Disabilities, Illegal Question, Illegal Questions, Inexperience, , Interview Questions, , , , , Personal Question, Pitfall, Religion, , Sex Age

27 Jun 09 Increase Your Productivity

During the daily grind it’s very easy to fall off the wagon and have a day where you don’t feel as though you were quite as productive as you should have been.  Some days you may just feel everything has gotten too monotonous and are forced to sit at your desk and zone out because of the fact.  Or you may just be having an off day, as everyone does at some point, and usually more than just the one time. But there are plenty of things you can do to increase your productivity, day by day, and help yourself fight off your urges to be anything less than productive.

Clean up your desk, as a first option.  Keep your workstation clean and neat looking, as that will always improve your mood and increase the likelihood that you will feel better, and feeling better means productivity.  A clean work station is a happy workstation after all.

Organize that desktop, it’s not enough for your station to just be clean, but you should have everything well organized as well.  The better your organization is, the more you’ll be able to accomplish quickly.  Accomplishing your goals at a comfortable, quick pace will help you feel better, and a positive attitude will help you continue working hard and being as productive as possible.

Don’t let your email ruin your workday.  Everyone has trouble keeping up with their inboxes over the course of the day, but the key is to know when you’re too bogged down, and when it’s okay to give up on trying to keep up with everything for the day.  If you find yourself trapped within the depths of your inbox, try to find the messages that are most pressing, and concentrate on those, leaving the ones that are not as urgent for a later time.  This way you won’t feel trapped, and will be able to keep a positive productivity healthy attitude.

Finally, don’t surf the internet at work.  Reading about stories, or visiting fun websites at work can be bad for your personal morale, as it will remind you that you are stuck at work, even if you do not want to be.  Commit that time at work completely to the job, and focus more on accomplishing your tasks, and taking positives from that.  This way you stay focused, and upbeat about work, not about what else you could be doing with your time.

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