Steer clear of these 10 illegal job interview questions

Author: Suzanne Thornberry

Although HR departments should be aware of questions that are illegal to ask prospective employees, some hiring managers aren’t so savvy. Many illegal questions are easy for just about anyone with elementary social graces to avoid, but others might surprise you. In general, you should not ask interviewees about their age, race, national origin, marital or parental status, or disabilities.

Note that this list offers only some very broad guidelines and is not exhaustive. Check with your company’s HR department to see if your state or locality, or even your company, has additional restrictions on what you may ask.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Where were you born?

This question might seem like small talk as you get to know a person, but it could also be used to gather information illegally about the candidate’s national origin. Although it may seem more relevant, you should also avoid asking, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” You can ask whether a candidate is authorized to work in the United States, but avoid asking about citizenship.

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Essential Skill Sets for Graphic Design

Design Firm Management
By Shel Perkins

If you're interested in becoming a graphic designer, there are four essential skill sets that you must possess. See how you measure up!

Talent
The first requisite is talent. You must have an instinctive ability to exercise good judgment in manipulating the formal elements of visual communication such as contrast, scale, color, pacing, and typography. You must be able to use them effectively to develop new and appropriate visual solutions to complex communications problems. If you don't possess this creative ability, or the potential to develop it over the course of your education, then you are not cut out to be a graphic designer.

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Alden Staffing

For over 20 years, Alden Staffing has been steadfastly committed to one simple philosophy: efficiently fostering the best possible matches between corporate clients and candidates by consistently going the extra mile. The result is performance delivered, trust earned.

Our solid relationships with corporate clients, many of which span 15 years or more, are proof that we deliver a higher level of service in every aspect of recruiting. This includes the support of countless candidates, whether direct hire, consulting, temporary or temp-to-hire, whose ideal employment scenarios we’ve been forging over the past two decades.

For ensured success of the best possible match, Alden is comprised of five specialized practice groups—IT, Financial, Banking, Creative, and Office/Industrial—and staffed by industry and functional experts who conduct in-depth, face-to-face interviews with every candidate. We offer a database of over 50,000 pre-screened and pre-qualified candidates in the region, a blue-chip list of over 300 corporate clients, and four offices in NY, CT, and NJ.

Alden Staffing. People who stand out.

I personally am not registered with them - not yet any way. But it never hurts to try. If you do please let me know how it goes.

Worst Résumés Ever

In their years as recruiters, Jon Reed and Rachel Meyers saw plenty of résumés pass across their desks. Plenty were good... but some raised some eyebrows. Reed and Meyers kept track of some of the more bizarre entries and compiled them in their funny new book, "Résumés from Hell" (eCruiting Alternatives, Inc.).

As Reed and Meyers point out, the mistakes these job seekers made give us valuable how-not-to's for our own job searches. These are some example entries from their book, and some useful lessons for the rest of us.

By CareerBuilder.com
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Eight Résumé Editing Tips

Depending on how it's written, your résumé can make or break your job search. A professional, well-written résumé can have employers banging down your door; but a sloppy, mistake-laden résumé can turn off a hiring manager in a split second.

Proofreading is a must. Neglect doing it and you could send out a résumé with simple mistakes that could have been avoided. Before you send yours to an employer, follow this checklist to ensure it is the highest-quality representation of yourself.

By Jennifer Anthony, Resume Expert
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15 Weirdest Work Stories of 2007

Natural disasters, revolutionary technology, pro-athlete scandals and national calamities marked 2007 as an unforgettable year. Yet, amid these major happenings arose stories that were overlooked, unseen or ignored altogether: tales of our nation’s work force.

Understandably, these pieces weren’t as newsworthy as Michael Vick’s dog fighting charges or the Minneapolis bridge collapse. But these stories held an angle unlike any other: They were just plain weird.

Here are 15 headlines that exemplify the strange happenings that took place in the workplace in 2007.

By Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer
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Seven Things to Know Before Writing Your First Résumé

There are many rites of passage in every young person's life. Getting your driver's license, graduation day and turning 21 are just a few. But another rite of passage can be even more important to your future -- writing your first résumé.

While it's not as exciting as learning to drive, creating your first résumé is a vital step in launching your career. The process may seem daunting. You have to put all of your best qualities on paper, make yourself look more attractive than the next person and completely sell yourself, all on one sheet of paper. "You have only a few seconds to snag the employer's attention," writes Seattle-based career coach Robin Ryan in Winning Résumés, (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003). "You must sell the employer within 15 seconds of looking at your résumé, or you'll lose the job." Here are seven tips to help you catch an employer's attention.

By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor
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Job Hunting 101 for New Grads

Despite a chronic case of senioritis, you turned in that 100-page term paper, presented the group project for which nobody pulled his weight, and completed final exams. Now after surviving the never-ending commencement activities with your family, it's time to kick back and take advantage of some of your newfound freedom. Right?

Wrong!

The grim reality is that you're no longer on the Mom and Dad gravy train. The rules have changed and it's time to fend for yourself. And that doesn't mean waiting tables at your neighborhood cafe or serving drinks at your college stomping ground. You're actually expected to put your shiny, new, freshly-minted degree to work.

Fortunately, CareerBuilder.com found there's good news for the class of 2005. Sixty-two percent of hiring managers plan to recruit recent college graduates this year and one-in-four say they will be increasing starting salaries over those offered in previous years.

"It's a different job market today with more promising prospects for college graduates," says Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.com. "Educated labor is in demand and 18 percent of hiring managers say they plan to hire a greater number of recent college graduates this year than they did in 2004."

In terms of compensation, 28 percent of hiring managers expect to increase the starting salaries for recent college graduates this year, and only 6 percent plan to decrease them. Fifty-nine percent of hiring managers expect to offer less than $30,000, and 26 percent will offer $30,000 to $39,000. An additional 10 percent will offer $40,000 to $49,000 while 6 percent will offer $50,000 or more.

With promising job opportunities, favorable salaries and plenty of free time, new grads should have no reason not to look for that first job. Here are the top things hiring managers look for when sizing up a candidate:

By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor
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Your Résumé: Marketing or Misleading?

A résumé is a marketing tool – it should showcase your experience and qualifications in the most succinct and relevant way possible. And that often means being selective in the kind of information that you include or crafty in your wording.

But that doesn't mean you should lie. A survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 96 percent of HR professionals always conduct reference checks on job candidates, and more than half say they sometimes find inconsistencies.

By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor
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The New Grad's Survival Guide

Congratulations! You got your diploma, aced the interview and landed a job offer... now what?

Starting your first real job is an exciting and challenging experience, and every new graduate could use a little guidance. Susan Morem, author of 101 Tips for Graduates (Checkmark books), offers these 15 crucial tips to help new grads survive those first gut-wrenching months on the job:

By Laura Morsch, CareerBuilder.com
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Job Hunting 101 for New Grads

In terms of compensation, 28 percent of hiring managers expect to increase the starting salaries for recent college graduates this year, and only 6 percent plan to decrease them. Fifty-nine percent of hiring managers expect to offer less than $30,000, and 26 percent will offer $30,000 to $39,000. An additional 10 percent will offer $40,000 to $49,000 while 6 percent will offer $50,000 or more.

With promising job opportunities, favorable salaries and plenty of free time, new grads should have no reason not to look for that first job. Here are the top things hiring managers look for when sizing up a candidate:

By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor
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An Internship: The Key to Finding Your "First Job"

A wealth of knowledge, lifelong friendships, school loans and the ability to do your own laundry without ruining your favorite shirt -- these are all things you will have when you graduate from college. Hopefully, an internship will be included on your list, too. If you enter the working world without prior experience, you may find it difficult to land your first job. An internship will help you apply what you've learned in school to the workplace, as well as help you explore various fields and industries before you make the big leap.

By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor
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Job Tips You Didn't Get In College

When I landed a job in a top public relations firm after my college graduation, I thought the toughest part of my entry into the business world was over. I dumped my extra résumés in a recycling bin and eagerly awaited a paycheck that would scarcely cover my rent. I looked forward to worldly business trips, stimulating office brainstorms and hanging out with my co-workers every Friday at happy hour.

A few years later, I had never made it to a happy hour gathering because on Friday nights I was passed out on the couch. I held an entry-level position for 16 months while people with half my intelligence and work ethic lapped me. My résumé listed four positions in three years because I was always on the lookout for a better opportunity that would bring the ever-elusive job satisfaction.

Eventually, I considered joining the large numbers of my friends who were leaving the corporate world in favor of business or law school. The idea of going back to school is tempting, and why not? We're comfortable with the concept of school. We know how the story goes. If you work hard, you get good grades, and everyone is happy.

The business world is another animal entirely. Politically motivated and fraught with nonsensical change, it's not a natural fit for ambitious graduates who leave school expecting results from a logical combination of education and effort. Suddenly, the tenets of success we've followed since kindergarten don't apply, because getting ahead in the business world often has nothing to do with intelligence or exceeding a set of defined expectations. Since they don't teach corporate in college, here are six tips to help you win at the business world's game:

By Alexandra Levit, author of "They Don't Teach Corporate in College:
A Twenty-Something's Guide to the Business World"
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Today's Best Entry-Level Salaries

Whether you're a recent grad who's been living in your parents' basement since Commencement Day or in the midst of your college career trying to figure out what you should major in, there's good news coming your way.

According to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), members of the class of 2007 can expect to earn bigger starting salaries as they enter the workforce than their predecessors. Results show that the average starting salary has increased across many disciplines since last year, the result of increased competition among employers for employees fresh out of college. Furthermore, hiring managers expect this trend to continue for years to come.

By Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com writer
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Internships Aren't Just for Summer Break

TO-DO BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS:

1. Move into awesome new apartment (away from the dorms and parents)
2. Register for classes (no classes on Friday or before 9 a.m. please!)
3. Buy books (there goes $500 I'll never see again...)
4. Party with friends before classes start

Add this to your 'to-do' list: Secure an internship.

For those who believe that internships are synonymous with summer break, think again. According to recent surveys, fall internship hiring is on the rise and the opportunities are paving the way for full-time positions for those hired to do the job.

By Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer
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Stand Out with an E-Portfolio

Take a minute to search your name on the Internet. What comes up? Your MySpace page? An old paper you wrote in college? A court document archiving your arrest from college?

While some of these citations are worse than others, none of them are items you want to showcase – especially to potential employers. And believe me, they’re looking. Thirty-five percent of hiring managers use Google to do online background checks on job candidates, according to a recent survey by Ponemon Institute, an information and privacy think tank. Nearly one-third of those Web searches lead to job rejections.

“If an employer is going to be searching for you online, would you rather them find pictures of you at a party or valuable information about your experience, expertise and career goals?” asks Kelly Driscoll, president and co-founder of Digication, a technology solution firm.

Enter the e-Portfolio, the newest career tool in our tech-savvy era of job hunting. Not only will an e-Portfolio give you a competitive edge in the job market, it also gives you a positive digital identity when companies search for you online, Driscoll says

“E-Portfolios are becoming increasingly important to supplement, support and extend a résumé into a dynamic profile of an individual with not only descriptions of work that was done,” Driscoll says, “but actual examples that give employers the ability to learn much more about an individual before even entering the interview process.”

Want to learn how to hone your digital identity as a competitive advantage in your job search? Read on for a crash course on e-Portfolios.

By Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer
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Strange But True Job-Hunting Tactics

Some people will go to great lengths to attract an employer’s attention or prove they’re a cut above the competition. These attempts to stand out, however, can leave potential employers perplexed and reluctant to extend a job offer.

Robert Half International recently asked executives to describe the strangest pitches they’ve heard from potential hires. The responses ranged from a person who noted that he’d be a great addition to the company softball team to the candidate who had to be hired because he was “allergic to unemployment.”

While these applicants may have won a chuckle or two during the interview, their tactics likely left hiring managers less than impressed.

Following are some additional examples that stood out to survey respondents — for better or worse:

By Robert Half International
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How to be the Master of Your Destinies

Yes, job market is tough for 20-somethings, so it pays to be flexible

Are many young adults today just not trying hard enough to launch their careers and gain financial independence?

My June 4 column addressed how many parents were struggling to help get their adult sons and daughters on the right career path. I suggested their kids needed a little bit of tough love. Mom and Dad can’t keep the gravy train going forever, right?

By Eve Tahmincioglu: MSNBC contributor
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Don't Lie, But Don't Be Afraid to Spin

Some résumé gaps can be plugged, others should best be avoided

Oh, the dreaded hole in your résumé.

Maybe you did a lot of job hopping and don’t think telling a prospective employer the whole truth about your past is a good idea. Or you left a job on bad terms but don’t want to dredge up the past during the interview process for fear of jeopardizing your chances. Or you took time off the raise your children and think that will work against you when you try to get back in the work place.

How do you explain it? Can you fudge the truth?

By Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC.com contributor
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Hiding Résumé Flaws

If you're job hunting, the last thing you need is weakness in your résumé. Any bit of negative information can keep you from landing your ideal job. Issues such as lack of a college degree or minimal job experience don't have to hinder your efforts. All you need to do is work a little résumé magic.

Here are some tips to help you create a winning résumé.
By Jennifer Anthony, ResumeASAP

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