Students alerted to be weary of illegal queries
Many people do not realize there are questions employers cannot ask when signing off on a job application.
Though it may seem each application asks nearly the same questions, tiny differences can set a question apart as illegal.
Julia Sherlock, Central Michigan University’s Career Services director, warns students to be careful as illegal questions can lead to job discrimination.
“Anything of a personal nature that’s out of the basic qualifications that they say you need for the job is typically out of bounds,” she said.
Sherlock said, however, that illegal questions are not as common today as they may have been years ago.
“I can’t even believe, especially in these days, that anything illegal would be on an application. There is very little mistakes on the employers ends,” she said. “It’s not a perfect world, but it’s certainly not acceptable.”
Boise State University Career Center has listed some illegal questions that specifically cannot be asked.
For example, employers cannot specifically ask “Are you a U.S. citizen?”, “How old are you?”, “What is your marital status?”, “Do you need an accommodation to perform the job?” or “Have you ever been arrested?”
Brian Partie, associate director of Career Services, said students should do some background research before setting out on a job hunt.
“We always encourage students to thoroughly investigate what the job is that they’re applying for,” he said. “The truth is we haven’t had too many situations with students.”
On many applications employers ask people to fill out information regarding their race for filling purposes only. Though most say that it is optional, applicants are never legally obliged to do it, Sherlock said.
Mount Pleasant senior Kathleen Sheahan-Stahl said she did not realize certain questions are off-limits, but sometimes still on applications.
“They’re trying to just make you fill it out without having to make you do it,” she said. “They’re being very tricky.”
