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Interviewing

Be prepared: 20 ‘silver bullet ‘ interview questions you should know how to answer

07/30/2008

Interviewers often have pet questions they use to test an applicant’s quality. Sometimes, they’re straightforward. ("Tell me about yourself.") Sometimes, they’re deep. ("If you were an animal, what kind would you be?") Sometimes, they’re just plain weird. ("How do they make M&M’s?") Be prepared to answer whatever might come your way …

He said/She said: The legal risks of interviewing transgender applicants

07/17/2008
Federal workplace anti-discrimination laws don’t specifically extend protection to transgender people. However, 13 states plus several cities and counties have passed such laws. But even if your state or city doesn’t have such a law, you still could face liability for discriminating against transgender people …

Asking worker to fetch coffee may be old-school, but is it harassment?

07/17/2008

Soon after a Pennsylvania sales company hired Tamara Klopfenstein as a receptionist, she had performance problems right away. But the real trouble began when Klopfenstein received an e-mail from a VP that said one of her “many responsibilities … is making and getting coffee.”

It’s OK to ask questions about applicant’s ability to do specific job

07/14/2008
Tell your hiring managers the good news. They can question an obviously physically challenged applicant’s ability to perform a specific job without risking a successful disability discrimination lawsuit based on regarding the applicant as disabled. The key is to stick to questions related to the exact position the applicant seeks …

You may not even see EEOC complaint until lawsuit hits

07/01/2008
In a new twist on an already complicated HR world, an employer now may find itself served with a federal discrimination lawsuit without any inkling that a case was even brewing. Ordinarily, the employer gets a copy of the employee’s EEOC complaint before anything else happens. But what happens if the EEOC doesn’t let you know about the complaint and the employee goes to court? …

Applicants gone wild: Top 10 blunders by interviewees

07/01/2008

Job applicants bringing Mom along to an interview or interrupting the interviewer to take a cell phone call … These are two of the top 10 faux pas committed by job seekers, as reported by our HR Weekly Forum readers …

When interviewing meets speed dating

07/01/2008
When you interview candidates, you typically know within a few minutes whether it’s a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Realizing this, some employers, including Travelodge, Texas Instruments and Abbott Labs, have taken a page from the “speed dating” trend …

HR Specialist Editors Bring You the Best from SHRM Chicago

06/24/2008
For a week each year, the Society for Human Resource Management’s Annual Conference becomes the center of the HR world. HR Specialist editors have joined 13,000 of our peers in Chicago this week for four days of professional development covering HR’s hottest topics and presented by the profession’s  leading experts. Here’s some of the best from the world’s biggest HR conference.

Best of the Worst: Applicants Learn New Ways to Self-Destruct

06/10/2008
Normal people try to put their best foot forward during job interviews. Others not so much. Like the applicant who showed up drunk. Or the guy who picked his nose. A new survey reveals some of the strangest, rudest behavior applicants display during job interviews.

Interview questions: What not to ask

06/06/2008
Q. Are there specific questions that an employer is prohibited from asking during a job interview? …