Sent to me from a buppie friend."I interviewed a very talented, intelligent woman this morning. We had a great conversation and I thought she'd be a good fit. She answered every question thoroughly and seemed to be genuinely interested in working here. Well, she had another interview scheduled with a different administrator directly after our interview and that's where things went wrong. After the second interview, the administrator immediately came to my office to debrief about the interviews. Before I could say anything, she started telling me how wacky and weird the candidate was. I was completely thrown off because I had just met her and thought she was great. She says the interview started out well enough but the candidate got too comfortable. It turns out that the candidate mentioned God in one of her responses. She said something like, "I really believe that God has brought me to this particular postion because of xyz." Now, to you and me, that probably isn't too bad. However, to my colleague, it indicated that the candidate was a Jesus freak and way too "out there" to work at a place like ours. Now, if it matters, my colleague is a white, lesbian and atheist. The candidate was a young, black, Christian (I assume). So, I say all of that to say, unless you are interviewing at a religious institution, check your God talk at the door. This young lady will miss out on a great opportunity because she misjudged her audience. Maybe it's not fair but it's the way of the world."
Thoughts?
4 comments:
That is crazy! Whatever happened to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. I mean ok fair enough that you should not bring up God in an interview but is that reason enough to not hire the individual? If she had the qualifications then by all means give her the job..gawsh!! its like discrimination in some way..oh well..thats life though
It's not fair, but that's how the real world is. You should only speak of relevant things that pertain to the job description. Little did that woman know that the second interview would be with a white, lesbian, atheist. In that situation God shouldn't have been mentioned at all or why she might have been positioned for this opportunity. I hope she doesn't miss out on it, but it's looking that way. Wait until you get the job to be more comfortable with your coworkers. Even then, depending on your work place, I wouldn't recommend getting to comfortable either...SMH
The atheist better PRAY the candidate doesn't find out, because it's illegal to discriminate against race color religion and creed.
I think that it is a good rule of thumb to not bring up anything that would be controversial, such as religion or race, in an interview or in a work environment in general. However, I also wouldn't want to work at a company that stood in opposition to my moral or ethical beliefs or a company that seemed to be against such an important part of me. How would the atheist feel if she were denied a job because she mentioned that she didn't believe in God to an interviewer who was Christian? Or what about if she were denied a job because she was a lesbian and the company was mostly straight? People always tend to talk about tolerance, acceptance, and anti discrimination when it's affecting them, but when it's time to show some tolerance to others it's always a different story.
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