How best to answer 'What are your preferred pronouns?' in an intervew

[NancyDrawed]

I have been out of the workforce for a very long time but finally have an in-person interview later this week.

The confirmation email is signed by a name followed by (he/him/his). I need to get a job. But I am trying to get my head around what I would say if I was directly asked what my preferred pronouns are.

On principle I would like to say 'I'm not a follower of that ideology so use whichever you see fit' or something along those lines, but is that likely to mean I have no chance of getting the job?

I am clearly female, so a small part of me would want to say he/him/his just to see the reaction!

It might not even come up at all, but I'd like to be prepared.

Note that stating your pronouns on your emails or professional profile doesn't automatically mean you believe in gender ideology. A friend who is firmly GC has 'she/her' on her profile, and she is a CEO so I'm pretty sure noone is making her do this. We have discussed GC views (and she refers to herself as a TERF) but I don't think she necessarily spends her time keeping up with all the arguments for and against sharing your pronouns.

There are lots of things in life that should be. Or shouldn't be.

Lots of people just think it's the thing to do without necessarily having strong views either way.

Does your CEO friend’s company also encourage others to add their pronouns to signatures I wonder. Certainly as the CEO she must have some inkling that many people just don’t want to do it, and yet she is showing leadership in doing so to her staff. If she considers herself GC I find this strange

I doubt that you'll get asked. At my work we were all "invited" to put our pronouns on our email footers. I didn't but some have. If the email that you received was from HR they might have felt obliged to put it on their email (don't ask others to do something that you wouldn't do yourself and all that), adjusted their signature and thought no more about it. It depends on the sort of place you are applying to I guess but at mine it was up to the individual whether they included it or not.

I was thinking this - if the question was 'do you have preferred pronouns that you want to share with us?' At least that would cater for those that don't have/ don't want to, without othering us. It's not a straight up assumption that of course we must have preferred pronouns.

I mean, it's still not ideal, but it's an improvement.

A bit like when recruitment forms ask if you need any reasonable adjustments to apply/ attend interview. That's not the same as asking if you're disabled, but it's asking if you want/ need to share that information in order to participate in the process. I can see why that's useful, can't really see it with asking about pronouns though - as has been said its not like anyone addresses people with 3rd person pronouns.

Edited for clarity.

Good luck in your interview op. Let us know how it goes 🤞

No pronoun badges people in the interview.
No warm up question of 'do you have preferred pronouns?'

And I got the job!!!

Congratulations! Well done 👏👏👏

Brilliant on all counts. Congratulations!🥂

Well done. Congratulations.

Well done!

congrats @NancyDrawed ! 🥳

Excellent news. Well done. Good luck with your new job.

Congratulations! Looking forward to hearing about pronouns in your induction meeting. At least you'll be prepared.

Just say I am female.

That’s great news all round! Congratulations 😀

Congratulations, good news all round!

Oh, excellent news!

Congratulations!!!!

I was asked this recently (not at an interview) and it threw me for a minute as I've never been asked before!

I'm very obviously a 60 year old female...I just blurted out, "Why don't you take a wild guess?" and rolled my eyes! 👀

This is so bizarre - you clearly know what your pronouns are, and yet you want the interviewer to guess! Why so coy?

You can't honestly mean that, DadJoke. You are surely aware that for the vast vast majority the use of third-person pronouns is simply grammar and depends on being aware of the other person's sex. So, in the case of someone who is female, and that the interviewer knows is female, they will understand English grammar sufficiently to know which third-person pronouns to use. Or are you pretending not to understand how grammar works?

"having pronouns" is a sign of allegiance to a specific belief system.

Like wearing a crucifix.