Is this standard?

[caughtinanet]

Its a long time since I applied for a new job and I know that things have changed. I currently have an application pack to fill in and two items are puzzling me

• the application form asks for date of birth - I thought this wasn't a question you could ask (the job is not age related)

• I have to fill in an equal opportunity form which asks, amongst other things, for my sexual orientation. Now I don't mind anyone knowing but I wondery this needs to be completed before an application can be submitted. I'm wondering if the answer will have any bearing on who is selected for interview i.e. will there be quotas to be filled.

Any views would be much appreciated

Thanks

Fairly standard in my experience. You send the form away into cyber-space, then never hear from them again while they posess very personal information about you, that if someone asked you at a drinks gathering you would be all . Its soul destroying, a personal bug-bear of mine, but par for the course . They claim the sex orientation thing is to monitor their equal opps policies. Are you applying for Charity /public sector by any chance?

Equal opps form should be seperated from the rest of your application when they get it - and they should have made that clear - it would be ilegal if it had any bearing -
date of birth - I don't think they should ask - but they will be probably be asking for date of education - or at least the last ones I did - did so anyone who can add can work out your age from the that!

Equal opps form should have 'decline to say' as an option and should only be used for statistical monitoring e.g. how many female/gay/disabled applicants were there for the job, how many were interviewed, how many were employed by the company. That information should be handled separately to your actual job application.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, the equal ops form is a separate form and does have a decline to answer box but I wondered if ticking that would be seen in a negative way i.e that you might have something to hide or be "difficult" and would count against you.

sloggies - not public sector but not really private either,more along the not for profit line but a small organisation so unlikely to be representative of the population as a whole anyway.

I will complete the form and send off, crw1234 is right they can work out my age from the school info anyway.

I am prepared to sell my soul to the devil for work now! Good luck!