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Original poster

Very Strange interview questions ???

31 replies

plantingacattree · 10/09/2023 21:58

So my partner is in the process of applying for a new job. It is something he has never done before, and seems to have a very unique interviewing and vetting process. He is through to what is effectively stage 3 currently, of the process. But he was met with some rather strange questions, which although he was comfortable answering.. they were pretty odd. To us anyway.
One of them was "during your childhood until age 14, were you ever eligible for free school meals?"
What on Earth?
Another, was : " when you were at the age of , or around the age of 14, was the main earner in the household working at a low - skill place of employment?"
Now this job entails working with semi-vulnerable people. But surely these questions aren't actually relevant?? Unless they are trying to gage whether the applicant will have experience and therefore more empathy for others in similar situations??
It is completely odd to me. Free school meals ??
The 2nd part of the interview was essentially playing a series of mini games on your phone to test reaction time and attention to detail!
So very strange

OP posts:

AutumnalPumpkin · 10/09/2023 22:43

@TuesdayWonder
That is very interesting thank you!
I did name change, but not intentionally 😆 I have 2 names on here, I've confused myself with that one!

TuesdayWonder · 10/09/2023 22:45

@AutumnalPumpkin no worries, just wanted to let you know 😁

Echobelly · 11/09/2023 10:12

As others have said, standard social mobility questions, not related to ability to do job but just trying to be aware of applicants' backgrounds for monitoring and equality purposes.

SequentialAnalyst · 11/09/2023 23:32

wavws · 10/09/2023 22:15

@SequentialAnalyst I recruit for the civil service and the interviewer/sifters cannot see that part of the application form.

Thanks for that info, much appreciated. We didn't collect the info I was concerned about back when I was working. Also, I worked in areas where confidentiality, and sometimes anonymity, were needed, for which training was provided by my employers.

MsFrost · 12/09/2023 05:38

AutumnalPumpkin · 10/09/2023 22:07

@Funngames1 that does make sense, although if the questions were never asked, I'm sure companies could look just as diverse. As you can't tell somebodies background by looking at them (not always anyway)
Plus employers should be looking at skill, experience and work ethic during their recruitment process. Not seeing whether somebody was lower or higher class in their upbringing so they can pull it out when questioned about their companies overall diversity.
"You don't seem to have a variety of employees from a diverse background here"
Employer : "actually as you see here, our employee Michael was in receipt of free school meals at aged 9, I think that is pretty diverse, don't you?"

They won't be hiring based on these questions.

These are usually asked for monitoring purposes and won't even be shared with those who make decisions about recruitment.

It's more retrospective. So they will use it further down the line to look at whether they have a pattern of recruiting people from higher income backgrounds, for example, and if they do then they will (in theory!) try to address that.

It doesn't actually impact whether someone gets the job at all.

MsFrost · 12/09/2023 05:40

@AutumnalPumpkin Having said that they shouldn't be asking them face to face in the interview. They are normally asked on the application form and that info is then taken out by HR before it's passed onto the interview panel/ recruiters.

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