Illegal Interview Questions

Questions that are illegal for employers to ask at interviews include:

1. Age

Unless questioned about mandated minimum age requirements for a particular job, an employer shouldn't ask about the your age or the dates when you attended grade school, high school, or even college, as the courts may regard this as subtle evidence of age discrimination.

2. National Origin

An employer can require proof that you are eligible to legally work in America. The proof must be a form that would be accepted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. An employer cannot ask about what other languages you speaks, unless there is a legitimate employment reason. If an employer must ask about language abilities, the employer must not ask how or where you acquired your to speak a foreign language.
The law presumes that "English-only" rules are illegal, such as requirements that employees speak only English while at work.

3. Race/Color

An interviewer cannot ask your race or color, or racial/familial background. An employer should not ask specific questions of certain races or colors but not others. The employer should ensure that it asks the same types of questions of all potential employees.

4. Gender

An employer cannot ask about your gender, or pose questions that may only apply to one gender. For example, the employer should not ask if you plan on having children, even if this question is asked of all candidates. A court may consider such a question as an attempt to avoid hiring women. An employer cannot inquire about your plans for child care.
An employer must be careful not to have requirements that are unrelated to the job. For example, an employer should avoid imposing height requirements unrelated to job performance, as such a requirement could potentially exclude women.

5. Religion

The employer should not ask about your religious beliefs, whether or where you attend church, or about any religious customs. The employer must not tell you about the employer’s religious beliefs or affiliations. Courts may consider such discussions as an attempt to pressure or unduly influence you when there is no legitimate employment reason for the employer to disclose such information.

6. Disability

An employer can ask whether you are capable of performing tasks that are required for the job. The employer, however, should carefully phrase the question to avoid potential problems. For example, the employer may properly explain that a job may require lifting boxes weighing 25 pounds, and then ask if you are able to meet that requirement. However, it is not appropriate to simply ask if you are disabled, and then attempt to justify that question by explaining that the employer was attempting to elicit information regarding your ability to lift heavy boxes.
The employer must avoid questions that could be misconstrued as inquiring about non-job-related disabilities, or that could force you to reveal any such disabilities. The employer must ask whether you have a history of filing workers’ compensation claims, or ask about any current or prior medical conditions.

For more information on illegal and legal pre-interview, interview, and post-interview hiring practices visit The Hiring Process: A Primer of Legal Do's and Dont's from Workforce Management.

Maternal Profiling

Maternal profiling has been defined as employment discrimination against a woman who has, or will have, children. In some states it is legal to ask women if they have children, if the same questions is asked of men applicants for jobs. But discrimination based on this is illegal.

According to some attorneys who deal with workplace issues, men are rarely asked about having children. But some say that in an interview situation women must confront the simple fact that some employers still believe mothers, especially single mothers, can be less reliable on the job.

Right now, 22 states have laws that specifically prohibit employers from asking applicants about their marital or familial status.

If you believe you have encountered discrimination at work because you are pregnant, a parent, or a caregiver you can contact The Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. The free hotline for employees who may be facing employment discrimination because of their family responsibilities, The Hotline, can be reached by sending an email to hotline@worklifelaw.org, or by calling 1-800-981-9495 or 202-680-8964.

Hardest Jobs to Fill Globally and Nationally

Every day in the U.S, 120,000 workers leave their jobs. Employers are focusing more than on simply finding an individual who has the specific skills to fill an opening. Forward-looking employers want personnel who have the soft skills, work ethic, and culture traits that fit their company.

According to a new survey from Manpower Inc., of 43,000 employers from 32 countries, including 2,000 in the United States, the most desired workers are:

• Tradesmen such as electricians, carpenters, and welders
• Sales representatives
• Engineering and maintenance technicians
• Managers and executives

U.S. companies named engineers their most-wanted recruits.

Here’s the full top 10 hardest jobs to fill in the U.S.:

1. Engineers

2. Machinists/Machine Operators

3. Skilled Manual Trades

4. Technicians

5. Sales Representatives

6. Accounting & Finance Staff

7. Mechanics

8. Laborers

9. IT Staff

10. Production Operators

Methods to Retain IT Professionals

A study conducted by Robert Half Technology, a division of Robert Half International Inc., asking 1,400 U.S. chief information officers to identify the most effective methods to retain IT personnel resulted in the following responses:

• Pay Hikes - 27%


• Opportunities for Professional Development - 21%


• Flexible Schedules - 18%

Never Lie on Your Resume, Bio, or Anything

Never lie about academic credentials. Never lie on your resume. It will come back to haunt you.

Disputes about the truth of academic credentials have become common and often lead to job losses even after years of employment:

• According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Gregory Probert, the president and chief operating officer of Herbalife Ltd., was caught by a fraud investigator falsely claiming he earned an M.B.A. from California State University, Los Angeles. (Herbalife sells products to a network of at-home distributors who, in turn, recruit other distributors.) In response, Mr. Probert, 51 years old, said he nearly completed an M.B.A. at Cal State, but "the truth is that my vanity prevailed and I did not take action" (to correct Herbalife's biography of him) "even though I was aware it was not accurate."


• Wednesday, West Virginia University said it would revoke an M.B.A. it granted last fall to Heather Bresch, chief operating officer of Mylan Inc., a Pittsburgh generic-drug maker. Last October, Mylan issued a news release that incorrectly claimed an M.B.A. for Ms. Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia's governor, Joe Manchin III. Ms. Bresch had studied at the school but hadn't completed her degree, an independent panel later concluded. After receiving questions from the media, the university retroactively awarded Ms. Bresch an M.B.A. -- which, after further contention, it is revoking.


• Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dismissed its longtime dean of admissions, Marilee Jones, after the university received an anonymous tip that she had claimed fake academic degrees.


• In 2006, David Edmondson resigned as chief executive of RadioShack Corp. after a newspaper disclosed that he lied about having a college degree.

Never lie about your academic credentials, work history, skills, or accomplishments. Eventually you will pay a tremendous price.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Danica Patrick for breaking the glass ceiling in Indy Racing. After 70 races, she achieved her first Indy win in Japan last weekend and became the first woman to win a major auto racing event.

I read an article that said that there are only 12 female CEOs (2.4%) of Fortune 500 companies. Is there still sexism in business?

I had a conversation this evening with a friend who thinks that sexism is no longer the problem it once was. Although I know there has been progress in the last 30 years, I have seen my clients come across roadblocks in hiring, instituting changes in operations, and securing promotions based on what they believe is sexism. What do you think?

Jobless Claims Fell Unexpectedly But Are Still Expected to Reach 3 Million

The number of U.S. workers filing initial claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell by 33,000 last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, though the number of workers remaining on jobless benefits continued at a high level.

Initial claims for jobless benefits decreased to a seasonally adjusted 342,000 in the week ended April 19, from a revised 375,000 in the prior week.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected initial claims to edge up to 375,000 from an initially reported 372,000 in the April 12 week.

The four-week moving average of new claims, a more reliable guide to underlying labor trends because it irons out weekly fluctuations, fell last week to 369,500 from 376,750.

The number of workers remaining on jobless benefits eased to 2.934 million for the week ended April 12, the most recent week these figures were available, from 2.999 million the prior week.

But it was the fourth straight week in which continuing claims remained above 2.9 million.

Analysts were expecting continuing claims to hit 3 million during the April 12 week.

Fortune's 20 Most Profitable Companies

Fortune's list of the 20 most profitable companies include oil, electric, banking / investment, IT / computer, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and consumer products corporations. Below you will find the companies with their Fortune 500 ranking, 2007 profit, and 2007 profit growth or decline.

1. Exxon Mobile - 2 - $40.61B - up 2.8%
2. General Electric - 6 - $$22.21B - up of 6.6%
3. Chevron - 3 - $18.59B - up of 9%
4. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. - 12 - $15.37B - up 6%
5. Bank of America Corp. - 9 - $14.98B - down of 29%
6. Microsoft - 44 - $14.07B - up of 28%
7. Berkshire Hathaway - 11 - $13.21B - up of 21%
8. Wal-Mart Stores - 1 - $12.73B - up of 13%
9. AT&T - 10 - $11.95B - up of 63%
10. Conoco Phillips - 5 - $11.89B - down of 24%
11. Goldman Sachs Group - 20 - $11.6B - up 22%
12. Johnson & Johnson - 35 - $10.58B - down 4%
13. IBM - 15 - $10.42B - 15 - up 10%
14. Procter & Gamble - 23 - $10.34B - up 19%
15. Altria Group - 61 - $9.79B - down 18.6%
16. Pfizer - 47 - $8.14B - down 8%
17. Wells Fargo - 41 - $8.06B - down 5%
18. Cisco Systems - 71 - $7.33B - up 31.4%
19. Hewlett-Packard - 14 - $7.26B - up 17%
20. Intel - 60 - $6.98B - up 38%

For details visit Fortune 500's Biggest Winners

Jobs Being Offshored

If you think your job is immune to offshoring, think again.

A study conducted by CareerBuilder.com and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, found that 28 % of the 3,000 employers surveyed who offshored expect more of their high-skill positions to be shipped overseas.

Among the jobs respondents identified as positions they plan to offshore are:

• Computer Programmers - 32%
• Software Developers - 32%
• Customer Service Representatives - 25%
• Sales Managers - 8%
• Graphic Designers 8%
• Human Resource Personnel - 7%
• General Managers - 6%
• Marketing Personnel - 5%

Not surprising, the primary reason for offshoring is cost. Forty-nine percent of employers said they saved over $20,000 for each job that was moved overseas.

For the most part, jobs that are moved out of the U.S. are going to:

• India - 44% of employers said they sent jobs there, followed by
• China - 24 %
• Mexico - 12%
• Canada - 9%
• Germany - 8%
• The Philippines - 7%
• Britain - 7%

Twenty-eight percent of employers who offshore jobs said that it allowed them to create new positions in the United States.

Think Your Jobs Won't Go Overseas? Think Again!

Jobs Most Likely to Go Offshore

The Flawed Biofuels Initiative

"It was one of the dumbest 'green ideas' ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you've achieved a monumental green victory all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that's causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world.

And now we're just starting to see the early signs of the economic and social insanity that has been unleashed by this foolish pursuit of biofuels around the world: Food rationing in Sam's Club stores in the U.S.. rapidly rising prices on bread, rice, and corn, and price spikes at cafeterias and restaurants that depend on these staple ingredients. The price of rice has tripled globally, unleashing riots in Haiti and Bangladesh, and the United Nations has issued warnings that millions of people around the world now face starvation because they can't afford to buy food. Americans are even starting to hoard food once again, after years of avoiding basic preparedness measures. (One benefit of all this, however, is that farmers are actually getting paid decent prices for their crops now, after years of operating on the verge of bankruptcy...).

Not all of these price spikes are due to the conversion of croplands to biofuel fields, but much of it is. As a result, it's suddenly becoming obvious to nearly everyone that the pursuit of biofuels, as currently structured, is a grand greenwashing hoax. It doesn't produce more fuel than it consumes, and it drives up food prices to boot!

The only truly promising biofuels technology available today is based on microalgae. Feed CO2 to a vat of algae, and you can produce biofuels cheaply and responsibly, without destroying the environment. But these programs are only in experimental phases. Nobody is producing biofuels on a large scale from algae farms (not yet, anyway).

And that leaves the great American breadbasket: The corn and wheat fields. It is here that food is now being displaced by crops grown for biofuel processing. So where a farmer used to grow corn as a food source, he's now growing it to sell to a biofuel processing facility which turns to corn into ethanol.

Obviously, the laws of economics come into play here, meaning that every bushel of corn used for biofuels production means one less bushel of corn available for food. Factor in the laws of supply and demand, and you can see that the more crops we use for biofuels, the higher the prices will rise for food.

So, to repeat, the food bubble is now starting to implode. What does it mean? It means as these economic and climate realities unfold, our world is facing massive starvation and food shortages. The first place this will be felt is in poor developing nations. It is there that people live on the edge of economic livelihood, where even a 20% rise in the price of basic food staples can put desperately needed calories out of reach of tens of millions of families. If something is not done to rescue these people from their plight, they will starve to death.

And biofuels, of course, are no answer for this problem. You cannot grow enough corn to solve problems of an expansionist, imperialistic race of beings (that's us humans) who have taken over the planet like a cancer tumor, wiped out countless species, destroyed huge swaths of natural rainforests, poisoned the oceans and rivers, polluted the skies, and, at every opportunity, betrayed the very Earth that has given us a home in the first place. Humans can betray Mother Nature for a while, but in the end, we will pay a dear price for our own arrogance, greed, and lack of vision. The human race is being sent back to kindergarten, where it needs to learn some basic lessons about living in harmony with the planet. Lessons like: Don't use up all the resources in a few generations. Don't think you're smarter than nature. And never forget how much Mother Nature does for us all for free! (Like pollinating crops, producing oxygen, cleaning the air, water, etc.)."

Excerpted from "The Biofuels Scam, Food Shortages and the Coming Collapse of the Human Population" by Mike Adams.

You Still Need Hard Copies of Your Résumé

I repeatedly get inquiries regarding my résumé service from people who say they don't need hard copies of their résumé. But it is still important to have hard copies to:

• Send after e-mailing your résumé as an attachment to employers and recruiters
• Distribute to your contacts and at networking events
• Take to interviews (you should take 6 copies to interviews)

A recruiter friend of mine told me that she used to receive 30 hard copies a day, now she receives 3 and reads all of them. On Mondays, she receives so many e-mailed résumés that she deletes all of them.

Taking a little more time to send hard copies can give you an advantage over other candidates for the job.

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!
I am very big on saving the earth for our children and grandchildren. The following provides you with lists of eco-friendly gadgets, tips, and ideas. While reviewing these lists, I discovered that a laptop uses just a quarter of the power required by a desktop computer.

7 Energy-Saving Gadgets

16 Ways To Turn Your Business Green

52 Tips For Living Green.

My husband did something perfect for earth day. He took our old computer / electronics equipment to a recycling center across town.

Fortune 500 List for 2008

Fortune just released its 500 list and the largest 10 companies are:

1. Wal-Mart Stores
2. Exxon Mobil
3. Chevron
4. General Motors
5. ConocoPhillips
6. General Electric
7. Ford Motor
8. Citigroup
9. Bank of America Corp.
10. AT&T

To see details and the complete list visit Fortune 500.

Fortune's Best Big Companies to Work For - 2008

Fortune released its Best Big Companies to Work for today. These 33 companies made both the Fortune 1000 and Best Companies to Work For lists this year. The top 10 include:

1. Valero Energy
2. Goldman Sachs Group
3. Microsoft
4. FedEx
5. Cisco Systems
6. American Express
7. Publix Super Market
8. Google
9. Nike
10. AFLAC

To view details on theses companies and the complete list visit Best Big Companies to Work For

Most Useful Technology Tools for Recruiting in Next Three Years

When asked which technology tool will be most useful for recruiting in the next three years, 150 senior executives at the 1,000 largest U.S. companies responded to Robert Half International staffing firm as follows:

• 62% chose professional-networking sites like LinkedIn.com
• 35% selected social ones such as Facebook and MySpace.com

You are invited to join my network at LinkedIn. It is one great method for making contacts with employees of specific companies and recruiters. It also has a job finding board. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Watch Out for Work-at-Home Scams

Complaints to the Better Business Bureau regarding work-at-home opportunities rose to 4,100 in 2007 from about 3,800 the previous year. And work-at-home offers and business opportunities ranked 13th last year among fraud complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission.
Work-at-home scams are expected to become more prevalent as economic conditions worsen and people find themselves out of work or in need of extra cash to deal with escalating prices for basic goods, experts in law enforcement and consumer advocacy say.

Scammers prey on people who are desperate for money.

This is how it works: You get an unsolicited email, or find a job post on a major job board, about a work-at-home job involving freight. Typically they offer to pay anywhere from $20 to $40 for every package you receive at your home and then reship with a pre-paid shipping label the scammers provide.

The criminals are often based in former Soviet Bloc nations, and the unsuspecting victims are paid through a money wiring service such as Western Union.

In actuality the scammers are purchasing goods online with stolen credit card numbers and using the victim’s home address to ship the goods.

Sometimes they even ask victims for their bank account numbers, promising to directly deposit their paychecks in the account but they end up cleaning them out.

Since scams like these are going to get worse, there are a few key things to keep in mind:

• Research the company you’re interested in working for and get references from employees. Check Web sites like http://www.ripoffreport.com/, www.wahm.com, and the BBB to make sure they don’t have a checkered history.
• Never pay money to get a job. That’s not how it works. Employers pay you.
• Don’t expect real companies to be sending unsolicited emails to your computer with job offers. Hardly any firms ever look for employees this way.
• Just because a job is posted in your local newspaper, or a well-known web job board, doesn’t mean the job is real.

Higher Prices and Grain Shortages Relax Resistance to Genetically Engineered Crops

An article in today's New York Times is of great concern to those who worry about the potential negative effects of genetic engineering. "Soaring food prices and global grain shortages are bringing new pressures on governments, food companies, and consumers to relax their longstanding resistance to genetically engineered crops.

In Japan and South Korea, some manufacturers for the first time have begun buying genetically engineered corn for use in soft drinks, snacks and other foods. Until now, to avoid consumer backlash, the companies have paid extra to buy conventionally grown corn. But with prices having tripled in two years, it has become too expensive to be so finicky.

In the United States, wheat growers and marketers, once hesitant about adopting biotechnology because they feared losing export sales, are now warming to it as a way to bolster supplies. Genetically modified crops contain genes from other organisms to make the plants resistant to insects, herbicides or disease. Opponents continue to worry that such crops have not been studied enough and that they might pose risks to health and the environment.

The U.S. Wheat Associates, which once cautioned farmers about growing biotech wheat, is working to get seed companies to restart development of genetically modified wheat and to get foreign buyers to accept it.

Even in Europe, where opposition to what the Europeans call Frankenfoods has been fiercest, some prominent government officials and business executives are calling for faster approvals of imports of genetically modified crops. They are responding in part to complaints from livestock producers, who say they might suffer a critical shortage of feed if imports are not accelerated.

In Britain, the National Beef Association, which represents cattle farmers, issued a statement this month demanding that “all resistance” to such crops “be abandoned immediately in response to shifts in world demand for food, the growing danger of global food shortages and the prospect of declining domestic animal production.”

With food riots in some countries focusing attention on how the world will feed itself, biotechnology proponents see their chance. They argue that while genetic engineering might have been deemed unnecessary when food was abundant, it will be essential for helping the world cope with the demand for food and biofuels in the decades ahead.

Through gene splicing, the modified crops now grown — mainly canola, corn, cotton and soybeans — typically contain bacterial genes that help the plants resist insects or tolerate a herbicide that can be sprayed to kill weeds while leaving the crop unscathed. Biotechnology companies are also working on crops that might need less water or fertilizer, which could have a bigger impact on improving yield.

Any new receptivity to genetically modified crops would be a boon to American exporters. The United States accounted for half the world’s acreage of biotech crops last year.

But substantial amounts of corn, soy or canola are grown in Argentina, Brazil and Canada. China has developed insect-resistant rice that is awaiting regulatory approval in that country.

The pressure to re-evaluate biotech comes as prices of some staples like rice and wheat have doubled in the last few months, provoking violent protests in several countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Haiti and Thailand. Factors behind the price spikes include the diversion of crops to make biofuel, rising energy prices, growing prosperity in India and China, and droughts in some regions — including Australia, a major grain producer.

Biotechnology still certainly faces obstacles. Polls in Europe do not yet show a decisive shift in consumer sentiment, and the industry has had some recent setbacks. Since the beginning of the year France has banned the planting of genetically modified corn while Germany has enacted a law allowing for foods to be labeled as “G.M. free.”

And a new international assessment of the future of agriculture, released last Tuesday, gave such tepid support to the role genetic engineering could play in easing hunger that biotechnology industry representatives withdrew from the project in protest. The report was a collaboration of more than 60 governments, with participation from companies and nonprofit groups, under the auspices of the World Bank and the United Nations.

Hans R. Herren, co-chairman of the project, said providing more fertilizer to Africa would improve output much more than genetic engineering could. “What farmers really are struggling with are water issues, soil fertility issues and market access for their products,” he said.

Opponents of biotechnology say they see not so much an opportunity as opportunism by its proponents to exploit the food crisis. “Where politicians and technocrats have always wanted to push G.M.O.’s, they are jumping on this bandwagon and using this as an excuse,” said Helen Holder, who coordinates the campaign against biotech foods for Friends of the Earth Europe. G.M.O. refers to genetically modified organism.
Even Michael Mack, the chief executive of the Swiss company Syngenta, an agricultural chemical and biotechnology giant, cautioned that the industry should not use the current crisis to push its agenda.

Whatever importance biotechnology can play in the long run, food shortages are making it harder for some buyers to avoid engineered crops.

The main reason some Japanese and South Korean makers of corn starch and corn sweeteners are buying biotech corn is that they have dwindling alternatives. Their main supplier is the United States, where 75 percent of corn grown last year was genetically modified, up from 40 percent in 2003.

As corn prices soar, millers and food companies are less able to pay the surcharge to keep nonengineered corn separate from biotech varieties. The surcharge itself has been rising. Non-engineered corn cost Korean millers about $450 a metric ton, up from $143 in 2006. Genetically engineered corn costs about $350 a ton.

In Europe, livestock producers say that regulations on genetically modified crops could choke feed supplies at a time when they are already reeling from higher prices. Even after a new genetically engineered variety is approved for growing in the United States, it might take several years for Europe to approve it for import.

European rules require an entire shipment of grain to be turned back if it contains even a trace of an unapproved variety. Such a problem last year disrupted exports of corn gluten, a feed product, from the United States to Europe.

Feed makers and livestock producers want faster approvals and a relaxation of the rules to allow for trace amounts of unapproved varieties in shipments.

Even in the United States, where genetically engineered food has been generally accepted, the wheat industry has had to rethink its reluctance to accept biotech varieties.

Because about half of America’s wheat crop is exported, farmers and processors feared foreign buyers would reject their products. Facing resistance from American farmers, Monsanto in 2004 suspended development of what would have been the first genetically modified wheat.

But some farmers and millers now say that the lack of genetically engineered wheat has made growing the grain less attractive than growing corn or soybeans. That has, in turn, contributed to shrinking supplies and rising prices for wheat.

Milling & Baking News, an influential trade newspaper in Kansas City, Mo., said in an editorial that companies that used wheat were now paying the price for their own “hesitancy, if not outright opposition” to biotechnology."

What are your views on genetically engineered crops?

Improve Your Mind and Help Feed the Hungry

Hunger remains a problem all over the world and with the cost of corn, rice, and flour skyrocketing due to higher energy and fertilizer costs, the use of corn to develop ethanol, droughts, and politics and wars, it will only get worse.

Recently I was made aware of FreeRice.com.

Play a free, addictive word game, build your vocabulary, and for every correct answer win 20 grains of rice to feed hungry people all over the world - 7,500 grains provides 2 cups of rice distributed by the United Nations World Food Program.

"FreeRice.com is one of the most ingenious websites of 2007. In the best spirit of the Internet it offers education, entertainment, and a way to change the world all for free."
--Los Angeles Times

According to the web site it can help you:

• Perform better at job interviews
• Sell yourself, your services, and products better
• Be more effective and successful at your job
• Speak more precisely and persuasively
• Write better papers, e-mails, and business letters

My goal is to win 7,500 grains of rice a day.