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Comment by CableNinja | Hacker News Reader

On the topic of getting hired, id like to take a moment to rant at the employers, and ask you HN folk to do something.

PLEASE stop applying to jobs that make you jump through stupid hoops or answer stupid questions that dont need to be asked on applications. Every person that applies and answers these questions are just helping to standardize their use on applications, and it needs to stop. Theres so many that i cant even think of a good example right now, but you know the questions im talking about.

Employers, please stop asking these stupid questions, and 100% double check what youre asking is actually allowed. Ive seen at least two places, recently, asking questions that im pretty sure could be considered discriminatory. Ive seen others asking stupid useless questions like "what would be your superpower" you know what mine would be? The power to make the hiring process not feel like a shell game filled with bullshit traps and gotchas.

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Canonical, for a Director job, asked for my high school math & language aptitude (e.g. top x% in school), plus "proof" like SAT/ACT score, and my college GPA. For someone with 20 years' experience it felt offensive.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Ive seen all kinds of crazy questions. The big offenders though are ones wanting to see your social media and crap. I even had one that wouldnt even let you finish the application without providing them your facebook page, which i dont even have. Or asking your salary range at application, like wtf.

Its a goddamn mess, i dont even know what to do about it

Yes to not answering stupid questions. One of my pet peeves about job applications is the "Voluntary self-identification" form that has all required answers. So I select "I do not want to answer" and assume they're too stupid to hire me.

Honestly, i think those 3 questions are hot garbage. They shouldnt be asked until an offer is made. Theres no reason to ask them in advance other than to allow for discriminatory decisions, but that decision is easily masked by "we found stronger candidates" auto rejections.

Really truly tired of the state of hiring

I'm pretty sure this is a US law to see if protected categories are even applying, and then if they're getting their fair share of offers.

Sure, but that doesnt change that the employer also sees that info, and can reject still, while using some unknown excuse (like a stronger candidate being found, even if thats nit the case). It should not be information visible to the employer at all. The government should be mandating anonymous data, by removing collection from the employer level, and move it to the job site level. Ive yet to see anyone with a homerolled job application site/process, and so it should be easy to get these apps doing it as well. These apps and sites can then send it straight to the government, rather than the employer storing it, or ever having access to it. Alternatively, the data should be required to be encrypted with a pub/priv pair that the government only has access to the private key before sending to employer servers. Ill take almost anything over the employer having access to this info.

As much as i understand why these questions have been mandated, i feel they've become silently weaponized, due to their visibility.

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