Get Your Students Hired
Federal and state laws prohibit prospective employers from asking certain questions that are not related to the job they are hiring for. Questions should be job-related and not used to find out personal information.
In a nutshell, employers should not be asking about your race, gender, religion, marital status, age, disabilities, ethnic background, country of origin, sexual preferences or age
Illegal Interview Questions
Are you a U.S. citizen?
How long have you lived here?
What religion do you practice?
Which religious holidays do you observe?
How old are you?
How much longer do you plan to work before you retire?
Do you have or plan to have children?
Do you have kids?
Employers should never ask about any of the following:
Gender, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, marital status and birthplace.
Describe a situation and listen to their response.
If you knew a student was plagarizing and it was your daughter's friend, how would you handle it?
If a student unknowingly dropped $100 on the floor, what would you do?
If you provided incorrect information to a student and one of the students brought it to your attention, what would be your response?
If a blind man asked you to assist with paying for his groceries and gave you $100 to pay, but the groceries only cost $50 would you give him all of the change back?
Andri,
What type of questions do you ask to try to ascertain a candidate's level of honesty?
Deal breakers for me are honesty, integrity, flexibility and a passion for teaching. If a candidate is only interested in the money, I immediately scratch them off the list because the real purpose in teaching is to impart knowledge and watch the progression of the students -- understand, apply and create.
The following sample questions are the "deal-breakers".
1. What makes you think you are competent in teaching this subject?
2. What would you do with your first session and how would you organize the session?
3. What would you include in your syllabus and when would you give your syllabus to the students?
4. What teaching methods would you use in class?.....
Yan,
What are the "deal-breakers" for your institution, excluding the obvious legal ones?
Both in application form and during an interview, questions related to deal-breaker chracteristics are most important to ask. Any questions which might lead to legal problems should never be asked, such as one's marital status, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disabilities, and any non-job related conduct.
Brandi,
The best types of interview questions require applicants to discuss what they have done previously in specific situations rather than asking for hypothetical responses. These "behavior-based" interview questions often start with "tell me about a time when ...."
The theory here is that most people will behave in a given situation much like they have in past situations. Four of five of these questions, based on the job requirements, typically help to identify qualified candidates.
What might be one behavior-based question you could ask a candidate for a teaching position?
According to the material, the interviewer should not sit down and simply talk with the applicant. They should not ask questions like, "So tell me why I should hire you?", "Why do you want to work here?", etc.
Xander,
This is a very important point. Thanks for making it.
Some career colleges do formal background checks on all candidates before offering a position. The background checks could identify things like defaults on student loans that typically kept an offerfrom being made.
What are the "deal breakers" for you?
You can ask someone if they have been convicted of a felony. You can't ask them if they have been arrested.
The Maiden name is irrelevant and should not be asked.Ethnicity should not be asked because it does not matter the ethnic background of the in dividual. Gender questions shoudl be avoided unless it is specific to a particular job.
Age - is irrelevant and should not be asked.
Religion should not be asked instead the hours should be disclosed and the employee needs to say if they can work the hours.
Interviewers need to be sensitive to the questions and comments that are expressed during the interview.
Should never ask if ever been convicted of a felony, should never ask about disabilities or questions pertaining to their personal life, # of children, # of marriages or if they attend church