What is the worst interview question you have been asked or asked during an interview?

Incredible! My brother-in-law is a native of Kauai, and a few years ago when I mentioned this to our town librarian (a librarian, of all people!), she asked innocently, "Oh, was he educated in the US or his country"? Umm, what could I say?

I've actually asked that question in interviews. It gives an interesting insight into a candidate's thought processes and what they value.

Perhaps he wanted to see how, "out-of-the-box" you were able to think. In the animal kingdom, there are packs with an Alfa leader, there are herds that work together, and there are loners with survivor skills. Translating to a human factor, are you a leader, a team member, or are you a "I will do it myself" type of person?

In the 70's and 80's I was frequently turned down because I am male and white. Most often by governmental agencies who strongly believed in their affirmative action programs and were very open about it in interviews.

In one case, it was a Big 8 auditor. They conducted a large group interview of recent grads and told us at the initial, introductory meeting that they were present specifically to recruit women and minorities. That they already had too many white males.

I took great offense to this back then and was outraged. But, since that time, I've faced the same barrier only the employers were not so open about it.

That made me realize that, those who had flat out told me they were eliminating me due to my race and gender, were doing me a favor. At least they were being honest.

Those who do this underhandedly are not. I may not like it but, I'd rather know the truth.

I was recently asked to not be in a group picture for a public release about an award that our agency received and then I was asked to not attend the conference where it was being presented. Instead, a non-white contract colleague was asked to attend in my stead because the CEO didn't want it to appear that management here, was not diverse.

I could take offense but, there is little value in doing so. I do feel really bad for the contractor who was asked to attend the conference. He wonders why there was this sudden interest in his attendance. How sad for him that he does not realize that he was being exploited for his outward appearance.

And, neither he nor I really like going to these CEO ego gratifying conferences where tens of thousands of taxpayer funds are wasted on mutual admiration activities.