This 1 Unfair Job Interview Question Can Instantly Determine If You're Hired – And It’s Very Common

“What do you like to do in your spare time?”If you’re in a job interview, think through your answer very carefully. Although this question has nothing to do with your relevant job skills and qualifications, it can be the reason you don’t get hired. Sociologist Lauren Rivera, a professor of management and organisations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said across national and international surveys, this remains a common question job candidates get asked before the job interview officially starts. “Interviews can be a somewhat awkward interaction,” Rivera said. “There’s often a desire on the part of the evaluator to make the interviewee feel comfortable ... And one of the ways that interviewers most commonly do that is through asking questions about, ‘What do you like to do in your spare time?’”But this is not just idle chitchat, because what you do when you’re not working can reveal your race, gender, class and caregiving responsibilities ― and it can give unfair weight to whether a manager sees you as a good fit for the role. Why This Interview Question Matters More Than Relevant Questions How you answer this subjective, arbitrary question can determine whether or not you're hired.If your interviewer is wowed by your hobby, they may like you enough to hire you ― no matter how bad you might be for the job. That’s because interviewers are “anchoring on this perception of comfort and ease, which is gendered, which is racialised, which is classed,” Rivera said. If your interviewer skis and you mention how you ski on vacation, “that’s great. If you’re not a skier, if you’ve never gone skiing in your life, they may not be as interested.” Rivera has found this bias repeatedly through her research. In one 2010 study where she interviewed 120 professionals involved in hiring decisions at law firms, investment banking and management consulting firms, she found that certain resource-intensive, extracurricular accomplishments impressed top-tier firms more than others. For these employers, hiking to the summit of Kilimanjaro or Everest was a source of “true accomplishment” over just doing recreational hiking, which was seen as something “anybody could do,” according to these narrow-minded hiring professionals in the study. Using sports or extracurricular activities is “a Rorschach test,” Rivera said. “You can use it as a justification for anything you want.”One additional problem with asking this icebreaker question is that humans have short attention spans, and your first answers are the ones your interviewer is likely to remember the most. “Interviewers typically make up their mind in the first 30 to 90 seconds of meeting someone,” Rivera said. “Whether or not they like the person or they think the person is a good fit for the role can change, but it takes an overwhelming amount of evidence in the opposite direction to change that initial anchor.”What Managers Should Ask InsteadIdeally, a hiring manager should avoid asking this hobbies question altogether, because it can introduce these unfair biases towards or against candidates. Instead of doing icebreakers about where the candidate grew up, for example, be straightforward about needing to ask candidates structured questions for fairness. This could look like a hiring manager saying from the beginning, “I’m so excited to meet you. I am really interested to hear about your experiences, but we want to make sure that this process really does a good job of being fair to everybody, and also doing a job of identifying people who would be really interested in the role. So we’re going to right move right to the structured part of this,” Rivera outlined as an example. How To Answer This Unfair Interview Question —And Still Get The Job. Despite the subjective nature of this question, Rivera doesn’t recommend avoiding this question as a candidate if you actually want the job. “Part of what interviewers are judging job candidates on a large part is, ‘Do I like you? Do I see myself in you?’” Rivera said. “And so if you say, ‘I refuse to answer that,’ it is jarring to the conversation ... And you definitely don’t want to interrupt the flow.”But you don’t have to play this chemistry game on an employer’s terms. Here’s how to stay true to yourself while answering this tricky question:Prepare your hobbies in advance. Don’t wing your answer.“Make a list of 10 or so hobbies and interests you’re comfortable with sharing,” recommended Cynthia Pong, founder of Embrace Change, a career coaching and training firm. “Think about how those could relate to the roles you’re seeking or the organisations you’re applying to in terms of reflecting your strengths, qualities, or values.”Instead of saying you love to read, think of a specific book you could endlessly debate for its character or plot, for example, because that is more likely to lead to an engaging conversation.“Think of something that is vivid, that would be interesting for you to talk about with your interviewer and that they might also share,” Rivera suggested. Don’t try to fake your answer. Who you are in the interview is who you will need to be for the job. So don’t pretend to have an interest in Formula 1 or tennis you don’t have. “Trying to tailor your answer too closely to what you think your interviewer wants to hear can backfire,” Pong cautioned. “Even in a tough market, interviews are still a two-way assessment. If you oversell a version of yourself that doesn’t match how you’d show up on the job, you’re setting yourself up for friction and misalignment down the road.”Swivel the question back. You can also turn the question back on your interviewer after you respond with, “What about you?” Pong suggested. This way, you “keep the conversation flowing naturally and build rapport while gently shifting the spotlight.”Of course, whether or not you get a job should not come down to whether you play the same high school sport as your future boss. It should not be a job candidate’s responsibility to figure out how to navigate this icebreaker question –– it should be an employer’s job to think of a less random, more fair question. “When it comes to equity and fairness, I think the onus really should be on the employers to train their staff to have better ways of ascertaining the underlying qualities they’re hoping to measure, as opposed to relying on this question,” Rivera said. Related...'I Walked Out Of A Job interview After 1 Question – Did I Overreact?'Welcome To The Sh**show, AKA The Working Parent Summer Holiday Juggle5 Signs You're 'Quiet Cracking' At Work Without Realising It

Comments

Breaking news

Germany brings in compulsory military service screening as Russia tensions rise

Metro

Dailymail

Nepo dad of chart-topping singer joins hit reggae band on stage at iconic venue - but can YOU guess which star he's related to?

about 2 hours ago

Britain's Got Talent judge 'QUITS' show - with major star 'lined up' as their replacement

Dailymail

Comments

Breaking news

Germany brings in compulsory military service screening as Russia tensions rise

‘Failings’ in care for cricket legend in the months before he took his own life

Why ‘Doomsday mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell received two more life sentences — and it wasn’t for her children’s murders

Trump lands in Scotland to visit his golf resorts ahead of Starmer talks

Sharknado? The next generation of hurricane forecasters could be sharks

Hulk Hogan descended upon American culture at exactly the time it was ready for him: the 1980s

Ghislaine Maxwell talked about ‘100 different people’ during DOJ’s Epstein interview, lawyer says

Drug prevention officer exposed by his own bodycam after it records video of his affair with married school teacher

More than 600,000 Frigidaire mini fridges recalled after fire hazard causes injuries and $700K in property damages

Judge stays execution to evaluate if Alabama inmate is competent

From Wrestlemania to MAGA-land: Hulk Hogan and Donald Trump’s friendship through the years

‘He felt something crawl on him:’ Simple spider bite leaves teen with failing kidneys and unable to speak

There’s a royal reason Trump won’t escape Jeffrey Epstein fallout on trip to his Scotland golf courses — Prince Andrew

Chuck E. Cheese employee arrested in iconic mouse mask for using stolen credit card, police say

Donald Trump arrives in Scotland as President greeted at Prestwick Airport

Five issues Donald Trump raised speaking to journalists after Scotland arrival

'No one should be subjected to racist abuse,' Meta tells Sky News - five days after England star quit social media

Grammy-winning jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine dies

Sir Keir Starmer is caught between Trump, Macron and MPs over Palestine recognition

Turkey faces 'truly great disaster', warns Erdogan amid raging wildfires and sweltering temperatures

England fans risk £2,500 fine if they flout St George's Cross flag rules

Donald Trump's mental state 'clear to see' as lawmakers urged to 'act now'

Tesco UK boss: 'Price alone won’t help customers to shop a healthier basket'

Woman in Union Flag dress turned away from Wetherspoons over 'tensions' concerns

'Fuming' Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco consider wedding delay as it descends into CHAOS

West Ham star Lucas Paqueta is expected to be CLEARED of spot-fixing charges after two-year FA investigation

'Get your act together': Bullish Donald Trump touches down in Scotland to inaugurate his new golf course and immediately warns Europe it 'won't exist' unless it cracks down on immigration

Trump says he was NEVER briefed by Pam Bondi on his name being in Epstein files

Police chief apologises for claiming multiple bodies had been found in a murder probe after two bodies were discovered within 10 miles of each other

Rod Stewart, 80, and his wife Penny Lancaster, 54, look as loved-up as ever as they wrap their arms around each other on New York stroll

Scientists uncover 'natural' Viagra that can cure erectile dysfunction without taking the little blue pill

'Aggressive mandate' of Covid vaccines was 'probably a bad idea' as new study reveals WHO mandated blanket vaccination saved 'fewer lives than expected'

Woman who suffered from painful periods for years shares simple trick that completely cured her cramps

Horror as Top Chef star reveals daughter, 8, has rare disease that is 'disintegrating' her bones

Pamela Anderson and co-star Liam Neeson recreate iconic Titanic scene at Naked Gun premiere in Berlin after sparking romance rumours

Tamzin Outhwaite opens up about co-parenting with ex-husband Tom Ellis after accusing him of 'infidelities and lies' during their nine-year marriage

Nepo dad of chart-topping singer joins hit reggae band on stage at iconic venue - but can YOU guess which star he's related to?

Britain's Got Talent judge 'QUITS' show - with major star 'lined up' as their replacement

Woman, 28, 'gang-raped by three Brits was bitten all over her body during two-hour ordeal in Croatian beach hotel'

'Saddest bodycam ever' shows mom howl on learning babysitter had just 'murdered' her infant

Childminder said she loved murdered brother and sister 'like they were her own'

Raducanu reaches semi-finals at Washington Open

Root reaches milestone as England punish India on day three

Police commissioner apologises for claiming multiple dead bodies found in woods

Outrage After Alabama 3-Year-Old Dies in Hot Car While in State’s Care

The Manmade Clouds That Could Help Save the Great Barrier Reef

For One Man, It Didn’t Take Much to Make an Embassy in India

Boy dies after being ‘left in hot car by child services driver shopping for tobacco’

Trump touches down in Scotland for unofficial visit

What to know about Ozzy Osbourne’s rare form of Parkinson’s disease

A science journal pulled a controversial study about a bizarre life form against the authors' wishes

Education Department says it will release billions in remaining withheld grant money for schools

A former Georgia deputy gets federal prison for beating a Black man in a jail cell

Greenpeace protesters close Forth Road Bridge after abseiling off the side

Israel says hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting to enter Gaza. Why can't the UN bring them in?

Trump administration investigates Oregon's transgender athlete policies

Labour urged to overhaul crucial pension-age benefit claimed by millions

Man charged with murdering great-grandparents after arson attack on St Helens home

Hulk Hogan was ‘being run into the ground’ before he died with work schedule while dealing with 25 surgeries in 10 years

FACT FOCUS: Trump claims cashless bail increases crime, but data is inconclusive