For the record, my shit smells AWFUL. Like maybe I should see a doctor. And I’m sorry I offended your pals at Fox and Friends. I hope they’ll be okay.

Sure I can! I’m doing it RIGHT NOW.

As I will be “inevitable unplanned urine stream.”

This is the first Jalopnik headline in a while where I started laughing before even reading a word of the article.

Yes, sorry, I was typing too fast, not thinking and getting used to night shift again. I fixed that. If I’m going to be mean, I better be accurate!

Just FYI, Scott Brown was a Senator. Elizabeth Warren handed him his ass in the last election.

Yep, that’s why I don’t get uptight about it. Usually I reply that “I mostly grew up in England” which both answers the question and avoids putting them in an awkward position with their HR department.

By the way, I’ve routinely been asked “where is your accent from?” and I’ve always treated it as friendly small-talk rather than a devious attempt to find out where I was born.

There are interviewers who are incredible at getting illegal info while making it seem natural and conversational. Some years back, I was in an interview where the HR woman was so disarming that I didn’t even realize until afterward that she had managed to find out my age, my sexuality, my marital status, my religion,…

YUP! just had a guy tell me the other day about his boyfriend, that he has sickle cell and other issues all because I asked “tell me about yourself.” I had to stop him and say “I’m not worried about your medical history” so he wouldn’t go any further.

Haha that’s great! It would do people some good to read a five minute article or watch a YouTube clip about interview etiquette. I had a candidate not only tell me she was married but that she was getting a new start with her husband because she had cheated on him many time.

My mother (about 60 at the time) went in for a job interview a while back and was asked: “You’ve had a long career. Why do you still want to be working?”

Hmm, I like your letter writing strategy, it helps you stand apart, I’m sure.

What’s a good way to handle the “tell me about yourself?” question. I never know what’s right to say because it’s so open ended.

You don’s sound like a very good interviewer if you are asking questions like “Tell me about yourself” which is unfocused and off-topic regarding a person’s skills/qualifications for the job.

I never know how to respond to the “tell me about yourself” line. I end up just sounding like I’m reciting my resume saying where I went to school and where I used to work. But I literally can’t think of anything else to say. I don’t have any hobbies or interesting life experiences to talk about. So what’s left, lol.

THIS. I’m an HR Manager and I have been witness to Hiring Managers asking taboo or illegal questions simply because they didn’t know any better.

As a manager, all my hiring decisions have to be approved by the owner. Every time I run someone by him, he asks, “Is she married? How old is she?” And I always tell him, “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask.” Then he gets flustered and says, “Well, of course. You can’t ask that. But...if you had to guess?” This is not ok.

Some people use lunch to run errands.

A lot of commenters seem to be making the mistake of thinking that the choices are between sucking it up or failing the interview, which really misses the point of the article. Sometimes the interviewers are trying to get at something valid and asking it in a clumsy way; sometimes they are just being friendly and…