Some Interview Ethics

By Sue Chehrenegar

My children, both of whom were born in Los Angeles, have resided in the climate of southern California for all but six months of their youthful lives. That one six-month period was the time when our family lived in Salem, Oregon. There, while I searched for some way to supplement my husband’s income, my sons experienced the trials of carrying out any activity in the rain, and once even in hail. Although I failed to find any promising employment in Oregon, I did learn a great deal about how to behave at a job interview. Most importantly, I learned how to deal with an interviewer when you, as the job applicant, have a hidden disability.

I was reassured to discover, while attending a workshop on interview skills, that when a hidden disability is not job related, then it is not necessary to mention its existence to the interviewer. If a hidden disability would not hinder one’s performance on the job, or would not pose a safety hazard to the job seeker or to those who might work with that job applicant, then it is not unethical to avoid mention of the disability during an interview.

This information was of great value to me, because that is exactly how I had been operating for more than twenty-five years. I had proceeded through my working life with the confidence that my neurologist expected me to have “a full and useful life.”

What I had not been forewarned is that such an approach demands that one always be ready to look for signs that one’s job performance is slipping, and then to make an assessment as to the cause for that slippage. If the hidden disability seems to be the culprit, then it is necessary to reveal the disability to any other employer who would require the performance of skills similar to those for which one’s hidden disability may be a hindrance.

Given that stipulation, it is still acceptable for a job applicant, having thought a job through and then seeing no way that a hidden disability will directly affect his or her reliability, to not mention the disability during an interview. If the job applicant must reveal the disability, then he or she should make clear a willingness to work with the employer to find a way that his or her skills can contribute to filling the company’s needs.

For more information about interview questions, go to http://hop.clickbank.net/?nineliner/jiq2001.

About the Author:

She has used her PR skills to secure front page coverage for her organization in the local paper. She has also done PR work for the American Lung Association.

Sue Chehrenegar may be contacted at suecheh@aol.com.