Being interviewed by young people

bristol_pilot

Adults with learning disabilities are still adults. Children, however, are not 'small adults' and it is not their role to manage the organisation.

bristol_pilot

mikey72 wrote: »

What on earth are you on about. I'm proud that as I dad I look after my children. Childcare is very relevant to both sexes, not just one. Maybe you should look closer to home for sexism.

It used to be quite common that (only) female candidates would be asked questions about childcare at an interview, that's why it's regarded as sexist.

mikey72

bristol_pilot wrote: »

It used to be quite common that (only) female candidates would be asked questions about childcare at an interview, that's why it's regarded as sexist.

A lot of things used to be common. Times have changed though. I've been asked questions about childcare over 3 or 4 years ago.

elsien

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Adults with learning disabilities are still adults. Children, however, are not 'small adults' and it is not their role to manage the organisation.

Not to manage it, no, but to be involved in how it operates given that it's there for their benefit, why not?
(With apologies to the op for going off topic.)

terra_ferma

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

Hi all,

I've got an interview for an administrative job, working for an organisation supporting young people. They have said that part of the interview process will take place with a group of young people asking m questions. As far as the person spec/job desc is concerned there is no mention of working directly "with" children or young people, so I was wondering what sort of questions they might ask me?

This interview by young people is as well as a panel interview and computer test. I am keen to get the job, so any advice as to what the young people may ask would be helpful.

Thanks.

Plans

Hello Plans

You should be able to find out what ages they work with from their website, annual report etc. If they are a charity you can search them on the Charity Commission website.
It's unusual for an organisation to work with such a wide range of children/young people, although probably large ones do.

Talking from experience:
I expect the role of the YP panel will be to ask you pre-arranged questions that are relevant to them. These would have been agreed with the manager.
Also YP should have received some training, and be aware of what they can and cannot ask.
It will be up to the recruiting managers to make sure there is no discrimination taking place.
Some questions have already been suggested here, but try and see this job from the client's point of view, what would they need from you, how would this role impact on them?
Returning phone calls, providing accurate information, dealing with complaints?
One theme that is important to YP is the fact that youth is often criminalised in this country, we hear about YP and crime all the time, very few positive images in the media.

Don't approach this negatively, it won't help at the interview. You need to show that you can engage and communicate well with young people. That you welcome their views, listen to them, and at the same time you are good with boundaries.
You need to be neither too matey, nor too matherley but professional in your approach.

SueC_2

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Adults with learning disabilities are still adults. Children, however, are not 'small adults' and it is not their role to manage the organisation.

Where was it stated that they were managing the organisation?

DKLS

fengirl wrote: »

My coment on childcare was just an example of the sexist questions which may not be asked at interview - it was only an example of the type of questions which can get an employer into trouble. The fact remains that if someone is tunred down for a job, they can decide that it was because they were the wrong sex, the wrong colour, the wrong religion, disabled, etc and take the employer to an ET for discrimination. I dont think its right to expose people who are not the actual employer to this type of risk.

Some people like my wife happily volunteer information about her child free status to perspective employers, as she believes that for the roles she goes for being child free is a major asset.

Its a big issue on the child free forums that women who don't want children are discriminated as they are perceived negatively due to being of child bearing age.

Zazen999

This isn't about the questions that they ask, or the answers that you give. It's about how you relate to and react to the people that are being helped by this organisation.

fengirl_2

Oh dear I wish I had not given childcare arrnagements as my example. Please don't judge me without knowing me, I have done scores of recruitments and have also been an equalities officer (and I am a woman with 4 children).
The point of my post was not suggesting that the OP might be asked about childcare arrangemtns at all. It was merely to flag up the point that responsibility in respect of equalities starts at recruitment. Its not about being asked 'sexist' questions, or any other kind of 'ist' questions, its about the final decision which is made to appoint or not. Interview panels need to be completely open in their scoring because any candidate could take the employer to an ET if they were unsucessful and thought that they had been discriminated against - for whatever reason. I once sat on a panel where one candidate complained afterwards that one of the panelists sat semi-sideways and so felt that they wern't being given 100% attention. You cannot put children/young people/anyone not in the organisation in the position where there may be some complaint made against them.

SueC_2

But not all employers are so clued up on what they can and can't ask, and some may well ask 'sexist' questions without any intention of being sexist.

Whether it's with adults or a panel of young people, the candidate can however take some responsibility for preventing themselves feeling discriminated against:

Interviewer: So, are you planning on having children?

Interviewee (smiling): Actually, you'd probably prefer that I don't answer that. That way, if I'm not successful in getting the job I can't feel that I was discriminated against because of something that may or may not happen in the future.

This can be said in a very amicable way, and doesn't have to be contentious.

Just because a question is asked, doesn't mean it has to be answered. And so long as this is done in the correct manner, there is no reason for it to count against the candidate.