Preface: in my country, just like in many others, it’s illegal to ask personal questions during job interview, especially if related to sexual preferences or religion belief. And for what I know, also related to neurodivergence.
I had a job interview for a position I really liked in a company that seemed amazing. First interview with the CEO and the area manager went great, I was even more excited than before. They ask me for a second job interview with a psychologist, saying they always do it to make sure new hired can get along with other employees. The meeting would be only between me and the psychologist and my answers would be confidential, but she would evaluate me and give them a report. I thought it was weird but since I liked the place it accepted.
It was a 2 hours psychological meeting. I was pissed and wanted to walk away after 5 minutes, but I stayed until the end because I wanted to see how far it could go.
Psychologist started with VERY personal questions about my childhood:
Have you been breastfed?
Were you a happy child?
Do your parents love each other?
What relationship did you have with your siblings when you were in kindergarten? What’s the relationship you have with them now?
What relationship did you have with your parents when you were teenager?
Have you ever had problems with someone of your relatives?
When she found out that one of my parents is dead, she asked: when they died, how did they died, how was your relationship with them, how did you feel when they died and, last but not least, did you get over their death or it still hurts?
I can’t stress how I was pissed and how I was cooperating just because it was so crazy I really wanted to see what was next.
Next was a questionnaire. 400 statements (yes, 400) about my preferences and I had to choose true or false. She gave me about 45 minutes to fill the questionnaire. Some statements were generic, such as: I like reading newspapers, true or false. But the most were personal, like very, very personal. The same damn statement repeated over and over again in different ways to check if I was lying. Here some of the worst, they were random but I classified them:
Statements about sexuality:
I’m attracted to people of my own gender (true or false)
I would like to be a woman or, if a woman, I’m happy being a woman
I have deviant sexual behaviors
I have deviant sexual thoughts
I’m comfortable talking about sex
I like wooing or, if a woman, being wooed (2 different things, I’m not sure I translated right, but apparently women can’t take initiative but only being wooed)
Statements about physiological functions:
I often have diarrhea
I’m often constipated
I gained or lost weight recently
Sometimes I feel tired
My hands or feel are often cold
I have headaches, bone pain, back pain, pain with anything (different statements)
Statements that I believe were meant to check if I may be neurodivergent:
I have difficulty in keeping focus when talking to people or reading
I have memory problems
Sometimes I don’t understand social interactions
Sometimes I don’t understand how to interact with people
Sometimes I fell people don’t understand me
I have anger problems
I happen to have trouble falling asleep because I’m too excited
I feel observed
I’m afraid someone is following me
I hear voiced that others don’t hear
Statements about anxiety, depression, phobias:
I often have intrusive or obsessive thoughts
I often feel sad
Sometimes I just want to die
I suffer from insomnia
I have trouble falling asleep due to too many negative thoughts
When nervous I sweat a lot (actually at least 3 statements were about sweating, I don’t know why they are so obsessed with sweat)
I suffer from (insert any random phobia and repeat the statement few times in different ways)
Sometimes I feel like I want to hurt someone or myself
I’m concerned about what people think of me
I feel judge
Statements about religion:
I go to church every week
I believe in the bible
I believe in hell and heaven
I believe in life after death
Statements about profession:
Oops, none! What’s the point of being professional when you’re already heterosexual, neurotypical, catholic, don’t have diarrhea, and were a happy child?
I’m shocked, this is so bad. I want to stress on the fact that this is their standard procedure. The first interview went just normal, they liked me and I did nothing that could have make them think I may have some problems, I didn't even have diarrhea that day. By the way, this is not my first job, I’m in my thirties and I have some years of experience. Also I’m talking about a normal office job, you have to deal with some costumers just like other jobs, but you don’t work with children or any special needs person.
As I said, this kind of questions can’t be asked during a job interview, it’s illegal. So I think these people have some problems with sexuality (homosexuality and transsexuality in particular), neurodivergence and religion (and body functions?), and they hide behind a “psychologist” because they can’t ask these questions by themselves.
I'm thinking what I can do about it.