A few years ago, I had some great email exchanges about a position. I was an experienced dev, and I knew what they were looking for. But to make it official, I had to go through their HR person.
This was the first time I was going to talk to someone from the company, live in a video call.
And the moment we jumped on a call, her first words were, “Do you have a green card?”
I was born here. One look at my skin color and that was her question.
I have friend who told me that his father speaks broken english to non-native speakers. If they hire landscapers, for example, he’ll start mimicking a hispanic accent and dropping words and deliberately changing grammar. His entire family is terribly embarrassed by this behavior, even if he means well. What a tool.
As we’ve been told since at least the early nineties: if a non-native english speaker can’t understand you, just repeat yourself and ASK LOUDER. /s
I used to work in HR. In my first week, the HR Manager walked around with me on the floor of our factory. We had a lot of Vietnamese employees. She wanted me to start learning people’s names, but the first time we encountered a Viet person she whispered to me “hey, between you and me, I can’t really tell them apart since they all look similar and have similar names, so if you can’t remember them then it’s no biggie”. Like what??? Ma’am you are the HR manager.
It’s not a valid question at all. “Are you legally able to work in the United States” has been a question on literally every single job application I’ve ever filled out. There’s zero valid reasons for the interviewer to not know the answer already, and even less than zero valid reasons for them to phrase the question the way they did.
It’s not only not a valid question, it might not even be a legal question.
I’m a hiring manager for a very large tech company in California. I cannot ask any questions about age, ethnicity, country of origin, citizenship status, veteran status, marital status, health, and so on.
HR can ask if they’re eligible to work in the US, and I can ask whether they have the skills and talents I need for the position, but it’s tightly limited.
It still crops up all the time. There are decades worth of studies showing how having a non-white looking name or having age indicators present in work history or graduation dates influence reviewers to reject applications they’d otherwise accept.
Yeah, but they always ask about “citizenship or ability to legally work in the US” on applications. If it was a white person, they wouldn’t have said anything. If the candidate were white, and they answered “no” on the form, they would’ve just not been moved forward in the hiring process. They wouldn’t have gotten to that point and still been asked.
You can’t ask that question because immigration status is a protected class. It’s up to the candidate to provide appropriate documentation at the time of hire
I mean you’re getting g downvoted, but I’m painfully white and in the UK. Every job interview either the first or second question I get asked is “do you have the right to work in the UK?” Or “do you need a visa to work in the UK?”
No, that leaves open the possibility that you are a UK citizen. “Do you have green card?” skips over asking if you are a citizen and goes straight to “Are you at least a permanent resident?”
Put another way, if the candidate answers “No.” to “Do you have a green card?” That doesn’t tell the recruiter if they need a visa or if they have the right to work in the US without a presumption that they aren’t a citizen.
That’s kind of a weird question, too. Like, what does it mean if you say no? That you are a citizen or that you don’t intend to become a permanent resident?
“Do you need a visa?” Or “Are you legally allowed to work in the United States?” would be the way it would generally be asked and isn’t a problem. See all the comments that replied to the person saying it wasn’t a big deal.
This was definitely a trigger for me.
A few years ago, I had some great email exchanges about a position. I was an experienced dev, and I knew what they were looking for. But to make it official, I had to go through their HR person.
This was the first time I was going to talk to someone from the company, live in a video call.
And the moment we jumped on a call, her first words were, “Do you have a green card?”
I was born here. One look at my skin color and that was her question.
So, you don’t? /s
CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME? YOU ENGLISH? gestures wildly
I have friend who told me that his father speaks broken english to non-native speakers. If they hire landscapers, for example, he’ll start mimicking a hispanic accent and dropping words and deliberately changing grammar. His entire family is terribly embarrassed by this behavior, even if he means well. What a tool.
As we’ve been told since at least the early nineties: if a non-native english speaker can’t understand you, just repeat yourself and ASK LOUDER. /s
And don’t you forget to gesture! THEY NO UNDERSTAND WITHOUT! 👍🫱🤜👋💪
But why aren’t potatos friends?
I used to work in HR. In my first week, the HR Manager walked around with me on the floor of our factory. We had a lot of Vietnamese employees. She wanted me to start learning people’s names, but the first time we encountered a Viet person she whispered to me “hey, between you and me, I can’t really tell them apart since they all look similar and have similar names, so if you can’t remember them then it’s no biggie”. Like what??? Ma’am you are the HR manager.
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Fucking troglodyte
Sure, Jan.
I have never encountered a posting like that, but I’d be interested to see an example of it if you have one. Happen to have a link to one?
Edit: So that’s a no then. That’s a… problematic thing to make up.
Alt+F4 pls
It’s a valid question. Not every job has Visa sponsorship. They ask white people too.
It’s not a valid question at all. “Are you legally able to work in the United States” has been a question on literally every single job application I’ve ever filled out. There’s zero valid reasons for the interviewer to not know the answer already, and even less than zero valid reasons for them to phrase the question the way they did.
It’s not only not a valid question, it might not even be a legal question.
I’m a hiring manager for a very large tech company in California. I cannot ask any questions about age, ethnicity, country of origin, citizenship status, veteran status, marital status, health, and so on.
HR can ask if they’re eligible to work in the US, and I can ask whether they have the skills and talents I need for the position, but it’s tightly limited.
It still crops up all the time. There are decades worth of studies showing how having a non-white looking name or having age indicators present in work history or graduation dates influence reviewers to reject applications they’d otherwise accept.
Yeah, but they always ask about “citizenship or ability to legally work in the US” on applications. If it was a white person, they wouldn’t have said anything. If the candidate were white, and they answered “no” on the form, they would’ve just not been moved forward in the hiring process. They wouldn’t have gotten to that point and still been asked.
You can’t ask that question because immigration status is a protected class. It’s up to the candidate to provide appropriate documentation at the time of hire
I mean you’re getting g downvoted, but I’m painfully white and in the UK. Every job interview either the first or second question I get asked is “do you have the right to work in the UK?” Or “do you need a visa to work in the UK?”
That’s very different than automatically assuming you aren’t a citizen of the UK and asking if you have permanent residence.
That’s actually exactly what asking me if I need a visa to work in the UK means.
No, that leaves open the possibility that you are a UK citizen. “Do you have green card?” skips over asking if you are a citizen and goes straight to “Are you at least a permanent resident?”
Put another way, if the candidate answers “No.” to “Do you have a green card?” That doesn’t tell the recruiter if they need a visa or if they have the right to work in the US without a presumption that they aren’t a citizen.
So you’re saying it would be perfectly acceptable and neither you nor OP would complain if the question was: “Do you need a greencard?”
That’s kind of a weird question, too. Like, what does it mean if you say no? That you are a citizen or that you don’t intend to become a permanent resident?
“Do you need a visa?” Or “Are you legally allowed to work in the United States?” would be the way it would generally be asked and isn’t a problem. See all the comments that replied to the person saying it wasn’t a big deal.
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