You Didn’t Get the Job? — Here’s the Illegal Reason Why

When the quiet part is said out loud.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION

Yesterday, a guy I know sent me an email. He wrote:

“I’ve been job hunting for 10 months now, and I’ve gotten close a few times, but I still don’t have a job. I don’t know if it’s me, or the market, or a combination of both.”

This candidate is what we call, “primo clasé.”

He has excellent experience, a good LinkedIn profile, and résumé. He has no social media posts claiming the earth is flat or bashing his former boss or company. He’s golden. But it doesn’t matter.

I responded.

“It’s the market, trust me, it’s the market!”

Yet there’s something else always lurking beneath the surface. His self-doubt made me want to share a story that reveals what usually remains hidden. This explains a lot about why you don’t get the job.

They don’t say what they mean.

It was the first day back to work in the New Year. Half asleep, I grabbed my phone, checking my email while still in bed when I saw what snapped me out of the morning groggy state.

I clicked on an email I get almost every day offering jobs. It read:

“Hi!

Here’s a new job we thought you might be interested in:

Looking for an Asian American Female …”

It was followed by a “View Now” button. ‘

Whoa! Did I sign up to get emails from a Craigslist fetishist?

I was sure it was an accident. Someone hacked the system once and posted some pornography, and the post was quickly removed, but this wasn’t a hack. It was a legitimate offer of employment posted by someone who does not know the law, at least U.S. law.

“Hmmm,” I thought, “I wonder if they realize this job posting is illegal?”

Then I thought about when I learned this type of post was illegal. I was in my twenties in my first job out of college.

In America, it’s illegal to request a job applicant be a certain age, sex, religion, have or not have a disability, etc. You can read all the details here at…