when looking for work how would you answer this question

[Joe Kieve]

"I'm old enough to know better but too young to care".

[Lee Schierer]

Asking how old someone is is really a dumb question as an interviewer. If you have the person's resume, generally you have the years they worked at previous jobs right in front of you and possibly when they completed college or high school as well. Or, their cover letter says 37 years experience. I don't know that I would walk out, but I would sure proceed with caution and ask why this position is available.

[Jerome Stanek]

Asking how old someone is is really a dumb question as an interviewer. If you have the person's resume, generally you have the years they worked at previous jobs right in front of you and possibly when they completed college or high school as well. Or, their cover letter says 37 years experience. I don't know that I would walk out, but I would sure proceed with caution and ask why this position is available.

I have seen some resumes that if yo add up all the years of experience the person would be a lot older than they are.

[Pat Barry]

Forgot about the "dodge the question" answer.

How about, "Just like Jack Benny, I'm 39."

jtk

Only someone older than dirt, like me, would remember that saying. LOL

[Raymond Fries]

Illegal question but a tough spot.

I would get creative and say something like this:

" that is a very interesting way to ask for age by extension. I have become very comfortable with ( whatever the experience you are trying to convey. Offer a name of a famous craftsman.)." I would talk around it. If the interviewer then pushes, I would say how is my age relevant to this position. I thought age was not supposed to matter. Please explain to me how it does matter for this position.

look at Wikipedia and search for old

I agree with prior posts that this might not be a place to work.

Good Luck

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

I don't see any problem to answer on this question, why most of you immediately talking about legal/illegal issue. Person asking question may have nothing wrong in mind, or at least did not do anything illegal yet.
These days looks like everybody looking on any problem from legal stand point, even in my field (treating patient). It is become annoying and in my opinion simple dangerous to the patients.
Thank you,
Ed.

[John Coloccia]

I don't see any problem to answer on this question, why most of you immediately talking about legal/illegal issue. Person asking question may have nothing wrong in mind, or at least did not do anything illegal yet.
These days looks like everybody looking on any problem from legal stand point, even in my field (treating patient). It is become annoying and in my opinion simple dangerous to the patients.
Thank you,
Ed.

Because if they're stupid enough now to ask questions everyone knows you shouldn't ask, you can be sure this is just the tip of the iceberg of stupidity. I don't care if they know my age. I care if they know how to do business. You ask me that question and you fail my interview, just as surely as if you catch me in a major lie on my resume, I fail.

[Jim Koepke]

I have seen some resumes that if yo add up all the years of experience the person would be a lot older than they are.

The smell of what such a resume is full of should give it away as being a fabrication.

jtk

[Robert LaPlaca]

Because if they're stupid enough now to ask questions everyone knows you shouldn't ask, you can be sure this is just the tip of the iceberg of stupidity.

Jeez John, I couldn't agree more..

[Brian Elfert]

While it appears legally that you can ask someone's age, why do it if you can't legally use that information to make a hiring decision? We all know that hiring decisions are made every day based on age of the applicant even if not legal. The hiring person can find a dozen other reasons why the person wasn't hired even if age was a major factor.

If Hooter's is interviewing for wait staff and a a 50 year female comes in what are the chances she would be hired even if she looks good? Hooters probably wouldn't hire her based on age because patrons expect young women.

[Tim Boger]

A persons age is reasonable easy to assess without asking the question, would it bother me if I was asked ... not a bit. If age is a consideration for the job description I'd just as soon know that early on.

Tim

[Myk Rian]

My reply?
"Fella. I'm old enough to take you to court, and keep you there for years".

[Brian Ashton]

I agree with what most said - not a place I want to work. I had pretty much decided that before the interview was over. But it's a question that comes up fairly often so was just wondering how others respond.

There were a lot of red flags throughout the interview, that question just happened to be the first. Others were: 1) Ultra religious management (made of of dad, mom and the son doing the interview, and his wife), a good portion of the interview was taken up with the son not trying to explain their religious beliefs but more preaching them. I have no problems with religious people, I do have a problem when it come across with a great deal of fanaticism... 2) He made it very clear that he and his parents were very guarded over their business and highly protective of the clients. I'd expect all bosses to try to protect their business but to convey it in a way that feels like intimidation is plain stupid and boarders on paranoia. 3) it was a home business that was run by dad, mom, son and his wife. It's rare to find anyone that says working for a family is a good experience. 4) the son conveyed that he can be quite hard on employees. The way it came across is he's a bit of a monkey i.e. he likes to scream and throw crap. 5) no longterm employees, i.e. over 5 years. He never told me how long the longest had been there but the oldest employee was 20 so it's at best a year. 6) related to the managers paranoia was that they don't support any training that would allow an employee to be accredited in any way, considering this field requires accreditation... He said there was training but it was all in house or run by their "partners". In fact he strongly alluded that he doesn't support any employees desire to advance beyond a para-planner level. 7)Related to 6, none of the principal people have any qualifications that they're willing to show on their website or walls. He was elusive when I mentioned qualifications were required for that industry. I suspect they don't have any qualifications (but have found a way around the qualification requirements by being under an umbrella company (their "partner") that takes on their liability and performs some rudimentary quality assurance audit every now and again.

My quickly eroding enthusiasm and facial expressions (there was a few times I forgot to maintain my poker face) in the interview showed through and he didn't invite me back for round two where the (un)lucky recruit was to front the parents.

There was one good point however. In the waiting room they had a note on a chalk board addressed to me saying welcome... That was nice!?

[John Sanford]

My answer: "I'm old enough to remember when asking that question in an interview was legal. Or perhaps I read about it in a history book. Next question."

[John Coloccia]

I agree with what most said - not a place I want to work. I had pretty much decided that before the interview was over. But it's a question that comes up fairly often so was just wondering how others respond.

There were a lot of red flags throughout the interview, that question just happened to be the first. Others were: 1) Ultra religious management (made of of dad, mom and the son doing the interview, and his wife), a good portion of the interview was taken up with the son not trying to explain their religious beliefs but more preaching them. I have no problems with religious people, I do have a problem when it come across with a great deal of fanaticism... 2) He made it very clear that he and his parents were very guarded over their business and highly protective of the clients. I'd expect all bosses to try to protect their business but to convey it in a way that feels like intimidation is plain stupid and boarders on paranoia. 3) it was a home business that was run by dad, mom, son and his wife. It's rare to find anyone that says working for a family is a good experience. 4) the son conveyed that he can be quite hard on employees. The way it came across is he's a bit of a monkey i.e. he likes to scream and throw crap. 5) no longterm employees, i.e. over 5 years. He never told me how long the longest had been there but the oldest employee was 20 so it's at best a year. 6) related to the managers paranoia was that they don't support any training that would allow an employee to be accredited in any way, considering this field requires accreditation... He said there was training but it was all in house or run by their "partners". In fact he strongly alluded that he doesn't support any employees desire to advance beyond a para-planner level. 7)Related to 6, none of the principal people have any qualifications that they're willing to show on their website or walls. He was elusive when I mentioned qualifications were required for that industry. I suspect they don't have any qualifications (but have found a way around the qualification requirements by being under an umbrella company (their "partner") that takes on their liability and performs some rudimentary quality assurance audit every now and again.

My quickly eroding enthusiasm and facial expressions (there was a few times I forgot to maintain my poker face) in the interview showed through and he didn't invite me back for round two where the (un)lucky recruit was to front the parents.

There was one good point however. In the waiting room they had a note on a chalk board addressed to me saying welcome... That was nice!?

LOL....as I said, the stupidity clearly runs deep.