5.7 Pre-Employment Inquiries

What questions may and may not be asked during an interview or at any other pre-employment stage of the search process? A list of examples of appropriate and inappropriate questions is available online.

While it is an employer’s right to establish job-related requirements and to seek the most qualified applicant for a job, inquiries about race, sex, disability, religion, etc. usually are not relevant to an applicant’s qualifications and are not legitimate. Only those inquiries necessary to determine an applicant’s qualifications and eligibility for employment, that is, job-related inquiries, should be made during job interviews.

Any pre-employment inquiries which express any limitation, specification or preference due to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, disability or age violate both Missouri State University policy and the Missouri Human Rights Act unless they are based upon a bona fide occupational qualification.

Information obtained through application forms and interviews is presumed to be used by employers in making hiring and work assignment decisions. For this reason, only those inquiries necessary to determine the applicant’s qualifications and eligibility for employment shall be made.