Unethical Interview Questions - How Should You Handle Them?

Depending on where you live and the local laws, theseunethical dilemma that was posed to them:
are questions that are not considered to be legalImagine that you have a chance to increase sales in
interview questions but not actually be illegal to ask. Anyour company by a significant amount of money by
example of an unethical question would be one thatsecuring a very valuable contract that is worth $2
asks you to divulge secret or confidential informationmillion. In order to gain this $2 million contract through,
about your current employer.the person you are negotiating with has suggested
This might be a legal interview question but it's one thatthat an under the table (ie. illegal or unethical) payment
simply shouldn't be asked.needs to be paid.
Another example of an unethical question would beHow would you respond?
one that asks you to do something that would benefitIn other words, would you accept the terms and make
the company you are interviewing with and inan under the table payment or would you walk away
exchange for doing it, would result in you getting theand refuse to make the payment but lose out on the
job. I've actually heard of companies who use a$2 million contract in the process, perhaps to a major
recruiter to find staff but then tell the job candidatecompetitor?
that they will hire them under the table by cutting theA third way to handle the problem is probably the
recruiter out of the deal in order to not have to paymost effective and correct way to answer the
the recruiter!question: keep negotiating until everything is above the
Would you want to work for a company that treatstable!
people like this?In other words, negotiate until everything is
Probably not.above-board and legal.
Another example of an unethical question would beTrue, this would be an ideal result but remember this is
one that isn't actually unethical to ask but describes anjust a hypothetical question and the interviewer would
unethical situation that you might face in your careermost likely be assessing your credibility and ethics to
and asks how you'd respond to the situation.see how you deal with unscrupulous people.
For example, I've heard the following question asked inThe last thing a company wants to do is hire someone
an interview and the goal of asking the question waswho does things "the wrong way!
to gauge how the interviewee dealt with a hypothetical