Interviews are designed to give your potential employer a sense of how suited you may be to the position in question. Job interview questions on the other hand should not dig into your personal affairs. Just as a professional resume should not divulge personal information, neither should any part of a best practice recruitment process.

Often, some candidates are so eager to secure their first graduate placement that they end up jeopardizing opportunities by offering unnecessary personal details. It is worth remembering that you have rights in an interview. You may want to divulge a measure of personal detail, but this should be at your discretion not at that of your interviewer.

Questions that probe beyond the position and your professional capabilities can cover a range of topics. Themes that should raise your antennae include age, religion, geography, family and living arrangements.

Probes about religion, for instance, may pop up under the guise of “are there any days you cannot work”, or “do you belong to any social organisations”. In response, you may wish to state that you will be available to work to the company’s schedule, and that any social activities you undertake you do so on your own time.

Family-related questions can include queries about your marital status, plans to have children, whether you have easy access to a babysitter, and what your parents do for a living. These questions should all be off limits in a professional interview – and you are well within your rights to decline to answer.

Similarly, it is also cheeky of an interviewer to grill you on your living arrangements. Whether or not you live close to work, or just how long your commute may be, are not – in most cases – matters that impact directly upon your ability to perform your job, and your interviewer should be made aware of this.

Job interview answers should be just that, answers to questions relating to the job. If any interviewer persists in personal lines of questioning you may wish to politely remind them that you are there to discuss your fit for the job, and that you would appreciate questions about your personal life be left out of the process.