While the main purpose of a job interview is to learn about candidates and how they can uniquely contribute to an organization, unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Offensive and often illegal questions are sometimes asked that can lead to discrimination against your candidacy. In some cases they can indicate an interviewer’s bias against you, while in others, the interviewer may not realize they have been inappropriate. If you find yourself in an interview that isn’t going well, or worse, in which the interviewer is displaying obvious bias, here’s how to respond.

• Maintain your composure: Use simple, in-the-moment techniques, like pausing and taking a deep breath, to calm yourself before you answer. Strengthen your body language to take up more space by sitting up straight, sustaining eye contact while you speak, and keeping your feet firmly planted on the floor.
• Know your rights: You don’t have to answer illegal questions. Prepare in advance a general response you can use to graciously deflect and shift the conversation back to your experience and skills, such as, “I can certainly address that, but I’m not sure how that question is related to this role.”
• Deflect with questions: When you’re asked inappropriate questions or something that can signal a microaggression and you’re uncomfortable calling the interviewer out directly, another option is to turn the conversation back to them and their experience.
• Consider how this affects your interest in the role: This may be a precursor of what the company culture will be like for you as a full-time employee. Would you really want to work here?