‘Are you interviewing my parents or me?’: Singapore job seeker baffled after interviewer asks about parents’ jobs and NS history

SINGAPORE: ‘No Singaporean should ever join SME,’ one job seeker recently declared on Reddit, after being asked during a job interview a string of questions he found rather out of the ordinary, including what company his parents work for, their positions and salaries, as well as details about his own National Service (NS) experience.

Taking to the r/singaporejobs forum on Wednesday (Aug 2), the job seeker ranted about the interview, explaining that one of the first questions he was asked was, “Wah, your parent work at company xxxx ah?” 

“Why is SME asking for my parents' details, like company/position/salary and my NS experience, like where I served, my rank and posting, etc?” 

“Are you interviewing my parents or me?” he asked. “And what does knowing my NS background have to do with the job?”

The job seeker pointed out that the role was “totally unrelated to government or civil service,” making him even more confused about why his NS history was being brought into the conversation.

“Like, how is it relevant to the job I applied for?”

According to the job seeker, throughout the whole course of the interview, there was no “introduction to the company culture whatsoever.” Instead, the interviewer apparently kept emphasising that the company was in a “sunrise industry,” while comparing it with other banks and Singtel. 

“A few names he mentioned pay way better, by the way.”

Things did not get much better when he asked about career progression.

“I asked him what the job progression is, and fella told me, ‘Oh, you can't think of what the company can do for you, but what you can do for the company.’”

To add insult to injury, the job seeker said the salary figure eventually given to him was “below market rate,” leaving him wondering why he had bothered making the trip down for a face-to-face interview in the first place.

“I wasted my time going down for a FTF interview,” he wrote. “NO SINGAPOREAN SHOULD EVER JOIN SME.”

‘This is information harvesting’

The post quickly drew reactions from other Redditors, many of whom said they could understand why the job seeker found the interview strange.

One commenter said that some companies could be “really ridiculous,” adding that attending job interviews could open a person’s eyes to “all sorts of nonsense they play.”

Another suggested that the job seeker should have responded with an equally cheeky question.

“Ask them—is this the 1990s?” they joked.

A third commenter was less amused and simply questioned the professionalism of the interview process, writing, “Which company is this? Anyway, the HR are being so unprofessional.”

Not everyone, however, thought the questions were necessarily random.

Some Redditors offered possible explanations for why an employer might want to know about a candidate’s family background or NS history.

One commenter said, “This is information harvesting. Also, they want to know if your parents have affiliations with other companies... could be exploited, or otherwise. NS officers usually have more and longer reservist obligations, so they might be more leery about it. Later to MR and have to plan for reservist and whatnot too mah.” 

Another wrote, “Probably to see how poor you are and see if you are desperate enough to accept their lowball.”/TISG

Read also: Fresh grad earning S$6.5k a month wonders if climbing the corporate ladder is really worth it