Interviewers Asking About Family

I've also had a few pretty weird experiences with this during superdays (never in a 1st or 2nd round). Always an MD too. Once had an MD ask what my parents do, where my siblings went to college, etc. I assume it's just them trying to get a more full picture of who you are (do you have rich parents and siblings went to target schools or are you someone who overcame a lot to get this interview) but that's just a guess.

I recently got unique questions asked that wasn't family. They asked how I was involved in hs and what music I listen to. Asked by MD at BB

There’s not agenda, they just want to get to know you better. More so than a lot of other jobs your social life and your professional life will bleed together in finance so fit is extremely important.

I think it depends if you are from out of NYC. I had an MD ask me questions about my family/relationships given how I was lateraling from outside of NYC wanted to know about my long term ties to the city and if I was a flight risk in a few years.

If the candidate is married and especially if female, the company may just want to know about plans to start a family in order to set expectations about focus and dedication. Pretty standard.

Why are people saying low EQ? If OP is diversity, first generation, or underqualified-but-rich-family-connected I could totally see how these questions could make you think a little bit. Definitely not out of bounds to ask and many who do are just generally curious, but there definitely are some people who will stigmatize a candidate based on these things.

In Soviet Russia they can throw chairs at you if you answer the family question wrong.

This is certainly a situation where the interviewer is just trying to get to know you better, though I will note it is illegal for an employer to make a hiring decision based on marital status, kids, family, etc.

So if the questions are particularly probing, it may be a bit of a red flag, but more likely than not just them trying to get a more full picture of who you are.

OP is your Wife hot and do you have her photo on FB / insta? Interviewers Google their candidates these days if you know what I mean

I had a recruiter ask me once about a challenge I went through. I mentioned working on-campus to support my self financially while managing grades and extracurriculars. I wasn't going to make up some bs and my experience actually did teach me a lot about the value of hard work. He then said that if I am concerned about my financials to apply to a bigger company because the pay is better lol he then questioned why I even chose the school I go to because the tuition is high. Turns out when I looked at his linkedin he went to my unis competitor. I agree sometimes personal conversations can go wrong.

Sometimes an interviewer will ask about your family to put you at ease. More often, he or she is trying to probe what social class you are. Often an interviewer is biased, usually unconsciously, toward candidates with backgrounds similar to their own. It's the reason why, in the "good old days," few blacks, Jews or women got jobs in finance and many other professional fields.

In the U.S. asking a candidate if they're married or plan to start a family is illegal. So is asking about race, color or national origin; religion; sex, gender identity or sexual orientation; pregnancy status or number of children; disability; age or genetic information; or citizenship. In some places, asking whether an applicant has been convicted of a crime is also illegal.