What Am I Looking For?:  The first step is to become clear about what you are looking for. The more specific you can be in your list of essential duties and the minimum requirements for the job, the clearer your questioning will be. With the growth in popularity of phone screening as a prerequisite to the in-person interview, this clarity becomes even more critical to finding the right person and in avoiding unrelated and potentially discriminatory questions.

As a general rule, you will be safe in focusing your conversation on the job, your company, and the individual’s qualifications and related work experience. People tend to get into trouble when they get off into more personal and unrelated territory. The anti-discrimination laws are designed to protected job applicants from being turned away from opportunities due to reasons that are unrelated to their ability to do the job, such as their gender, their age or any disability unrelated to job performance.

Keep Things Professional: Keep conversations friendly without probing into the personal areas listed above. During the interview, applicants sometimes will offer personal information that may be helpful, but do not fall into the trap of pursuing the subject too deeply. For example, an applicant might say, "My mother-in-law lives with us and takes care of my two children when I am working, so day care is not a problem for me." Reply: "Then you will be able to work the daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule that the position requires?" I mentioned that different rules apply after an applicant accepts an offer. When someone becomes an employee of your company, you then have the right to much more personal information, because it no longer affects the employment decision.