Interviews are often tough — but imagine instead of being asked about your hobbies or what you’ll bring to the team, you’re instead quizzed on whether you’ve ever had extramarital affairs, what kind of porn you watch or if you had naked pictures of yourself on your phone. Cockburn would be out of the running, that’s for sure.
These were the questions asked to women that interviewed to work at billionaire Bill Gates’s private office. The extensive screening process included being questioned by a security firm about their sexual past, previous drug use and other personal things in case they were vulnerable to blackmail. That old chestnut!
The Wall Street Journal reported that “female candidates sometimes were asked whether they had ever ‘danced for dollars,’ some of the people said. One of the candidates was asked whether she had ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease, according to the candidate.”
After reading the report, Cockburn will never look at the Microsoft Office paperclip the same. It looks like you’re trying to coerce a young woman into sharing intimate details about her private life. Would you like some assistance with that?
Per the Journal, “A spokeswoman for Gates said his private office, Gates Ventures, hasn’t heard about such questions being asked during background checks done by third-party contractors. ‘This line of questioning would be unacceptable and a violation of Gates Ventures’ agreement with the contractor,’ who must comply with pre-employment screening laws, she said.”
“We have never received information from any vendor or interviewee in our fifteen-plus year history that inappropriate questions were asked during the screening process,” she added. “We can confirm, that after a comprehensive review of our records, no employment offer has ever been rescinded based on information of this nature.”
It’s a good job that billionaire Bill has a squeaky clean reputation, and definitely hasn’t had multiple extramarital affairs and meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Oh wait….
