Finding a job can be incredibly challenging, and some fields are particularly competitive. You shouldn’t be too surprised at rejection.
What happens, however, if you leave a job interview with the distinct feeling that you were the ideal candidate – except for your race, age, religion or another protected characteristic? Here’s how to determine if discrimination may have played a part in a company’s hiring processes.
The difference between preference and discrimination
While employers may hold and exercise subjective preferences when hiring, those preferences cannot be discriminatory against someone based on their membership in a protected class.
As absurd as it may seem, an employer could choose not to hire you because you root for the wrong football team or you didn’t go to an Ivy League college like most of the staff. That would not be illegal. But if their reasoning was based on your “race, color, religion, sex (including transgender status, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information,” then that would amount to illegal discrimination.
How do you prove discriminatory hiring practices?
Proving discrimination in hiring can be challenging, as employers have a range of possible excuses they could give as to why they did not pick you for a job. They may claim someone else was better qualified, or interviewed better than you, for example. However, patterns in hiring practices often reveal a lot, and claims are not impossible.
Seeking legal guidance on whether discrimination was behind your denial is always wise. With a thorough investigation, you may be able to build sufficient evidence to warrant filing a claim against the employer to hold them accountable for their actions.