Job interviewer asks 29-year-old female applicant if she has children despite the fact that asking that is illegal: 'I have been asked if I have kids every single job interview.'

Who is training these interviewers? 

Job interviews are a tough nut to crack. As the interviewee, it feels like the interviewer has all the power, and you have to read their cues and say whatever they want to have a shot at the job. You feel like you have to answer every single question, no matter how silly or pointless. "Are you a morning or a night person?" obviously has a right and a wrong answer when you're interviewing for a job that starts at 8 AM. In job interviews, you have your four STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories rolling around in your head, and you have to be incredibly strategic about which answers you give to which behavioral questions. 

Job interviews feel like the wild west because it feels like the interviewer can ask you any question, but that's not true. There are a lot of questions a job interviewer can't ask you. They can't ask you if you are an American citizen, where your accent is from, whether your parents were born in this country, or if English is your native language. Job interviewers can't ask you your age because it is illegal to discriminate against workers 40 and over in the hiring process. They aren't allowed to ask about your religion, but they can ask if you can work on weekends. They can't ask you if you're married or have children, but they can ask if you can work overtime.