Although questions and question sequences can result in productive interviews, it’s important to remember that good questions are also ethical and appropriate (and avoid the leading and loaded questions we discussed in the past section). For example, if Erik is a representative from his school newspaper interviewing a biology professor about her recent grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), his questions should stick to her research and her plans to implement a new lab on campus. It would be inappropriate and unethical for him to ask how much money she personally will be receiving from the NIH or whether she expects to receive a promotion and salary increase from the university after receiving the award.

On a job interview, certain unethical and inappropriate questions are also illegal. We’ll cover these later in this chapter.