When I interviewed for my last job, I was several weeks pregnant and so nauseated that, during one telephone interview, I could barely converse and actually thought I was going to throw up in the middle of it. I agonized over whether to tell my potential employer I was expecting, especially since I was getting conflicting advice from all angles.
Lots of my female friends have faced the same dilemma, and I tell them to do what I finally did: go with your “gut.” While it’s not an employer’s business, and it’s illegal for them to ask, I felt better being upfront about it, so that’s what I did. I figured if a company didn’t want to hire me for that reason, I probably wouldn’t want to work for them.
Of course, before I brought up the topic, I made sure I was interested in the job and they were interested in me.
One company that was aggressively pursuing me suddenly lost interest when I mentioned I was expecting. They said they would get back to me about coming in for an interview and then disappeared. But the employer I ended up working for expressed excitement and said my pregnancy had no bearing at all on the hiring process (which, technically, it shouldn’t!).
I was honest, and I know they were honest as well, because after I started, I found out there were several other women besides me who were either hired when pregnant or on maternity leave.
So in the end, do what you feel is right for you and your situation, but also keep in mind that the kind of employer who loses interest is probably not one you’d want to work for anyway, especially once the baby comes along. I wanted an employer that was “family-friendly,” and that’s what I got!
Since many of you have asked, here are just a few of the resources I used when weighing my decision: About.com’s article, “Interviewing While Pregnant,” “Job Hunting In a Family Way” from The Washington Post, an Ask the Expert column on BlueSuitMom.com and Job Hunting While Pregnant at Gather.com.
Good luck. Expect the best, and you’ll get it!
