What does your father do?

I've been going through a series of job interviews and exams at an American multinational company in Cairo during the last period. Over a period of three days, I've been through four exams, and four interviews.

During the last interview, the interviewer asked me a question that I really disliked, "What does your father do? What does your mother do? What does your sister do?" Huh! Now, I have nothing but pride in what my parents and sister do, and in what they've achieved. But excuse me, what kind of a job interview question is that?! My answers to these questions apparently added points to my score, and I received an offer at the end of the interview. But what if the job applicant's father had a job that wasn't appealing to the interviewer, a job that is not of the higher social class of our society? How does that make the job applicant less or more suitable for the job?! Or do they just want to be surrounded with people whom are socially of a certain class to preserve their "culture".

So, they did make me an offer, and while the offer was actually just fine financially, and the kind of work was just awesome, actually it was the kind of work that I've been dreaming of doing in Egypt, I've actually rejected the offer! How dumb am I?! Other than being abit confused, and not sure yet if I'll end up leaving Egypt or not, I was just not comfortable with the whole environment and culture of the place, with the "what does your parents do?" question being only one indication for my fears. A profitable expanding multinational that is using (il)legal schemes to avoid paying taxes, and which seems very rigid with its employees does not sound like a place that I'll be enjoying myself at. They gave me an offer and told me its not negotiable. So two days later I called them up and told them that the offer was not suitable for me, and I reject it. When asked why, I told them I'm not comfortable with the whole legal setup they're hiring the employees onto this project through, and I find that this adds to the risks and is thus worth more pay. Yes, I was actually willing to put my fears to rest for a 25% increase in the offer.

It was also kind of a test to them I guess. If they accept, then 1) they're not as rigid as they seem (flexibility is something I look for in a workplace), 2) their management is bidirectional (instead of unidirectional, which flows downwards), 3) they're valueing me so they'll treat me well, and 4) they're paying me well, so who the hell cares about anything else. Regrettably, I was right. They're rigid, their management is unidirectional, and they don't value me! They never came back to me. Its regrettable, because it was a really good job, really awesome kind of work. Just the kind of work I'd like to be doing. How dumb am I, thinking I won't fall again for an ill-managed company, so I'll reject the offer, or accept it via a small management test. Well, good luck finding that right environment in Egypt.

What is it with Egyptian employers? Why is it a trend to mistreat their employees, and to have management so isolated from the workforce. What is it with Egyptian authority figures, even in the business environment (keep that in mind when/if I write about how Egyptians suck). How can a manager, even in such a large multinational be socially discriminitve in hiring (if he didn't like what my parents did, he would've either denied me the job or offered me a much lower salary). Why do Egyptian employers believe that their employees should be grateful to them that they have a job?!