Absolutely, but people make their assumptions. In my case, I had more qualifications than most of the people hired at the time, but not more than everyone. That’s just how it ended up.
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My husband said that he was “accidentally” sent a very derogatory comment about female pilots, I’m guessing on a group text. This is by a friend of ours, a very nice guy, who I’ve flown with before. I don’t even want to know what the comment is, but it’s disheartening that this kind of thing is still happening.
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Yeah, I was shocked by the one engineer who made a derogatory comment to me. Seemed like the nicest guy. Ugh.
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If you hold a door for a soccer player, surely they’ll trip over the threshold and roll around on the floor until the ref jumps in and gives you a yellow card.
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You should qualify that, most American players haven’t figured that strategy out yet.
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My spouse and I had our interviews to be approved for the Nexus program so we can cross back and forth between the US and Canada without sitting in the slow line.
My interview consisted of 3 or 4 questions and less than 2 minutes.
I’m a white male; my wife isn’t. She was asked approximately 30 questions.
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That is rather interesting. Law enforcement contexts are one of the places where being male is more likely to come with greater suspicion, since illegal activity is more commonly associated with male suspects than female suspects.
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Curious, what were the questions you were asked and what were the questions she was asked? Might be interesting to know the details.
Maybe do a background check on your spouse? 
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My wife and I were interviewed at the same time for Global Entry. Mine was much more extensive and my approval took much longer.
Witnessing both DD and DS interview for jobs in CS. DD has no problems getting interviews, DS struggles to get anything…DS has a much more impressive resume and definitely more qualified.
Both examples above are too small specific to draw conclusions, but then again so are most of the above.
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What do you think that suggests?
In our family of four, none are white, only half are male. Our Global Entry interviews were all done in a few minutes. What do you think that suggests?
We know someone with a super common name. Turns out there is someone on the terrorist watch list with the exact name. His interview took forever and before Global Entry, he was stopped/interviewed every single time he left the country. No issues ever for the rest of the family.
The kid’s (minor) and my global entry interviews were pretty quick. DH’s was longer and took longer to get approved. He’s a combat veteran, and I don’t know whether that played a factor or not.
I have mentioned this previously- back after 9-11 my DH (and therefore all of us) ended up on a watch list. Was a royal PITA for a while. They’d say ‘there is something wrong with your ticket” and would disappear with our ID’s and tickets. We eventually would say “say hi to the FBI for us”. My s and I got stopped and rescreened even when they changed a fat to one gate over. My H got stopped by Scotland Yard at Heathrow! I finally managed to make enough phone calls or send enough emails that I got it straightened out. No clue whose name was like DH’s.
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My wife carries Metamucil powder in her carry on for obvious medical reasons. TSA continually pulls her bag aside so they can rub their wand all over the jar and back over again–powders set off alarms I guess.
Another time in Montreal she was pulled aside after going through security and an agent ran their magic wand all over every part of her purse and every single item inside of it.
And dear wife is the least threatening looking woman of a certain age I can think of!
Me, the bearded guy that frightens children by doing absolutely nothing, breezes through.
We’re way off topic, but something I found interesting…This happened to D recently at an airport and we were trying to think what on earth would have triggered it. According the TSA agent, apparently chocolate can trigger the wand! If you recently ate chocolate (and had it in your hands), it can give set off their triggers and they have to wand your hands.
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The interviews were on different days with different agents, so that might be a factor.
The protocol is that an American agent and a Canadian agent are standing side by side across the counter from the interviewee.
The American agent goes first.
For me it went like this:
Agent: What are you applying for Nexus?
Me: To save time crossing the border.
Agent: How often do you visit Canada?
Me: 3 or 4 time a year.
Agent: Now my Canadian friend will ask you a few questions.
Canadian agent: What do you do when you visit Canada?
Me: Sightsee, eat Chinese food.
Agent: Your card will arrive in about a week.
In addition to those questions my wife was asked where she was born (Brooklyn), her home address, her SS number, why her name is different than on her birth certificate (she took my surname), what year she was married, and more. Then the Canadian guy asked her most of the same questions in rapid fire.
She felt they seemed suspicious that she might be masquerading as someone she wasn’t.
Edit to add that they also asked her if she’d ever been arrested, but didn’t ask me.
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My daughter and I interviewed for Global Entry on different days and with different agents. Both interviews were easy, but quite different. For mine, they did ask a lot of questions about previous travel and whether or not I had ever committed various crimes. For my daughter, it was basically just name and date of birth, then they fingerprinted her and sent her on her way. So it may just be a difference in agents’ styles?
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The Global Entry interviews for DH and me were incredibly brief. But apparently DH is tough to fingerprint? Weird. They told us to come back in a couple of hours. I can’t remember what they were going to try, but they said if it didn’t work, DH would have to come back another day! To Calais, Maine, a 3 1/2+ hour drive each way. Fortunately, they figured it out so we were set.
My mom, even in her early 80s, got stopped and searched a lot. It was so annoying.
One time my purse got pulled for extra inspection. I asked why, and they said it was because I had so much change in the bottom (in the old days, when I still used cash). I guess all the metal was a red flag.
Is he older? The older you get, the harder it is to fingerprint you. My boss has this problem now.
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