Inside a company’s meeting room, two interviewers sat across from Sheng Yan, looking over the résumé in their hands.
After a moment, they looked up.
“So, we’ve just gone through your résumé. You’re twenty nine years old this year and currently married.”
“That’s right.”
Sheng Yan had expected the interviewers’ first question to be asking her to introduce herself or discuss her work experience at her previous company. Instead, the very first thing they asked about was her marital status.
“Do you have any children?”
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Five years old. She’s in kindergarten.”
“Who usually takes care of your child?”
“My parents help look after her.”
In reality, there were no elderly family members helping them.
Sheng Yan’s parents had passed away when she was still young, while Jiang Hongyan’s parents had both passed away several years earlier.
Their marriage, their home, and their car had all been paid for with money the couple had earned themselves, without anyone else’s help.
But she had no choice except to answer that way. If she told them she was the one taking care of her daughter, they would almost certainly assume that family responsibilities would distract her, and she would probably lose any chance of getting the job.
“Are you planning to have a second child?”
“No,” Sheng Yan answered without hesitation.
Even before Jiang Hongyan’s accident, the two of them had never planned to have another child. One was enough.
Hearing her answer, the two interviewers instinctively exchanged a glance before quietly saying a few words to each other.
When they turned back to her, they politely smiled.
“That concludes today’s interview. Please head home and wait for our notification.”
The moment Sheng Yan heard those words, she already knew how the interview had turned out.
Not a single question had been asked about her work or professional abilities. They had only asked about her family and her child.
When she had interviewed at her previous company, the interviewer had been extremely satisfied with her abilities and had decided to hire her on the spot.
Now that these two had told her to wait for their notification, there was basically no hope.
After leaving the company, Sheng Yan could not help feeling powerless.
She could clearly sense that the workplace was not very friendly toward married women.
It was as though women who were married and had children did not deserve to work.
During interviews, they were always asked who took care of their children.
After returning home, Sheng Yan opened several job recruitment websites again. She found that she had received messages from HR representatives at several other companies.
The company she had interviewed with that morning had only arranged the interview online and had not asked many questions beforehand.
However, these newly contacted HR representatives asked about her marriage and children directly through the recruitment platform.
After Sheng Yan answered truthfully, every one of them immediately stopped replying.
She leaned back in her chair helplessly and let out a sigh.
For women who had become mothers, finding a job was truly incredibly difficult.
There were some positions in Ningcheng specifically intended for mothers, but the salaries were pitifully low, nowhere near enough to cover her family’s expenses.
After leaning back for a few minutes, she straightened up again and continued submitting résumés.
The more applications she sent out, the better her chances of finding work.
By noon, she went into the kitchen and made herself a simple meal.
After eating, she left the house once more, heading to her second interview of the day.
The afternoon interview was somewhat different from the morning one.
The interviewer’s first questions focused on her work experience and professional skills.
However, before long, the conversation inevitably turned to her child.
After Sheng Yan explained her situation, she received the same response once again.
“Please go home and wait for our notification.”
Having been part of the workforce for several years, Sheng Yan was more than capable of reading people’s expressions.
Just from the interviewer’s face alone, she knew the interview had certainly ended in failure.
In truth, if she looked at things from the company’s perspective, she could understand it as well.
Companies hired employees to work, not to run charities. If they could, they would probably want their employees working for the company twenty four hours a day.
If an employee had a child at home who needed care, they would naturally assume that family responsibilities would distract that employee, preventing them from devoting themselves completely to their work.