I conduct tons of interviews as part of my job as Managing Editor at Business Insider, so I've seen all sorts of crazy things.

One situation, however, has come up multiple times in the last year during interviews and I'm beginning to think it's a generational phenomenon.

Here's the scenario:

Towards the end of the interview I say to the candidate, "Do you have any questions for me?"

The candidate says, "Yes."

Then comes the good part.

The candidate qualifies that "Yes" with, "My parents told me I should ask this question."

And then they launch into the question, whatever it might be. It could be about anything—salary, hours, culture, workload, opportunity for growth.

In case this doesn't seem odd to you, I'll spell it out clearly:

Don't ever start a question by saying that your parents told you to ask it.

It could be true, but I don't need to know that.

What it tells me is that you're not ready to take responsibility for your own career. Or that you're clueless about how you're presenting yourself.

Now here are 25 OTHER ways to ruin your chances during a job interview >