please help! interviewing while visibly pregnant

[nervousnelle]

I have an in-person interview for a telecommuting attorney position with a pretty laid-back company. At the interview I'll be 27 weeks pregnant with my first. If I really stand up straight and wear the right clothes, maybe I won't show? I'm tall, so I can hide it a bit, but still...

Does anyone have any advice?
Should I try to "hide" the pregnancy?
Should I just not worry about how I look and not say anything at all about the pregnancy since it's completely irrelevant to my work?

Anyone been through this before? Help?!!

[jdg]

I'm amazed you can hide your pregnancy at 27 weeks. I just passed that marker recently with my first and there's no possible way I could hide it anymore!

I would just go to the interview, not try to hide it, but not necessarily volunteer any information about it.

[Carita]

Well I have a little experience here. I just finished interviewing and I am 35 weeks today.

Here are the pluses and minuses. My initial interviews, I kept it hidden, but I was noticible - not a lot, but enough for the interviewer to stare too much at my stomach. Later there was no point hiding it, and I was very upfront about the whole thing.

Here's the good news - The job that I was offered was one that was a later interview when I was noticibley pregnant, and even making jokes about it. The know I am pregannt, they are making a statement about being family friendly by hiring me, they know what they are getting into and they still want me.

Here's the bad news - I do feel that the pregnancy did play a role in me not getting the earlier jobs, even when I was rather good at hiding it. Not a huge role, but in the case of the earlier interview, she said something like I should be upfront and forthright (it may have been in reference to that, it may not have). In the latter where the pregnancy was obvious, they doubted my ability I think to start on the date they wanted.

So - I can't tell you what to do, but that is my experience... I hope it helps.

[pinuchkin]

I interviewed when 5 months pregnant with DD2 (and showing IMO quite a lot). I consulted a friend in HR about what I should do. She told me that I should wear something that was apparently a maternity suit, but not bring it up until negotiations necessitated the info for dates etc. I thought that the suit I was wearing made it very apparent (I'm 5'2 and show pretty fast). But when we got to negotiations and I asked what I could do to aid in planning for maternity leave, my two interviewers/bosses were shocked, they had had no idea. I felt terrible about it initially, because it made them need to scramble to be sure they had coverage for me (I started the job at 28 weeks). However, I was definitely a prime candidate for the position, and even though it's a very woman-positive, family-friendly position, I wonder whether being more up-front about the pregnancy might have skewed things against me. I'm glad I talked to someone in HR to get the "legal" opinion on the topic, and my new employers took that statement very well.

ETA: I've been there over 3 yrs now, and after that initial shock, that maternity leave was never an issue and hasn't worked against me.