(FORTUNE Magazine) – Women and minorities embarking on careers in white-collar America may find the welcome they receive a tad harsh. A survey of 200 top college students by the Hanigan Consulting Group shows that Fortune 500 managers often ask a host of inappropriate or discriminatory questions while recruiting new candidates (see box for some doozies reported by the prospective job seekers). According to president Maury Hanigan, many line managers fail to recognize how offensive certain queries can be. Hanigan and others suggest the problem may be caused by corporate execs who haven't been trained to deal with a diversifying work force. Discrimination suits filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped 47% between 1990 and 1994, to 91,189 this year. Says EEOC spokeswoman Claire Gonzalez: "We'd like to think incidents of employment discrimination are more subtle now, but many charges we receive are not subtle at all; they're overt, intentional discrimination." Adds Hanigan: "Managers say, 'Well, I want to know how a person thinks.' That gets them into subjective and biased hiring decisions. They hire individuals who are like them socially and culturally -- who tend to have similar responses coming from similar backgrounds." --J.M.G.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE TABLE/SOURCE: HARRIGAN CONSULTING CAPTION: SIX QUESTIONS YOU SHOULDN'T ASK