If you're told to do something that you feel is illegal, what would you do?

"If you're told to do something that you feel is illegal, what would you do?"

This is an easy answer. Unless you are interviewing to be a gangster, you should have a similar answer to mine.

Short Answers

"I would first verify if it's legal or not. If it is legal, then I would continue with the work. If it's illegal, I would not do the work and tell my manager that this work is illegal. I would also let Human Resources aware of the situation."

"I'd verify if the work was legal or not. If it wasn't legal, then I'd confront my manager and my manager's manager with this incident."

"I wouldn't jump to any conclusions. I would rather question my manager to verify if it is illegal or not. If I'm not convinced through facts, then I would investigate through other means. If I find it is illegal, I will not continue with the work and inform Human
Resources of this incident."

Long Answer

"If I'm not sure, I would verify whether it's legal or illegal before performing the task. If I find it is legal, then I would continue with the task. If not, then I would report the request to the boss of the person who asked me to do it. If the boss does not take appropriate action, I would find out why and report the incident to Human Resources myself."

This is making you sound firm and stubborn. But in this situation, you have to be bold with your answer. You cannot let them think that you would hide the fact. This is especially true if you are interviewing for a finance or accounting position that deals with money or other important information.