So Much for 'Personal' Habits

"My clients dictate who I hire and what caliber. I'm doing more and more behavioral-based evaluating. They are being evaluated less on what they can do as opposed to who they are," he said.

Sometimes that outside information can help a career, however.

Erin Rockwell's husband is in his last year of seminary to become an Episcopal priest, and she works for a Planned Parenthood affiliate doing public policy work.

The Episcopal church has publicly declared that every woman has a right to a medically safe abortion. But often people assume that any sort of Christian religion will be antiabortion, Rockwell said.

That can work in her favor.

When she saw the posting for her position a few months ago, she noted that it called for someone who could connect with the religious community. Her husband's occupation came up in the interview process and she thought his career track, along with her background as a lifelong Episcopalian, would only help her get the job.

"I have a lot of contacts," she said. She has been in the job for almost four months now. And she knows that her own background helps her connect with religious leaders and volunteers and could help with her local lobbying efforts.

This was not the first time the career path of Rockwell's husband has helped her own career. Her first job out of college several years ago was as an insurance claims adjuster. Once, while she was talking to a man who had been in a car accident, he and his wife noticed Rockwell's engagement ring and asked what her then-fiance did for a living.

She told him he was in seminary. "From then on, it was like, 'We can trust you. You're marrying a man of God,' " she said.