When a picklist field is not required, the displayed value is "-- Select --".  This is great.

However, when a picklist field is required, the default value becomes the first item on the list of choices.  Unfortunately, some applicants will accept that value "as is" without selecting the correct response.

In order to avoid this problem, it seems that the ideal



approach would be to default to “-- Select --” (as is the case for non-required picklist fields) and force the user to choose from among the available options.