This post may contain affiliate links. This means I will earn a commission if you use my link to buy the product I am promoting at no extra cost to you.
The one thing that keeps us aspies out of jobs is interviews. Interviews can be a constant struggle for us. I mentioned this in my book about autism and I mentioned it in older articles that I have written. It was mentioned but not fully talked about. Why do interviews keep us out of jobs?
I feel that the interviews are stupid. They have literally zero to do with proving that you can do the job. For example, being asked why you left your last job. What does that have to do with the job you’re trying to get is how I see it. When you try out for a sport, the coach will test your skills and pick who did the exercises the best. Why can’t jobs do that instead of interviews?
If you are hiring a chef for your food chain, how will an interview give you an idea if they can cook good food your customers want to eat? Wouldn’t having them bring in a sample for people to try do more?
When you walk into an interview, you smile, make eye contact and shake the interviewer’s hand? For us, we don’t like physical contact like that and forced emotions. The interview marks this against us. The interviewer might take the lack of eye contact and no handshake as a sign of disrespect.
Basically, it’s impossible for us to handle NT interview processes.
We struggle to pick up on non-verbal cues.
When I was in the 4th grade the teachers picked up on my social issues. They were somewhat aware of my condition. This would be different from an interviewer with no background on our struggles.
The interviewer can sometimes interpret your autism behaviors as not being interested in the job. This is not the case. As a result, you’re passed up for the job.
Also, something can pop up (ex the interviewer is running late) or maybe they’re booked and you have to see a different person. We don’t handle unexpected changes well. In a different blog article I explained this, I gave an analogy with your GPS switching the directions on you to give NTs an understanding of how changes feel to us.
Expecting us to adapt to change does the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Your reaction to the change can go against you.
We take things literally. The one question you are asked is ‘tell me about yourself.’ We will think this is to tell them about ourselves like when you enter a new school year and you tell the teacher some things about you.
There are other questions that we may take literally. Sometimes the interviewer may ask follow-up questions that you may not know how to answer.
When I went through that useless job program, the coach did mock interviews. Of course, I bombed it. When she asked me that question I answered it wrong. She then followed it saying my response does not relate to the job. She proceeds to ask back-to-back follow up questions without giving my brain a chance to process the first question. I just could not answer the questions.
If that were a real interview I would not have gotten the job.
We don’t know how to answer the questions because we fail to grasp what the question means. Or what the person is looking for.
It seems like interviews are about sucking up to the employer than them wanting to know how you can bring value to their company.
Say you prepared for the interview, an unexpected question pops up that you don’t know how to answer.
In most cases, if not all, the interviewer won’t know that the candidate has autism. Due to these insane standards, interviews are the number 1 reason why we are unemployed.
No Comments