Published on 12, July, 2020
I have just seen news that a company has decided to publish possible questions on its website to help neuro divergent candidates. I wondered what people's views on this are.
Personally I find interviews difficult because I am not very good at thinking of quick answers on the spur of the moment but if given time could think of examples. I think it is good to have time to work out possible answers, but also I would probably spend a long time going over and over my wording in my head, then worry I might forget.
During years of interviews I’ve learned a pattern of questions and I prepare answers for the most common questions that I expect in advance. I also have a bit negative attitude “they will not take me anyway” so I don’t have to repeat every word to give the perfect answer. And as my life often showed me - there are quite several surprises. They were supposed to not hire me, but they do want me. I’m not sure if this kind of attitude would work for others, but for me it does. But in my case it’s just a little bit negative. Not overwhelmingly negative to the point that I get stuck in this negative thinking. This a bit negative attitude helps me relax a bit, and gives me a boost It’s like “yeah, they will not take me, but I try anyway, because I have nothing to lose anyway, if I want it I’ve got to work on it”
just today I had an interview and got the positive answer. It’s in logistics of a hardware store. The most popular questions I heard were
- tell me about your previous jobs
- why have you applied to our company and why for this position
- have you worked on a similar position, describe the tasks
- what do you know about our company (little history, their offer etc)
- describe your strengths and weaknesses (I hate this one) but I heard it quite often when applying to customer service assistant. Here I always had to lie - I also hate it, that I’m stress resistant, that I like dynamic environment etc. but I’m a terrible liar and the recruiters probably saw it.
Of course every company has different questions and I find it really good and helpful if they give it in advance. I’m some interviews they also give tasks to complete to see the performance in group or individual. It’s always stressful. What works for me is being prepared best as I only can. Having my answers in written somewhere in a notebook and to be able to take a look there sometimes also helps me and gives me more confidence. Having my cv printed, other documents in the file, having the bus schedule checked, the exact location, being earlier to be able to get used to the new environment. All this helps me feel more comfortable and confident so I can think more clearly during the interview.
Alienatedhuman said:- describe your strengths and weaknesses (I hate this one) but I heard it quite often when applying to customer service assistant. Here I always had to lie - I also hate it, that I’m stress resistant, that I like dynamic environment etc. but I’m a terrible liar and the recruiters probably saw it.
I'm a veteran recruiter for these positions so can offer some advice.
Honesty is the best policy, but use it sparingly.
Strenghts - you work very well with an ordered environment so are great at documenting procedures to share with the team to save them reinventing the wheel and doing things to the approved standards.
Weakness - you struggle sometimes with really unpleasant customers (the angry ones or unreasonably demanding ones) but you are working on your resistance to this stress. You would welcome the input from a mentor if that is available.
You see - your dislike of a dynamic environment is flipped and you get to work on structuring it (and away from taking calls) with luck. You are being honest and it will show, and with luck you will get a mentor to help you develop better coping skills for it.