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Adult revealing autism at interviews?

processing...

Hello everyone. Thanks for being so welcoming yesterday. I'm wondering if you can help me. People at work have cottoned on to my autism and have been making life difficult. I have left and I know that in my line work there will be verbal references about me, so I am thinking of explaining at my interviews that, although I am not diagnosed, it is likely that I am autistic. What do you think of this approach? What information should I have to hand? How should I educate myself about how "normal" people see autistic people? So far I know about reasonable adjustments, the Equality Act and harassment, from the .gov website. What else will I need? It would be a shame to throw away my career because of this. At least if I tell them, they can decide whether they want to employ me. I feel like I have fewer cards to play, but perhaps I have a new card - diversity. Does this card work? Thanks, and have a great day! Slight smile

Parents
  • processing... said:
    How should I educate myself about how "normal" people see autistic people?

    Generally, I fear that autistic people are not viewed in favourable terms - based on my experience and quite a bit of research on the matter.

    Two very kindly professional people in professions that are thought to be occupied by more than their fair share of autistic folk  told me that the vast majority of all "successful**" autists fly below the radar for good reason!  There is no upside from a declaration and strong reason to suspect quite a bit of downside.

    This seems to be borne out by the statistics too.  Although there are a handful of "loud and proud" autists, (Temple Grandin would be my stand-out example) most autistic people seem to keep their autistic reality/identity quiet in their work circles, from what I can gather.  To a large degree, I even suspect that this extends into private and personal circles too.

    If the above were not to be true, one would expect at least 3% of the most "successful**" people in the workplace to be loud and proud - and in certain professions, you would expect a significantly higher proportion than that.

    **Disambiguation....."successful" = when used above, I mean respected and notable amongst their peers and able to secure employment howsoever they choose.

    And finally - I do hope that the above commentary will not attract personalised attacks in my direction.  The above is not what I think is right - it is merely what I think is true.

Reply
  • processing... said:
    How should I educate myself about how "normal" people see autistic people?

    Generally, I fear that autistic people are not viewed in favourable terms - based on my experience and quite a bit of research on the matter.

    Two very kindly professional people in professions that are thought to be occupied by more than their fair share of autistic folk  told me that the vast majority of all "successful**" autists fly below the radar for good reason!  There is no upside from a declaration and strong reason to suspect quite a bit of downside.

    This seems to be borne out by the statistics too.  Although there are a handful of "loud and proud" autists, (Temple Grandin would be my stand-out example) most autistic people seem to keep their autistic reality/identity quiet in their work circles, from what I can gather.  To a large degree, I even suspect that this extends into private and personal circles too.

    If the above were not to be true, one would expect at least 3% of the most "successful**" people in the workplace to be loud and proud - and in certain professions, you would expect a significantly higher proportion than that.

    **Disambiguation....."successful" = when used above, I mean respected and notable amongst their peers and able to secure employment howsoever they choose.

    And finally - I do hope that the above commentary will not attract personalised attacks in my direction.  The above is not what I think is right - it is merely what I think is true.

Children
  • in reply to Deleted User

    Hi Number, thanks very much for your thoughtful response. It is very much appreciated. It seems sad that if I try to explain at interviews that I think I am autistic I get an instant black mark. I suppose flying below the radar = masking. Its getting harder to mask when I am faced with colleagues who enjoy trying to build an argument that due to various things they notice and embellish, I am in fact autistic, done for their own amusement and workplace security. It all makes me want to drop that career and find a work from home job without any face to face contact.