Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm so upset, I'm trying to get a partime job and keep getting told I'm unsuccessful at every interview. I can do all the jobs I've applied for but they all keep saying no. I'm sat here crying because of another rejection. I don't know what else to do
That was the same experience I had when I first started out in the job market way back in 2008. I did not get a single job offer or callback, I applied to so many jobs and pushed myself so hard to go to the interviews which was very difficult for me.
Looking back on it now, I think it was because of my autism. I didn't understand why nobody wanted to give me a job because I didn't realise all the things I was doing wrong. I knew I came off badly, which I thought was mainly due to social anxiety, but I was not good at masking back then. I would have been making no eye contact, sitting weirdly, probably doing strange things with my hands, giving monosyllabic or inappropriate responses to open ended questions and failing to make any small talk.
I was applying for menial jobs as well, there's no way I wouldn't have been able to do those jobs, it's just that people place so much importance on social things, so possibly without even realising it they're making a snap judgement about an autistic person that they are "weird". Neurotypical people make incredibly quick snap judgements about autistic people, not even based on anything they said. So it can be really unfair.