Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone,
I recently had an interview with a charity supporting people with disabilities. I disclosed my autism and anxiety in my application, and they were incredibly accommodating—they provided the questions in advance, which made the interview much more manageable. I didn't even have to ask! Although I didn't get the job, my experience was really positive with them.
While I’m always honest in interviews, my strategy of rehearsing answers word-for-word isn’t effective if unexpected questions come up. When this happens, I often get stuck.
How do you handle unexpected questions in interviews?
Also is my need to rehearse answers a form of masking?
I have 2 issues in interviews - remembering the question long enough to understand it and formulate the answer, and choosing the right information in my mind to say.
I haven't yet asked for the questions in advance (last interview was before diagnosis), so I usually write the question down, or at least as many words of it as I can remember and focus on it. If I don't know what the expectation is, I ask for clarification - e.g. tell them a number of scenarios I think might fit, and ask more detail about the specific thing they are after. Then I draw a mind map of things that are relevant. Once I put a number against the map to indicate the order to say them in, I'm ready to start talking.
I also have a number of small, business card sized mind maps for standard questions that I can refer to, and as I say them, or the key points/requirements of the job, I score them off my sheet of paper. That way, I keep from repeating too much between different questions.
If I don't do this, I waffle, go off on tangents, get distracted by other connections my mind is making as I speak, say the same thing over again, and tell them things that interest me rather than what they need to hear.