If you're like me and constantly applying for jobs you will have seen some have what are called gureteed interview schemes. Where they offer this there is usually a little checkbox to tick to say as a disabled person if you meet the minimum criteia for the job they gureentee to interview you even if you are not a particularly strong candidate.
I didn't used to tick them. Partly because there is ussually a disclaimer ... something on the lines of "disabled as defined by the equality act 2010." Of course now I know autism absolutly qualifies as a disability under the equality act but back then I was unsure. Also I was unsure how I felt about being described as disability back then.
Now I always tick the box. My reasoning is largely as follows:
- as an autistic person dealing with the people skils barrier in aplications is hard and an advantage to compensate for that is fair.
- I'm not getting the interview unless I'm qualified enough on paper for the job anyway.
- There are things I might fair to convey or miss understand in the paper part of a job aplication because of my autism. If a gureeteed interview gives me a second chance to convey the skills I do have that's a good thing.
- The scheme only gureentees an interview. If I'm not the best guy in the interview I still won't be hired.
How do you feel? Do you tick the box? A lot more employers are offering this now because it's part of the goverments disability confident acreditation? Do you think something like this should be compulsory?
