Adjustments in interviews

bolsover said:

I've thought about asking for the interview questions in advance, but don't want to jeopardise his chances by putting off a potential employer.  

Many thanks.

Kate

(Development worker)

Hi Kate

Can we presume he has Aspergers ?

The moment you disclose that he has Aspergers you potentially jeopordise his chances.

Asking for adjustments then becomes irrelevant because if the company hiring manager is prejudiced then he has no chance. Of course proving such hidden prejudice is impossible from a legal stance.

For this to work in his favour a hiring manager must know what Aspergers is, and understand it sufficiently, and be willing to employ someone with Aspergers for the role from the outset.

One must also remember that an interviewee is competing with other applicants who don't have Aspergers. 

So his job is to convince the company that he has the competitive advantage for the role.

Every person applying for a job must compete against many others, and there can only be one winner.

Asking for the list of interview questions is not a reasonable adjustment and would probably not be given.

Reasonable adjustment is about where the interview is done, and the way in which it is conducted. For an adjustment to be reasonable the interviewer would need to be a psychologist and expert in autism, which most hiring managers are not. In fact most such managers are not even expert interviewers in their own right. Questions would need to be asked in a different way and different questions would need to be asked of someone with autism. This takes an expert. Only an expert can understand eye contact and body language differences in autism and how they need to be interpreted regarding the role applied for.

There is also a difference between a coffee shop owner informally interviewing someone versus an HR manager in a multi-national corporate enterprise following an industrial psychological process.

Companies also want to determine from an interview whether the candidate will fit into the team and company culture. Someone with autism will most likely fail on this count, unless the company has a policy to fit such people into their teams. Unless the autistic person has a technical edge the company will prefer to employ a neuro-typical person who can do the job and fits into the team. It's about competition.

So in my view, asking the average hiring manager in the open job market to make reasonable adjustments for autism in an interview is like expecting to win the euromillions jackpot with your next ticket.

bolsover said:

I've thought about asking for the interview questions in advance, but don't want to jeopardise his chances by putting off a potential employer.  

Many thanks.

Kate

(Development worker)

Hi Kate

Can we presume he has Aspergers ?

The moment you disclose that he has Aspergers you potentially jeopordise his chances.

Asking for adjustments then becomes irrelevant because if the company hiring manager is prejudiced then he has no chance. Of course proving such hidden prejudice is impossible from a legal stance.

For this to work in his favour a hiring manager must know what Aspergers is, and understand it sufficiently, and be willing to employ someone with Aspergers for the role from the outset.

One must also remember that an interviewee is competing with other applicants who don't have Aspergers. 

So his job is to convince the company that he has the competitive advantage for the role.

Every person applying for a job must compete against many others, and there can only be one winner.

Asking for the list of interview questions is not a reasonable adjustment and would probably not be given.

Reasonable adjustment is about where the interview is done, and the way in which it is conducted. For an adjustment to be reasonable the interviewer would need to be a psychologist and expert in autism, which most hiring managers are not. In fact most such managers are not even expert interviewers in their own right. Questions would need to be asked in a different way and different questions would need to be asked of someone with autism. This takes an expert. Only an expert can understand eye contact and body language differences in autism and how they need to be interpreted regarding the role applied for.

There is also a difference between a coffee shop owner informally interviewing someone versus an HR manager in a multi-national corporate enterprise following an industrial psychological process.

Companies also want to determine from an interview whether the candidate will fit into the team and company culture. Someone with autism will most likely fail on this count, unless the company has a policy to fit such people into their teams. Unless the autistic person has a technical edge the company will prefer to employ a neuro-typical person who can do the job and fits into the team. It's about competition.

So in my view, asking the average hiring manager in the open job market to make reasonable adjustments for autism in an interview is like expecting to win the euromillions jackpot with your next ticket.

Hi, I just want to say that if the manager/ hiring person is prejudiced against autism and if knowing a candidate is autistic will make him not hire that person, then I think it really would not be a good work environment anyways. So what I am trying to say is that if disclosing about someone being autistic and asking for reasonable adjustments puts the hiring manager off then that probably would not be a good workplace anyways - so really there is not much to loose by disclosing if the person feels ok with that. And in fact seeing how they react to the request of reasonable adjustments will also give you an idea about how the workplace will be like and how open they are to adjustments etc. so in a way you are testing/interviewing them too. 

I also do not agree at all that people prefer to hire neurotypicals or that neurotypical people are always more suited. Many autistic traits can make someone a very good candidate for a job- and you cannot generalise like this- it depends on the job, it depends on the person and everyone is unique so I think it is an unfair assumption to say that:

"Companies also want to determine from an interview whether the candidate will fit into the team and company culture. Someone with autism will most likely fail on this count, unless the company has a policy to fit such people into their teams. Unless the autistic person has a technical edge the company will prefer to employ a neuro-typical person who can do the job and fits into the team. It's about competition." 

Autistic people can fit into teams and do so even without policies. in fact there are so many undiagnosed autistic people around too - you might even be working with some and have no idea. 

I am actually autistic too- I recently got a new job and luckily I do quite well with interviews if the theme is academic as that is my special interest- I didn't have an official diagnosis at the time though- but I told my line manager when I was diagnosed- he was a bit stumped but that was that. And I think I am part of the team (despite not telling people about being autistic, except for 1 person that I am quite close to now knows but it changed nothing in terms of how we interact)- I am a bit weird which I don't hide but we all have our quirks and especially in my field (I work in research in a lab), people tend to be quite accepting. 

Hi,

Fellow Aspie and ADHD-er here, also working as a neurodiversity consultant at big corporates.

Asking for the interview questions ahead of time is definitely a reasonable adjustment because your ability to prepare appropriately and account for your processing difference is all part and parcel of the interview process. 

Yes, we can't do anything much about their understanding of Autism or willingness to accommodate and it definitely shouldn't be our job to convince them we're worth pressing "send" on one extra email (and yet it still does fall on our shoulders, as the disadvantaged group!) BUT I'll be damned if I don't ask the question and copy and paste sections of the Equality Act 2010 every time I apply for a new job!