Australian Defence Organization hiring Autistics

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Many people on the spectrum don’t do well in standard interview processes, so recruitment and assessment processes have had to be changed. Interviews are out; longer-term “hangouts” and project work “tryouts” are in — these give observers opportunities to watch individuals’ analyst abilities in action, a more accurate gauge than what might come out in an interview. La Trobe University’s Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, working in conjunction with DXC and the Australian Defence Organization, has been translating, studying, and adapting the IDF’s psychometric assessment tools, figuring what works and what doesn’t in cybersecurity. Specially developed training provides unique preparation for the job. Once composed, dandelion teams work in highly effective “pods” (a DXC innovation), which have built-in support systems, including an autism

Though it remains early days, so far this works well. Preliminary evidence suggests that these new cybersecurity analysts are doing an outstanding job. Analysts with ASD are mostly very hard workers; it is difficult, in fact, to get them to take breaks. They are able to spot patterns others cannot see. And, in part because they do not like changes in routines, they have very high retention rates so far, across DXC’s dandelion programs (some of which are outside the Australian Defence Organization).