Should AS be revealed in an interview??

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Hello,

This is my 1st post here. I have AS.

I'm sure this question has been brought up before, but I don't feel like going through all the posts.

Anyways, I have an interview next week with a large company for a position in their Learning & Development Dept. I'm required to to give a demonstration of my teaching abilities.

I have classic symptoms of AS, like difficulty maintaining eye contact, speech quirks and a bit of social awkwardness. I believe I can perform the job successfully, but in the interview I'll likely become nervous, which will make it difficult to control my AS symptoms.

Should I reveal that I have AS? I read a post that one shouldn't because Autism/AS is toxic in an interview. Has anyone mentioned they have AS in an interview with a Fortune 500 company?

It really doesn't matter whether you tell or not because the job search , as is currently designed, is anti-Aspy. Social skills are valued more than intelligence and qualifications.

Welcome to WrongPlanet!

If you do not have an official diagnosis from a trained medical or psychological professional, then you have nothing to declare. Self-diagnosis is irrelevant unless officially confirmed.

If you do have an official diagnosis, then the answer may be a little more tricky. Two important questions come to mind:

- Is AS recognized in your state as a disability? If no, then it may be best to keep it to yourself.

- Does having AS prevent you from performing any of the tasks listed as 'Necessary' in the job description? If yes, then you might be better off seeking a different job, as sooner or later your Aspieness will become apparent.

Some people's diagnoses came after they were hired, and the money to pay for their diagnoses came out of their own pockets. If these people have already established themselves as reliable and productive workers, then they may want to consider whether or not disclosing AS to their employers would be to their advantage.

It depends on the job; if you feel revealing your AS will show you have special qualities that are related to you job than go for it. If you feel your AS qualities would be viewed as negatives than don't say anything. Also, as others have said previously do not reveal anything unless you have an official diagnosis.

Thanks for your replies, I'll try my best to appear as 'NT' as possible at my interview..

Hi As Citizen 43275-B,

If you can avoid revealing AS, it is probably best to do so. There are a few exceptions where being awarded positive weights for an employer eager to display satisfaction of legal requirements of the ADA, but with the older Rehabilitation Act, this never was successful for me.

Back in the mid-1980's, I got feedback that job interviewers were probably biased against my impairments, and from different job counselors, I was both told to promptly reveal my impairments on my resume and/or first application, and told to hide my impairments.

I did very well in university, and on my resumes that I hid my impairments, I received a 100% response rate of further inquiries from employers. On the resumes I made any reference to my impairments, the response rate dropped to a little lower than 50%.

I also did quite well on job examinations and firmly structured interviews, generally between 90% to 100% perfect ratings. With more informal interviews and meetings with employers, my ratings dropped to the bottom 3% (in many informal situations, even when everybody tries to deny that they noticed my "being different", my impairments are noticeable (what interviewers write down, and what they told me what they noted about my performance, was often diametrically opposed)).

After spending a large sum of money on trying for employment, I decided to seek protection under the Rehabilitation Act's prohibition against handicap discrimination by federal employers.

The newly amended (2009) ADA has provided more protection against discrimination than the judicially emasculated previous ADA. Some courts have recognized the enlarged catergory of being an ADA "disabled" person, and actual protection from discrimination may soon become more practically effective: http://www.lvrj.com/news/university-med ... 57849.html
The ADA also protects "regarded impairments" and such: http://staffingtalk.com/claustrophobia- ... -lawsuits/

I was also given the legal argument that I was obligated to notify employers of my disabilities before they were obligated to provide any "reasonable accommodation". This is not abstractly correct, but employers love to hide behind their own claims of their various ignorances (with their own audio recordings, employers would jump to things like "eye contact", which they variously said was very good when they were claiming they "didn't notice anything different", then, very bad when they needed it as a possible defense).

An initial notice of impairments does not need official documentation, though some employers will start needless trouble immediately (and they might hang themselves in technicalities also). I also have epilepsy, and many people with epilepsy have discovered that when they drive with strong seizures that should preclude driving, the police do not demand official documentation of their impairments before being able to arrest them for inappropriate driving, since they should have sought reasonable accommodation with other modes of transportation, whether officially documented or not (just reasonably suspected is enough for the first legal steps).

Tadzio

I am in the UK. I have applied to a disability aware employer and asked for adjustments (having the questions written down and more time to answer). I will let you know how it goes. I applied under the 2 ticks scheme where if I meet the minimum requirements I get offered an interview. It sounds close to my previous job anyhow.
I have not however said what I do have and do not have to legally declare this at the very least until after I have been offered a job.

If it did come up I think it is a bad idea to go into details, and will probably go with the strategy that it was undiagnosed until 30 and very well hidden and doesn't impact my work (I think would need adjustments if I got the job but it is easier to set up from the beginning rather than going off sick).

I previously interviewed and asked for interviewers to interview me separately and this worked quite well (didn't get it but probably on my knowledge).

You may want to see if there is any help you can get with interviews, or any stratagies for coping e.g. taking prompt cards with you, or practising eye contact.

Hi abc123,

As my money was running out, I aimed more and more for federal employment, as they were suppose to follow merit rules and "federal registrars" of ranked qualified applicants. Here in the USA, the feds called the process applied as "the rule of 3".

Since on most jobs I applied for I was at the top, or very near the top, of the registers, the rule of 3 was applied to me frequently: for an available job opening the employer would consider the top 3 people on the register firstly with each job position open, and pick one for the job based on additional merit considerations (like another job interview). If there were 4 or more job openings, the employer could stop considering any applicant that had been considered three times and was unsuccessful with being previously selected (somewhat paradoxically, this made having high ranking scores a drawback, both because of preference programs (#1 was veteran's preferences, #2 was rehab preferences, etc.) and because of any disability that had "bimodal" effects of "impairments" (like Asperger's) would load the Asperger's frequency of high test scores with individuals having both higher to moderate test scores and high oral social interview scores (my case once was my perfect test score against a below average test score applicant, and with the social interview part (my then numerically rated "average" against their numerically rated "good"), the low test score got the job)).

I had a career counselour who was interested in helping me get a job with the IRS position where I had again obtained a perfect test score, but a couple years ago where I had failed with the oral interview part. She helped me practice the oral exam parts and the oral interview parts. The counselour then quit her job and took the IRS job with the one local city opening. In this oral exam, my eye contact was noted in print as "very good" but numerically rated as "average" and hence, no job; during IRS/EEOC initial "administrative remedies", my former counselor was one amongst the IRS desk stations, and when she seen me, she hurried to exit so quickly that she kicked a waste bucket over, drawing everyone's attention from their desk stations.

Tadzio

The autism society people in my state told me that I should not reveal AS in an interview, but once hired could declare it and get appropriate accommodations because it's a protected disability status thing here. Of course, if saying during an interview or in an application is a bad idea, than the protected status is completely unhelpful to me -- I have no trouble at all doing my job, I'm highly skilled and I don't need special accommodations to do it. It is in fact the sort of job that AS people are likely to be better at than NTs.

I have trouble passing the social-skills test of the hiring process. Which has nothing to do with my job. It's there that I need the help. Interview coaching stuff, offered at the university, isn't helpful because I don't understand what I'm being told to do, or the people doing the coaching can't explain what I'm doing wrong.

Yep, don't declare. Its irrelevent to anyone else, so long as YOU don't think it will get in the way of doing the job.