Interview Fail

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Yesterday I had an interview with an organization that provides services for autistics (early intervention, special schools, adult programs, residential support, etc.). I don't think it went very well. It was a pretty generic interview, with no trick questions like "what are your weaknesses" or "where will you be in five years". But we did get to this question:

Interviewer: Do you have any experience working with this population?
Me: *vascillates awkwardly*
Me: I'm autism spectrum.
Interviewer: ... Oh. ... But do you actually have any experience working with this population?
Me: ...

Way to invalidate my experience as an Aspie, Interview Dude.

But he wrote it down in his interview notes, so now it's on my permanent record or something.

Anyway, he kind of admitted that the organization doesn't actually have any open positions right now, and then he gave me some really patronizing advice, and then it was pretty much over.

*sigh* Apparently being Aspie still counts against me, even when the job involves knowing about and being sympathetic to Aspies.

So. Some people around here have suggested that I should look into vocational rehab. The problem is, I don't think I can organize that on the DL, and I don't know how to bridge the subject with my parents. We never talk about my dx. (I'm starting to wonder if I only imagined all those psychologist visits.) Any other advice? Or words of consolation?

it sucks to not get your job the first time you apply. but if you try again several times, you will get used to it and you WILL find a job. keep applying, keep interviewing, keep getting embarassed and feeling bad - it is natural to feel like this when looking for a job. just keep at it. i believe in you!! !!

This is not my first interview. I've been looking for a job, essentially for two years now. I've had a fair number of interviews but none of them have led to a real job. Everywhere I turn, dead ends. It's extremely frustrating and disempowering.

Do you have anyone who can work with you on your interview skills?

An interview is a presentation (you are presenting yourself to a potential employer.) There are specific things you can do to improve the way you present yourself (they write books about this sort of thing.)

I would suggest staging a mock interview with someone (a family member, etc.) and recording it to video. Then watch the video for verbal pauses (ahhs & umms) and inappropriate facial expressions. Learn to work your strengths into your answers ("I don't have that specific experience, but I have done X, Y & Z - which requires many of the same skills.") Make sure when you answer a question that you come to a complete stop & don't let your voice trail off.........

Once you've watched the video & taken notes, try the interview again & watch the video of that. Keep doing it until you look & sound natural.

Even if you don't have a partner to ask you questions, you can still video your answers.

My organization C.I is going to also become a support organization and then I will be hiring support workers so will be the opposite. At current I am told people with autism cannot be hired by support organizations as it is a conflict of interest. However I found a loop-hole in that I simply am the president of an organization that will hire.

Bureaucratic inequality of America. Will overcome..

I've often found that working for a small company is helpful... the interview is usually far simpler, and just showing up to work makes them happy. Large companies seem to want cookie cutter employees, and us aspies caint pull that off.

The only problem with that is the small companies are the first to stop hiring when it all comes crashing down.

But... if you can land another interview, try deflecting the question. Don't just not answer, but kinda segue into something somewhat related. Or just flat out lie. It works for me, and usually by the time the boss notices, I've proven I can do my job.

Well, to be fair to your interviewer, you didn't actually answer his question in the affirmative. He asked if you had any experience working with autistics. If ever you're in an interview and the answer to a question like that is "no", i.e. you don't have that specific work experience, but you believe you have other relevant experience, you need to actually spell that out for them, how it's relevant.

Simply being on the autistic spectrum yourself doesn't necessarily mean you're the best person for the job, or that you're somehow qualified or experienced to do it simply by virtue of being on the spectrum yourself. Can you not understand that from the interviewer's perspective, you're simply part of the client group, unless you can 'bring something else to the party'.

Just being on the autistic spectrum yourself doesn't exempt you from the requirement to prove yourself capable of doing the job you're potentially being hired for.

They're looking for someone either with experience or potentially the ability to do the job. You don't have the experience and you failed to convince him you're capable of doing the job. Just saying you're on the spectrum isn't enough. He was possibly thinking, yeah, so what. And?

The 'right answer' in a case like this would possibly be something along the lines of:

Interviewer: Do you have any experience working with this population?
You: While I don't actually have any experience working with this people on the autistic spectrum, I do have experience of living on the autistic spectrum myself. Since I was diagnosed, I've done a lot of research, so I'm aware of the range of difficulties that people on the spectrum can have, and also the range of interventions and coping techniques that can be utilised. Being on the spectrum myself means I have an insight into these difficulties and an understanding of situations from their perspective, which means I can anticipate and address some of their problems, and help to resolve them. Again, while I don't have specific paid work experience, I'm an active member on an internet forum for people on the spectrum and their family members, and I often give advice to parents of children on the spectrum, and also share the benefit of my own personal experiences, what works and what doesn't, how to cope with or work around problem situations and so on. So although I don't have work experience, I do have personal life experience that I believe means I am capable of doing the job.

Or something like that.

Interviewer sounds like a douche. I would have had to hold my tongue to not say words to that effect.

Yeah, they want to see if you have experience helping people with Autism, but at the same time, that you are autistic should say something, and the interviewer should have known to not dismiss that too easily.

Why were they interviewing if they didn't have any open positions? I pretty much tell off interviewers who waste my time like that.

Thanks for the replies, everybody.

Zeichner: I had a few meetings with a job coach (general coach, didn't tell him about my dx). We practiced interview skills and I feel I learned a lot. I don't really have anyone to practice with right now... also I always feel really silly doing that kind of role-play, and can't take it seriously.

NathanYoung: Really, conflict of interest? That's interesting.

Lulu: ... Actually, you're exactly right. I have a tendency to make statements and assume the other person will fill in the supporting information and draw the relevant conclusions. I learned to spell things out when writing papers. I guess I have to learn to do it when I'm talking to people.

I guess the idea in my head was that I didn't have experience working with Aspies, but I can gain it if someone would give me an opportunity. An NT can accumulate years of experience working with many different Aspies, but they will never know what it's like to be an Aspie. That's what I "bring to the party".

Anyway, the job isn't even exactly working with or supporting autistics. It's the research side of things. I *do* have experience with research. (Even though the interviewer wasn't impressed by it.) I also have experience doing direct work with another special-needs population, which we discussed briefly.

zer0netgain: I don't know. They didn't tell me that important fact until I had gotten to the interview. Which, by the way, required three hours of driving and a longer trip to get back home.

Unfortunately I can't afford to tell off anybody right now. I'm sending a very nice thank-you letter and crossing my fingers that something becomes available.

I have not found many support workers whom are in compliance with all the government regulated contracted rules. From what I know on average people with autism, higher functioning like A.S who would be support workers to those who need support, would be more apt to follow the rules. Things like smoking in the car with consumers, hanging out with consumers after hours and telling consumers what to do in circumstances where choice overrides support worker dictations. There are videos we watch about what kind of support workers exists like smothers (telling what to do instead of choices), ones that do not care and ones that give educated choices for the consumer to choose. Also I do not see why people with disabilities should not be hired to service individuals with disabilities as a kind of peer and minority group agenda. So I can get government funding for this rather easily.

Many people without disabilities make large sums of money in the name of or in service of people with disabilities. I think it's time to employ people with disabilities and use what before made others rich to better service people with disabilities. I know of people that pay for ranches , new homes and cars off of servicing people with disabilities. While that is part of the american dream it does not seem fair people with disabilities are much poorer and heve less life funding when such funding can employ people with disabilities who care much more about the people they serve in many circumstances then the economic benefit of doing so. People with disabilities have a sense of struggle wheras someone without a disability helping those with disabilities may not commonly do all they can do to improve the lives and outcomes of those with disabilities.

Maybe you should study up on being a respite worker and job coach.

Y'see, if you'd even said something as simple as that, it would have been better, that would also have been a good-ish answer to the original question.Maybe again it was a matter of just telling him you have experience, but not spelling out how that matches with the job description?

One of the techniques I've learned to use in filling out job application forms, and in answering questions in interviews is to 'mirror' their language and also do the 'spelling out' for them.

So, for example, if the job description says something about a researcher must be able to use XYZ brand name of statistical software, but I'd only used ABC statistical software in my current or previous job or studies, I would say in an application form and in answer to question forms something like:

"I haven't used XYZ software, but I have used ABC software in order to input and collate data for a research project relating to blah blah blah, so I'm familiar with inputting data, generating graphs and reports and so on and analysing data. I'm also very computer literate and have used word processing packages and spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and am proficient using the internet for research, so I have transferable skills and anticipate I would be able to pick up how to use XYZ software quite quickly."

If you don't have the exact experience, you've got to spell out for them those transferable skills, to make those connections for them. Just telling them, no, sorry, I don't know how to use XYZ software, I've never had any experience using it isn't going to instil any confidence that you would be able to. Telling them you've used a different package that performs a similar function, and that you're very computer literate and have 'transferable skills' inspires confidence that although you don't have the exact experience you would be able to learn them and be able to do the job.

Unfortunately I can't afford to tell off anybody right now. I'm sending a very nice thank-you letter and crossing my fingers that something becomes available.[/quote]

Nathan: Actually, I was briefly employed as a direct-care person for people with disabilities. A lot of things about the situation rubbed me the wrong way, and I could see the job wasn't going to be a good fit for me (also I had massive problems dealing with the administration). I wish I could help people with disabilities in some kind of framework that was really empowering for them, and didn't just have lots of pretty PR. I don't know if anything like this exists.

Lulu: Yeah, I'm kicking myself about it. The problem is that these kinds of things come to me as an all-at-once feeling, and I need some quiet downtime to spin them out into sequential words that can be conveyed to another person. In short, if an interviewer catches me with a question I haven't already pondered deeply, I can't come up with a good answer until it's too late. Coupled with my very limited ability to guess what an interviewer might ask, this makes for a painfully slow learning curve.

I swear, if someone would interview me by e-mail, I could come up with fantastic answers to all their questions...

When organizations are administrated with the directive of people with disabilities the organization tends to be different. In how I have made my success is by creating new frameworks and implementing ideas that makes disability employment mainstreamed but still supportive. That's with candle products yet it's still in it's infantile stages. It's a strange idea for an organization to be ran by a person with autism to employ others with disabilities and not those without disabilities employing people with disabilities as a service. The idea is not to have others benefit from me in PR unless I say ok, like one time I was pressured to clean up trash with a sponsored by "business association" on my back. The pretty PR can be the unethical PR that tarnishes dignity for minimum wage. Putting the creative control and leadership in the hands of people with disabilities and having the support of professionals that may or may not have disabilities is a stronger leadership type and community integration penetration.

I'd say anyone who would say self-advocacy leadership like I do is a pity march instead of empowerment just fears perhaps the idea of it all. Working in support services means you have had experience in something I do not in a support worker sense. Most of my support workers, but mostly the first few harassed me about their pay and car ware and tare. I have found but a few that were in the field because they genuinely enjoyed and wanted to be in the support industry. The rest I'd have to say were just needing a job. Good support workers can make a big difference in someones life. It's been support workers and professionals that have encouraged me to do what I have done in business.

Now I know who to hire and what to look for in the support service and job integration program I will lunch in a few years. This based on my experience and yes people with disabilities other then autism work in such fields and the few I've met have been awesome because they understand. For instance one disabled support worker is taking one of my workers to craft shows, farmer's markets and the sponsored County Fair booth and will spend 10hrs a day for 10 days there and some of it off the support worker pay clock.

The support worker industry needs more filtration though. To get rid of the unprofessional and unethical. I've turned in several as I have a zero tolerance for unprofessionalism and contractual violations.

I suck in job interviews too and have failed more than a dozen. Although I feel I am getting better and better,no company want to hire me,even the small ones.Hope I can get a job before graduation,so I won't be too embarrassed in my class.Although I know I can do some jobs well----I am not stupid, I just cannot pass the correct information to the interviewer.Let's just hope we will find a job soon.

It's taken me some trial and error over the years, and reading books and getting tips on job hunting, writing CVs, filling in application forms, having interviews.

There are lots of jobs where you just see a tiny ad in a newspaper or online, it's just a job title and maybe a sentence or two, and you're supposed to just submit your resume and a covering letter. They really don't give you many pointers as to what they're looking for.

But you'll find that more of the public sector jobs, they will have written job specifications, they will have a skills criteria, and there may be an application form that's broken down into sections: education and qualifications, training, work experience. And then there might be another section saying please tell us in 200 words how your experience matches the job description and how you meet the skills criteria. Those are much easier, because they kind of lead you through it, they give you a list of what they are looking for, and you just have to work out how your previous experience either matches the requirement, or you have some similar experience that has given you transferable skills.

The questions in interviews can be quite formulaic in that way, too.

They want you to tell them more about how your experience and transferable skills mean you'll be able to do the job they're offering. So it's easy to prepare some examples in your head in advance. Like the example I gave. If for example a job asks for someone with experience of preparing presentations. But you haven't done that in your previous job. If they ask something like: So, you'll be working with marketing department to prepare presentations for our sales pitches, please tell us about your experience. And you might be able to say something like, well, I'm not required to prepare presentations in my current role, because I'm more involved with data inputting and using spreadsheets to prepare financial reports, so I don't really have work experience relating to that, but when I was at college, we learned how to use the software, and we had to give presentations when we worked on group projects for our assignments, so I feel confident that I will be able to prepare presentations.

In advance, for any skill that you don't have, for any experience that you don't have, try to think in advance of the similar things you've done, the transferable skills that you have. And also if you know for sure that you have the right skills, because you're familiar with Java and HTML, again, give examples, yes, I've designed and created websites using Java and HTML for a local store, a community college, and my father's an electrician, so I designed a site for him, and some of his friends liked it, so I also designed websites for a mechanic, and a plumber, and a tree surgeon.

Again, think in advance of some examples you can give them, where you can tell them what skill or experience you have, and say what you did and for whom, either in the workplace or in school or college, or even in your spare time, as a hobby or volunteering.

I know, but I'm so bad at this. It doesn't help that I seem to lose parts of my life. Fairly major projects, that I spent significant time on, I'll just completely forget about. That's probably not normal...

I feel like I've gotten to this point in my life without actually acquiring any useful skills, and now I'm just SOL.