Matt manages a team he's never spoken to any of them

Post Reply New Topic

When Ryan Mattock, co-founder of startup CommissionCrowd, needed to recruit a web developer three years ago, he received an inquiry from a potential employee, Matt Skillings.

Their conversation, over email, led to Skillings being hired by Mattock. He is now the company’s chief development officer and leads a team of four. But Mattock and his colleagues have never spoken over the phone with Skillings, or met him in person.

Skillings was diagnosed with Asperger’s at 33, and when he first emailed Mattock he was in the position that many people with autism find themselves in – he had skills to offer but found the process of selling himself difficult.

“He knew he was a good web developer and had a great portfolio, but he told us he didn’t feel comfortable speaking on the phone, and he can’t go to meetings,” Mattock explains. “We decided to hire him and adapt how we communicated, using Skype messages at first and then Slack. Matt is incredible at his job. It was a real opportunity for us.”

Skillings has previously written about his career struggle in a blog post: “Essentially, it came down to becoming a van driver, postman, or milkman; all of which gave me the freedom to work alone,” he said. “These were all perfectly fine career choices, but my passion was