Question: Would an employer want to hire a WP member?

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A thought came to me today, and I'm trying to be careful how I write it.

If someone was looking to hire someone for an entry-level or near entry-level position, what would motivate an employer to hire....say...posters on this board?

I'm not looking to bash aspies or those who have been.....kicked out of their jobs, but what would would motivate an employer to give the nod to a WP poster over any other canidate?

Please feel free to ask me questions, I'm not sure if I'm asking this question in the best manner.

First off, why would an employer know you are poster in this forum. It really is none of their business and possibly illegal or immoral to ask. In fact, if an employer did ask a question about my participation here, I would promptly (but politely) end the interview and leave. I would not want to work for someone like that.

My employer has no idea that I post here, or even that I have Aspergers. Secondly, even if they did, why would it matter? There's nothing wrong with posting here, so what makes you think that employers care one way or the other? Now if you are posting derogatory, hateful, illegal, or otherwise immoral topics and your employer finds out about them then sure, it may affect you. But other than that...

Depends on the WP member?

And how the hell would they know that they had an account on here in the first place, unless they went to an interview wearing a WP T-shirt.

My wording was not ideal. What I meant by "WP Poster" is "individual who posts here" (read: Aspie). Does that make more sense?

Let's try this again:

Say you, the hypothetical WP poster, was applying for a job. Why should a hypothetical hiring manager select you for the job over someone else?

Ability and willingness to not only do the job, but to get along with all of his or her co-workers while doing it.


It depends on the employer. Some consider physical attractiveness when hiring (even though they may not admit it), while others might consider the person's history of charitable service, and still others judge a person by the kind of car he or she drives. There are many similar variables.

One Stim-Cola to Fnord!

Anyone care to build a hypoethical case for hiring a member of this board? Obviously, it always comes down to the individual canidate, but I'm curious to see what people come up with.

<--- Prefers Nuka Cola.

And now, a word from our sponsor.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmz-UCRWt-g[/youtube]

...some potential motivations...
(a) Some people prefer dealing with Aspies. I was always annoyed by a gossipy secretary at my last workplace who took everything personally.
(b) Some NT behaviors (eg, social interaction) can be inefficient. I'd rather hire someone who stayed in their office until the job was done.
(c) Some NT behaviors are downright poisonous. Next time I deal with half a dozen salespeople spending over half their time sabotaging each other, I'm tying them in a sack with some rocks and finding a nearby river.
(d) All else being equal, Aspies are less likely to aggressively negotiate wages and can be hired at a discount. That bears more heavily on why I've hired a lot of mildly 'disturbed' technical people with VISA issues, but the principal is similar.
(e) Finally, Aspies may tend to keep things simple. Motivating a normal person to do their job instead of maximizing their salary is a horrendous, unsolved problem in business. Many Aspies will default to doing their job because maximizing their salary is just too socially involved.

Now, this is all stereotyping, et cetera, but there's a bit of truth to it. That and, competent NTs move to management quite readily and sometimes you just want someone to stay in a given position until they die.

More reasonably, a competent properly motivated hiring manager (rarity) will hire the best person for the long-term returns of the company - and, for some jobs, an extremely focused individual with minimal social graces is an optimal hire. Not all such individuals are Aspies and not all Aspies are such individuals, but, eh, there's a lot of overlap.

--Argyle

Inside joke. See http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5123152.html#5123152

Argyle, how would you suggest a hypothetical employer would know that the canidate would'nt engage in these behaviors? Aspie-dar? I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into your response.

I can pick up like 300lbs and put 100 or so overhead. Therefore I'd be pretty kickass if I had a hypothetical job where all I had to do was like chop wood or carry logs or bags of cement or something.

Well considering I recently was hired over someone else...the main thing is that you have to focus on your strengths while minimizing your weaknesses. The main thing employers want is someone who can do the job effectively. So you have to prove to them that you will be able to do that, ideally through past work and academic experiences. Additionally, in the interview, you have to appear fully confident in yourself and your abilities. If you can do that, then you've got a pretty good shot!

It sounds like your main question is "Why hire someone with Aspergers over someone without it?" I personally think that you should take Aspergers out of the equation and look at them as two different people who both bring individual strengths and weaknesses to the table. Now, just show to the employer that your strengths/weaknesses outweigh those of the other person, and you've got the job. If your Aspergers is more mild, try and learn how to, as they say, "fake it until you make it". If it doesn't affect your ability to perform the job, then it shouldn't hinder you in any way, just do your best to practice a lot for the interview, for example make sure to maintain reasonable eye contact. If your Aspergers is more severe, then it may be worth noting explicitly what your weaknesses are, AND THEN noting how you overcome those weaknesses, as well as why they won't affect your ability to perform the job. That last bit is key. When you're asked about a weakness, it's perfectly acceptable to talk about one of yours, but if you do, you have to explain in full how you have managed to overcome that weakness and why it will not affect you in the workplace.

AFAIK Aspiedar is more unreliable than gaydar...from an interview...you can never know that much about a person...but you can make some reasonable guesses and bet the odds. You probably couldn't select an Aspie (unless drawing from a large pool) - but you can definitely select for, eg, a quiet detail-oriented person with social issues. For example, I really selected for competent PhDs willing to accept below-market wages at a company that couldn't guarantee paying them - so I ended up with unstable, but dedicated, people on H1s.

Eg., that extremely glib person who answered everything perfectly and is willing to accept a below-market wage...is probably talkative but insane. (And, when I did a reference check...his last employer recommended psychological evaluation and anger management classes. Seriously.)

The socially awkward guy who told a really odd joke and looked really uncomfortable when we brought 6 people in for an interview...is probably not an extrovert.

And that charming bon vivant will probably do poorly in the rare book preservation section of the museum. So, for that job, I'd rather hire the awkward person - they're less likely to run screaming after the first month alone underground in a poorly lighted cubicle. My wife loved that job.

However, I think I misunderstood your question. What I'm hearing is - what sort of position would a hiring manager be inclined to hire an Aspie into on first meeting? Um. Dunno. Depends on the Aspie and the their particular issues.

High social awkwardness: physics, math, small group programming, museum work
High rigidity: Clerical work, assembly, other repetitive manual labor
Sensory issues: laboratory work, programming, museum work, some cubicles are ok
Avoidance: physics, math, small group programming, forest ranger
Executive dysfunction: Nothing I can imagine. Hide this one. Vaguely acceptable in highly supervised settings - ?call center?

But, um, there's lots of factors - the big one is how the Aspie in question will fit in with the rest of the group.

--Erwin

I got hired recently this year because of my detailed knowledge of my special interest.

I never lied either, as I knew my references would be sought. I did not pretend things went well when they didn't, and I didn't dwell on them either-- I just extrapolated what I learned from the situation and stated what I will do now as a result of that knowledge.

I made a minor mistake at the beginning, and then realized that... people have to hire you for who you are and for the personality you bring. If you show a personality you can't sustain, it won't work. So, I allowed myself to get all nerdy excited and it won.

Getting a job within software development isn't too hard. Especially if you get interviewed by someone who is a developer or works with them a lot. A lot of developers has some Aspe traits, just not the full diagnosis. A lot of the best known developers have some degree of Asperger's anyways.

Don't know about other types of jobs, but I'm sure it's possible. He would just need to prepare a bit by having an answer to the standard questions. Other than that, I support the "be yourself" idea. This works very well if you special interest is related to the work you are being interviewed for.