Interviews - Yet another area that we are f****d over in

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If I tell them I have high functioning autism, I'll be discriminated against, if I don't tell them, I'll be discriminated against. I can't "sell myself" or BS people in any way. I'm not good at verbal communication so I come across as someone who is not enthusiastic or doesn't care about the job or something. The ironic thing is I believe I'm more qualified than any other applicant for a number of reasons, the main one being the combined fact that I have no social life and like to do what they call work with my spare time. Consequently I'll gladly put all my time, even my free time into the job. None of this matters though because they use interviews to determine someone should get the job in the first place and I am terrible at interviews. This is pretty ridiculous considering I'm not applying for a job as a social worker or politician or something so social skills shouldn't matter.

What industry do you work in and for what type of job?

Chemistry. I was interviewed for a position in a pharmaceutical company and another one for a detergent manufacturing company.

Only two for two?

I had to interview for dozens of companies before I landed this job (which I've held for over 15 years).

Keep trying. Never give up.

I do well in interviews. I can put on a formal front, grin and prepare myself for what they want to hear.

Fnord is right. I've had to interview with almost 30 companies in the past 3 years and I only got 2 offers in my career field. One of them, I was fired after 45 days. However, I work in an industry that I plan on exiting soon because I believe I'm not a good fit because I have to fake a salesman personality at all times to be successful in this industry.

Do what you like and what you will be enthusiastic about.

I'm good at interviews in my experience. I even made the interviewers laugh (in a good friendly way) in my past two interviews, and I got the job at the last one

It's not hard if you practise and try not to be nervous. All you have to do is BS them and don't trip up talking too much. It's easy really.

Sometimes I want to do want Kramer in Seinfeld did. Just go pick a desk in an office an pretend to work.

Darn!! ! Maybe I'm Super-Autistic with Asperger's and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

After university, I applied for around a 1,000 jobs, interviewed for 100's, and not one single job offer. I did much better previously on the street, being much younger and with no university degree, but as young "Tadzio".

I also filed Rehabilitation lawsuits against federal employers, because my top OPM rankings on job certificates guaranteed me employment with federal agencies, since I even applied for positions no other qualified applicants would take. Nothing, Zippo....! !!

State Rehab told me they gave preference to the most disabled firstly, then they told me I was too disabled to help because of my perfect test scores. Started lawsuits against them too.

All that I got was a finding I was disabled for SSI, and that I wasn't disabled/handicapped under the Rehab Act (ADA), because I presented "too good" of oral arguments in front of the 9th circuit federal court of appeals.

My graduating magna cum laude was held to prove I had no motivation. My eye-contact that was rated "very-good" in an interview, was reduced to "satisfactory" after my first formal complaint, then reduced to "failure" at notice of right to file suit.

I can supply written answers to the same interview questions, and be ranked in the top 3%, but when I voice my answers orally, the very same answers place me in the bottom 3%. AND, the interviewers do not "officially" notice anything whatsoever "impaired" with my voice or anything else possibly related to a "protected impairment".

It was only recently when the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that being "Social Security disabled" didn't absolutely preclude being "otherwise qualified with reasonable accommodation involving any handicap" in the 9th circuit, but with me, the courts reasoned the exact opposite: I was totally disabled, but not handicapped, and absolutely qualified, but a failure beyond reasonable accommodation. The "new" ADAAAA is not retro-active, so tough-sh*t for me.

"Catch-22" was repeatedly cited to me, and sure enough: "Yossarian, they can prepare as many official reports as they want and choose whichever ones they need on any occasion. Didn't you know that?" "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller (S&S Classic Ed edition (October 5, 1999)), page 406.

Tadzio

P.S.: The wording with other agencies might be more plain(???):
When my money started running low while trying to get an employment position opening to a career, I tried to get any job that would pay, before again optimistically narrowing my sights to finding a job that would be a gateway to what my State Rehabilitation Counselor said would allow me to reach my "full potential" in a career. To me, this Counselor had the notion of "otherwise qualified" backasswards. He continually reasoned about jobs that required driving and plenty of "essential duties" involving dangerous activities requiring continuous full awareness, to the exclusions of any jobs simply requiring intellectual activities (i.e. working with a deep fat fryer versus being a bookkeeper). He took my looking for any paying job available, as evidence of my not being "sincerely focused" on a career. He took my concens about driving and other hazardous job duties with epileptic seizures, as evidence that I didn't "truly have motivation" for a career. I also asked for his assistance with federal employment, since I was already well placed on federal job registers for many different career positions that had very compatible "essential duties" for someone with epilepsy, but he claimed that that was outside his department.

A County Employment Social Service Counselor was more open to expressing concern and interest with my possible federal employment. She thought it was very good that I was already in an "Outstanding Scholar" program with the FDIC for openings as a Bank Examiner Trainee, and that I had received the top examination score for Central California as a Tax Technician with the IRS. She wanted me to focus more on the IRS job than the FDIC job, because the IRS job had openings in my county, while the FDIC was located in San Francisco. I wasn't eligible for the placement jobs through the county social services (which were all mainly minimum wage (or less), and otherwise "dead-end" jobs), just to earn money to get by on, because I only had one "point" (disability), and no points from other categories (I didn't have children, a prison record, and I didn't abuse drugs, etc.). While she seemed very helpful and encouraging, she took the job, located in the county, with the IRS. (I discovered this after seeking "administrative remedies" with the IRS, before filing suit in Federal Court against The Department of the Treasury/OPM for discrimination based on my epilepsy).

While my Rehab Counselor had told me at first that the "most severely disabled with greatest likelihood of benefit of services" was the rule in priority of services delivered, as soon as my epilepsy was verified, he told me I had better choose a different impairment and deny epilepsy, or get lost. Since my epilepsy appeared totally compatible with my career field and university education, I stayed with epilepsy, and I later received a Rehab Closure Report that declared: "Your health at the present time interferes with carrying out a vocational program. Due to the severity and complexity of your disabling condition, the department is unable to provide services which will likely lead to adequate employment at this time." Ten years later, the Ninth Circuit Court of Federal Appeals issued their final rulings that I was both too disabled to receive Rehabilitation Services, and that I was not handicapped enough to be considered as having impairments in any major life activities to be protected from discrimination.

Is the cited Qpac the one listed at: http://www.communitylivingdufferin.ca/qpac.php in Canada???

My lawsuits were in Central California (9th circuit, San Francisco).

Tadzio

I don't do interviews because the union always gets me a job.

Here's a thing about interviews you need to know. A lot of times, it's not you. You could have a perfect interview and still not get the job. If you're really concerned about your performance on interviews, do some mock interviews with the local employment agency. Keep in mind however that a lot of times, the reason why you don't get a job offer after the interview is something out of your control, hence why even people who have solid backgrounds and communication skills get turned down for jobs. A lot of times, as unfair as it sounds, employers already know who they want to hire before they even begin the interview process, and they call you in for an interview just because they need to fill interview slots. Even more unfair, an attractive young female is ten times more likely to be hired in office/corporate jobs regardless of experience. Overall, it's how you compare to others, and the problem is 9 times out of 10 there is always going to be someone who is better than you or fits the needs of the employer.

I usually state the obvious and never lie.

f.e.

"How did you deal with conflict between you and a previous co worker?"

That question is insane on so many levels.
- I didn't
- There isn't any conflict between me and co workers
- which previous job?
- are you asking me how I managed it? Or I how I solved it?

So many things to consider. So I relate everything to my real life, and how I'm living it currently because the whole thing is BS technicalities anyways. Once you're in - you're in. So just be yourself. The you before the job.

So I'll say something like

I haven't had any conflicts between me and any co workers in the past but if Im engaged in any personal conflicts I handle them with appropriate assessment until we reach a resolution