How much do you disclose during job interviews?

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I'm not diagnosed, I don't want to self-diagnose and there are traits that definitely do not fit me.

However, the ones that do are overwhelmingly relevant to work / professional environments.

I'm on a sustained job hunt at the moment and I was wondering how honest should I be during job interviews. I'm also curious if someone has ever answered one of those inane job interview questions with something like: "You've never met anybody as obsessive as I can be. I'll zoom in on the task at hand and latch onto it so hard, you'll WISH I was less detail-oriented, buddy..." OK, except the buddy part.

Last edited by EsmeWeatherwax on 20 May 2012, 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

The word obsession is how nuerotypical doctors describe autistics as mentally ill when they are jealous of our achievements. Perhaps a better word would be passion. Also attention to detail should not be a liability unless the employer prefers shoddy workmanship.

yes, i can relate. i am diagnosed high functioning on the autistic spectrum and find work related matters most confusing sometimes. it really is difficult for me to know how much of my real self to reveal. friendly and professional are my aim but from hard learnt experience - i mostly keep my nose to the grind stone and let others do the chatting. i have been in my current job for just over 5 years now, so i hope that i have been doing something right. funnily enough most of my jobs i have landed have been through 'temp - to - perm'... i think that this is because although (by some accident) i can write good job apps (though they take me far longer than it should), i know for a fact that (because of nerves?) i do not interview well.

when you talk about knowing what language to use to promote yourself, i was reminded of the myers briggs personality testing tools. they reckon they can cover everyone in 16 main personality tests. doubtful, i know, but bear with me... you can read about them here: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-pers ... -types.asp i like this list because it shows the positive sides to all personalities... just as you must do in your job app.

being able to focus on quite narrow tasks, self motivated (not just when the boss is looking) are useful things and guess what (because our culture seems not to advertise this fact): it is okay not to be a hyper confident 'soul of the party' extrovert!

good luck with the job hunt

Thank you.

I don't know if I can fake extrovert-ness really well or I'm just a bizarre mixture of traits, but while "life of the party" I'm not and I cannot be bothered to participate in office chatter or small talk in general, I'm actually super comfortable giving presentations, speaking in public and I even have acting experience. I think as long as it's something that interests me (work, trainings, talking other people's ear off about my interests) or a fantasy world (acting), I do just fine. I can't fake interest where there is none though and I'm not quite sure where to set boundaries.

Going for "friendly and professional" is certainly safe, but I'm stuck on what's appropriate in other respects. "Why do you want to leave your current employer?" Because they're colossal idiots doesn't seem like a good response and I hope I can spin it somehow into something slightly less... unprofessional sounding.

True. I meant no offense to anyone, I'll happily refer to myself as obsessive though, but I understand if others don't. Regardless of what you call them, has anyone ever openly used their Aspie / autistic traits as selling points during interviews?

Better yet, is there anyone openly looking for people on the spectrum for certain positions?

This consulting firm if for Asperger people, but it is in Denmark. Homepage is in Danish, but you can probably google translate it.
http://specialisterne.com/dk/

Helle

Yes, there really aught to be didn't there

I wonder if you could get permission to deviate from equal ops in order to provide gainful employment within, say your electronics/it/engineering company to autistic people? In the UK you would only normally be permited to deviate from equal opportunity laws if you say, wanted a male worker for a male psych ward or whatever. Although there also (rightly or wrongly) preferential employment structures to get more women, disabled people and BMI into the boardroom.

I do also think that it pays employers to have a good mix of personality types within a work place. it just gives balance!

disclose on a need-to-know basis, there is no reason for them to know you are autistic, but it is good if they know some of the relevant traits (for example, that you get tired from social interaction and prefer your 30 minutes lunchbreak to be split in 6 5-minute coffee breaks).

last time i had an intervieuw, i mentioned that i sometimes just had to use too much energy, and might need a 5 minute recharge break outside of scheduled ones.
this was not a problem, as long as i could see them coming and/or delay long enough that i dont take the breaks on peek-time

I just told an interviewer I was a "very visual person." I thought that I was saying something complimentary about myself. I was rejected from the job because of that statement.

My answer is not to volunteer anything. Say nothing about any thing the interviewer does not ask about, and paint yourself in exceedingly favorable light, in any case, whether it is true or not.

My history is being "truthful." I will say I was fired if I was fired, but I learned that does not work. They will not hire you, and no one can find out anyway, because it is illegal to ask the circumstances of severance. I try to keep this in my head as I am talking to potential employers.

The job interview is next week. I'll try to keep in mind some of the insights gained on this forum.

Lol I mistakenly answered "What is your personality?" by describing AS, and going through the rest of the interview explaining that yes, I have empathy, yes I can talk to people, I just need a bit of help now and then. We pretty much completely ignored important questions relating to the job, and I had to convince her that my references knew about my challenges, but still would recommend me.

I left the interview feeling really weirded out about how little the interviewer knew about social disabilities, and ended up not wanting the job. She tried to be empathetic by comparing me to her husband, telling me he has brain damage, though she would not want to work with him. Turns out I was her first choice, but I declined the job, and apparently she grilled my references on my difficulties as well. One of them was happy that I declined, since she seemed odd.

Guess it served as a filter for me...

When I was trying to find a job, I didn't know I was an Aspie yet. At one interview I was told I couldn't 'sell myself'. When I look back at that statement with what I know now (and with a diagnose) that's actually no surprise.

Luckily, I managed to land a steady job without a job interview. Once I had my diagnose, I guarded that very well, and only a few of my co-workers knew about it. No boss-type knew about it.

About a year and a half ago I crashed and my diagnose was revealed to everyone. Result: I switched direct bosses, because the previous one was partly cause of that crash. That previous boss no longer appears at the table during our noon break. My current boss is still completely oblivious to many of my traits and the rest of my co-workers still treat me like they did before my crash.

So, in retrospect, the fact I kept it hidden so well was a good thing.

Oh, and don't worry, my steady job is so steady they can't just fire me either.

I've never told anyone; but I think some people suspect it.

Lol I went to a job interview where right away the interviewer said it's like she's talking to Sheldon from BBT.

I work in IT but my office is in the Disability Support area of a University. My friend works there too and she said one of the support specialists said "There's something 'special' about him isn't there?" Another one bluntly asked if I was or wasn't on the spectrum.

I thought it was amusing it took them 8 months to work it out.

I've had my current job for almost 2 years, this is the longest I have had a job.
I did the online application and it asked if I had a disability so I said 'yes', two days later I got a phone call--obviously because they have a quota. I told the HR woman that I have Asperger's, she knew what it was and thought that it would be great to hire someone with it...