Employers want college grads to have strong oral skills

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Or, in other words, not to be typically autistic. I'm sure they don't see this as discrimination, but isn't that effectively the outcome of such a hiring policy?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 132144.htm

It's a fine line between discrimination and looking for certain skills, if your disability is invisible it is pretty bad, you get all the disadvantages and no benefits.
You have to make up for lack of social skills with ability that other people don't have,probably a reason for the high unemployment rate of autists.

Most employers want college grads to learn everything they need for the job in college, so they don't have to train them...

Employers have a huge disconnect from reality at the moment.

The problem is goes much deeper then oral skills, overall people and teamwork skills are even more important today than in the past.
Social skills are more important than ever in the labor market

The 10 Skills Employers Most Want In 2015 Graduates

It's tricky - if a company knows that a certain job needs certain attributes, then there's nothing wrong with them finding people with those attributes. Especially if they are not learnable things. I don't blame them to not hire me to be bartender or sales rep, I would suck.

But, HR tends to shovel everything into the requirements regardless of necessity, with little feedback for what is needed. It's very stylish in those circles to talk about EQ or grit or other things for jobs that really have nothing to do with those concepts. Actually, grit is not far from perseverance - to a fault I place huge importance on finishing tasks even if it exhausts me. That's why I'm up so late right now...

We've just gotta get through to the people who care less about fads and more about real requirements and our strengths. I'm hoping employers will start to see the need for different kinds of folks and how they nest together.

You can also focus on smaller companies who tend to be more flexible and less bureaucratic.

It is also tricky because of sociatal changes. Because of social media jobs do require more social skills than the same job would have in the past. An employee mishandling social media or and employee with a grudge could mean public shaming or worse for the company. Employers wonder if a person with a disabilty could mean a discrimination lawsuit, employers wonder if the "loner" will shoot up the office.

You read about some companies going out of there way to hire autistic people. You read about them because they are unusual which makes them news.

All excellent observations, and I completely agree with everything that's been said. It's just ironic that with autism "awareness" on the rise, employers are placing such a strong emphasis on the skills where we have the most difficulty. I don't think it's a deliberate slight against people on the spectrum, but it does preclude many of us even applying in good faith.

I'm fortunately to be gainfully employed, doing what I love. Social skills are somewhat important in my line of work, but I can function in scripted auto-pilot for most human interactions. A lot of jobs, though, aren't like mine.

They should change the wording to 'Speaking Skills'.