When to disclose: Job Interviews

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I agree 100%.

I am always amazed when I am working at something and another person strikes up a conversation with me. I think, surely we are here to do a job, not talk?

You cannot educate someone properly on AS in the space of a job interview.

I do not see it as a weakness. I do recognise how other people see it though. Not mentioning it in a job interview does not take away from the rest of my life and how I view my AS. If someone at work asked me now I would have no issue telling them I have AS, given I have been there nearly a year. In fact, someone already asked me recently at work if I had AS, and his reaction was very positive. I attribute that to the fact he already knows me and is not going to apply preconceived notions to how I am supposed to behave.

It's called being selective. You only mention what is immediately relavent, and you do it in a way that shows this: That you can in time overcome autism in any situation, given the fact that a well performed disclosure is read as being pre prepared, and not just made up on the spot, and it is read as something you have perfected. This shows you are capable of, while on the job, overcoming the immediate difficulties you are describing you have, and have very likely shown, during the job interview. The point is the hidden meaning in getting disclosure right. Done right, it shows dedication even before you start the job, something people who are not in such a position cannot as easily show. Try to show the dedication that that will show in an interview by trying to play NY and mask autism, which is nearly impossible. The only masking of autistic traits I do for an interview is supressing my stims, and doing them in a non noticeable form that noone can really watch. Do this by having a hand partially hidden from view and rubbing the thumb against the finger so that the rubbing action isn't noticed, there is my stim for interviews. My autism specialist doesn't even notice that stim, and I know this because I asked him at my last appointment how I was stimming, and he told me I wasn't. I quickly corrected him and told him that that was what I mean t by learning to suppress my traits when necessary. However, in an interview, that is the only trait I have that I can actively suppress. I cmpensate for it by showing the dedication I have to work with my perfected disclosure statement, as the purpose of disclosure isn't actually to tell them you have a form of autism that does x y and z to you, it is to show what you can do to overcome x y and z without having to use words, meaning this will be taken as you have a disadvantage in the interview that is irrelevant on the job, thus meaning that you will be considered differently than the other will be. and you have just leveled the playing field, which is the only purpose that this type of disclosure is designed to perform. A more in depth disclosure may become necessary on the job if you need to take time off work, or something else happens. Kepp your disclosure short and to the point, and remember, it is the only part of the interview process that never changes between different interviews, meaning it is easier to perfect than all other aspects of an interview.

Edited for spelling

Well it is good that you have found something that works for you then Padium.

I have gotten every job I have applied for (apart from one waitressing job) so I have found something that works for me also and that has never included mentioning I have AS (or OCD in the past before I found out I had AS). Actually I only found out last year and have done one interview knowing I had AS. I think given the nature of my work, it is a strength but potential employers may not see it that way so I will not mention it.

Given it is now a hirer's market, I would not be mentioning anything that may be seen as a weakness in an interview now more than ever. But, to each their own.

Which is why now I will play my autism card in the next interview I have, but won't bombard them with the transexuality issue until after they hire me.

I do not feel I need to play any card to get in a job. I should be judged as is and do not want special treatment. But, that's me.

How is your gender relevent to your job? Gender should be irrelevant to a job so I am not sure why you would even think about your transexuality in relation to your job? I do not mention things such as sexuality, religious beliefs, racial history, or even information about my home life in a job interview as it is completely irrelevant. However, if I am asked about them I will be honest but no one has asked me yet and they should not.

Actually, in my situation, it is completely relevant, as I am starting transition soon, and I plan to transition on the job... Meaning my employer is going to be directly affected by it. This next employer will be the first to know, and hopefully the last.

I guess I still do not see it as relevant as as I said, one's gender is irrelevant to a job so if you transition during your work it should not impact on your performance. Unless you need lots of time off work for surgery/etc, and in that case it should be treated like any other medical issue, not different because it is transexuality.

Based on everything I have read, there are issues that will likely come up in the workplace that will not otherwise come up, and this is more a catch all net in case something does come up...

EDIT: Also, what does my employer do when he/she notices me showing up to work appearing all feminine, and in ways I clearly shouldn't be, according to what is commonly accepted? If I really have to, I will just claim I am intersex, and correcting a mistake made at birth...

Last edited by Padium on 09 Jun 2009, 11:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ok fair enough.

See my edit as well, it clarifies how I plan to do this.

Well if your performance is the same why would they care? They might find it unusual or weird, but why does that matter? Unless you get fired or some other negative treatment but many places have laws protecting people against discrimination.

Your advice only works if the boss sees it your way. I've been let go because the customer cared more about light "fluff talk" than my ability to do what we were contracted to do. My boss acknowledged it was a stupid issue, but if it's keep me and loose a contract or replace me with someone more "sociable," guess what the decision was?

Likewise, bosses/supervisors can be part of the office drama. So, if you don't play, you don't stay. I have not met many employers who enforce the "work first" rule when you watch how things unfold under their rule.

NO offense... but the notion that disclosing AS during a job interview an be a good thing strikes me as horribly naive. EMPloyers these days have the luxury of picking and choosing form a large number of applicants and anything that might mark you as potential trouble (fairly or not) will be jumped on and used against you. That just seems so obvious to me...

Same goes for disclosing once you have a job. Once AS is out there they're going to start identifying little things that they might have ignored had they never been aware.

I would never advocate discolosure during the interview process. We can't wi nthe battle of social skills, so we need to excel in terms of raw knowledge and applicable skills. That's the approach I'm taking as I graduate form grad school and look for a job.

Nordic

You don't seem to get what I am saying... there is no "They might not otherwise notice"... It radiates from us like an aura, and for the most part, when we try to mask it, we generally do it so poorly we draw attention to ourselves... There is no hiding our peculiarities. On that note, that leaves you with one real choice, create the mould into which they will fit you instead of having the employer create your mould. I will tell you this from my experience, I have a friend, he is in his 40s, and owns a business in the financial sector. When he met me, he pegged me as autistic within the first 30 seconds and asked me if I had ever been diagnosed as such, this was even through my very well played masking of the traits. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can hide it. Anyone who can connect the dots will, and those who can't connect the dots, they will still see the peculiarities, and they will often assume worst case scenario about you if you don't give them a reason to believe otherwise.

I don't know.

If the situation really IS "Either disclose, or they will 'disclose' for you", then maybe looking for work in the conventional interview process isn't for you.

As a general rule, people don't like hiring people who have "social difficulties", even disabled ones. Even though there are government initiatives set up for people with all kinds of disabilities, they tend to shuffle them away from the office environment and into the most menial, solitary jobs they have. Forget about giving them experience with the public.

Even though disclosing my AS got me two job offers that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, they were very much similar to work that I had already done before and I needed something more challenging. So I held out with my other job (which I didn't disclose anything to), and they offered me an entry accounting job that involved communicating with clients.

Would they have done that if I came right out and said that I have AS? No. Because people assume that if you say anything, it means you have a serious problem performing the tasks of the job. Sometimes, people are just looking for a leg-up through Employment Equity.

That's why self-declaring as disabled is still a big controversy. Women, Visible Minorities, and Aboriginals have nothing to prove to the employer, but people with disabilities do. It isn't automatically assumed that Women, Visible Minorities, and Aboriginals will be inept at doing the job, but disabled people are put under much more scrutiny and may be much less likely to receive promotions.

And this is just government. The private industry world is much more cut throat.