6 ms·

Glad to see them taking the initiative to make interviews more accommodating for people on the spectrum. As someone on the spectrum myself, I always dreaded jo

Glad to see them taking the initiative to make interviews more accommodating for people on the spectrum. As someone on the spectrum myself, I always dreaded job interviews. I would try to get as much information on what the interview would entail as well as the atmosphere and other specifics so I could mentally prepare myself beforehand and give myself a better chance to show my best side. The example they provided of performing an interview in text through a google doc rather than over the phone really hits home for me, I feel like I am much better able to communicate my ideas through written mediums than verbally. I feel overall there is a lot of untapped talent in the neurodiverse community that is passed over due to some of these barriers in effective communication, so I'm always glad to see companies take initiatives like this.

Aaargh20318 5y ago
> As someone on the spectrum myself, I always dreaded job interviews. I would try to get as much information on what the interview would entail as well as the atmosphere and other specifics so I could mentally prepare myself beforehand and give myself a better chance to show my best side I’m on the spectrum as well and interviews are a bit of a mixed bag for me. I hate everything around it, going to a new, unknown location, not knowing exactly where you end up, meeting new people, etc. The interviews themselves, however, are fine. I basically get to talk about my special interest with people who are presumably equally knowledgable about the subject as I am. I usually enjoy them.
- masterof0 5y ago
  As someone on the spectrum as well, I have a question, if you don't like meeting new people, how are you supposed to collaborate with others? At Google at least, we need to work with people across teams all the time. Or you are hoping for a forever-remote gig?
  - Aaargh20318 5y ago
    I choose to work for small companies/startups. Preferably around 10-15 people. As small companies tend to grow, the trick is to get out in time. At a previous job the company grew to over 150 and that wasn’t healthy for me. I should have bailed at around 75.
    - dharmab 5y ago
      Interestingly, 150 people is a natural size where most people can maintain cognitive and social relationships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number (though it seems to vary in practice up to 500+, depending on the person)
      - strken 5y ago
        Dunbar's number is meant to encompass everyone you know. If you've got friends and family outside your work then they're counted too.
    - nodejs_rulez_1 5y ago
      CV: "serial growth hacker". (no offence intended!)
  - jbluepolarbear 5y ago
    I have to mentally prepare for “every” non-personal conversation I have. I speak in a controlled speech cadence so that I can think about what I’m about to say. I speak with confidence and authority because I’m acting. It’s also exhausting and can really burn you out.
    - serverholic 5y ago
      I think a lot of people have to do that.
      - jbluepolarbear 5y ago
        It’s common in neurodivergent people and people of different classes. It’s a defense mechanism to appear to be normal. I started doing it in middle school because I was tired of being bullied and getting into fights.
void_mint 5y ago
A friend once pinged me about how I'd handle a request from a candidate to do text-only interviewing. He was outraged. The candidate said it would be easier for them to do a better job text-only, and his first thought was "Clearly they're scamming us." I told him, my first task would be contacting HR to ask if they needed some form of accommodation, to more elegantly address the "Why are you asking us to do this" concern he had, but also that if the candidate needed a legitimate accommodation I thought it would be great of them to accommodate. My friend had never considered that there are people that might need accommodation, and that it was a good point. The bummer is, I think, most companies just do not give a shit about accommodating anyone. If you cannot fit their mold, they'll just find someone who can. I'm hopeful that more companies will deploy interview processes to bring out the best in their candidates, rather than processes that will specifically weed out everyone but the specific archetype of person a given interview accommodates.
- nickff 5y ago
  One of HR's principal responsibilities is risk mitigation, and different/novel situations present unknown risks, so it is rational to avoid those situations. Most people are not mean (or even inconsiderate, just wary.
  - void_mint 5y ago
    I'm not totally understanding. I suggested HR only because I thought they would be better equipped to ask sensitive questions about interview accommodations than my dev-friend.
- stathibus 5y ago
  Person-to-person interaction is an important component of most jobs. If a candidate could not conduct a verbal conversation as part of an interview, I would have a lot of trouble fitting them on any of my teams. Siloing with independent projects is an option, but I think would only be sustainable in larger orgs.
  - void_mint 5y ago
robmerki 5y ago
>there is a lot of untapped talent in the neurodiverse community There is going to be a huge advantage for companies that realize this. Massive untapped demand for jobs that recognize different ways of getting work done. I wrote a blog post (https://beta.wildcardpeople.com/what-is-a-wildcard-person https://beta.wildcardpeople.com/what-is-a-wildcard-person) about how people with ADHD tend to do work, and I'm finding random people on LinkedIn putting it right in their bio.
- jbluepolarbear 5y ago
  I’ve never seen myself so accurately described. I love it. May I also LinkedIn this?
  - robmerki 5y ago
    Yes please, share as much as you'd like. Glad you enjoyed it :)
- nextlevelwizard 5y ago
  Skimming the post this feels very horoscop-y, like this could fit most people who read it.
  - StevenWaterman 5y ago
    That goes for most things about ADHD - it's a collection of symptoms which everyone experiences to different extents (which is why so many people claim that ADHD doesn't exist and everyone has it) The distinction comes when you experience those symptoms constantly and to such an extreme that it becomes debilitating - to such an extreme that in order to cope, you have to structure your whole life around it. In the context of that blog post, it goes from "yes this sounds like me" to "I need almost everything on this list or I will burnout and quit within 6 months".
    - nextlevelwizard 5y ago
      It is more that there are only positive points, very much like Myers-Briggs personality types or horoscopes. I get that this is basically a sales pitch, but since as you said everything here applies to everyone this feels just "oh, look at us Wildcards(tm) we are so good for your company!"

Aaargh20318 5y ago

> As someone on the spectrum myself, I always dreaded job interviews. I would try to get as much information on what the interview would entail as well as the atmosphere and other specifics so I could mentally prepare myself beforehand and give myself a better chance to show my best side I’m on the spectrum as well and interviews are a bit of a mixed bag for me. I hate everything around it, going to a new, unknown location, not knowing exactly where you end up, meeting new people, etc. The interviews themselves, however, are fine. I basically get to talk about my special interest with people who are presumably equally knowledgable about the subject as I am. I usually enjoy them.

masterof0 5y ago
As someone on the spectrum as well, I have a question, if you don't like meeting new people, how are you supposed to collaborate with others? At Google at least, we need to work with people across teams all the time. Or you are hoping for a forever-remote gig?
- Aaargh20318 5y ago
  I choose to work for small companies/startups. Preferably around 10-15 people. As small companies tend to grow, the trick is to get out in time. At a previous job the company grew to over 150 and that wasn’t healthy for me. I should have bailed at around 75.
  - dharmab 5y ago
    Interestingly, 150 people is a natural size where most people can maintain cognitive and social relationships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number (though it seems to vary in practice up to 500+, depending on the person)
    - strken 5y ago
      Dunbar's number is meant to encompass everyone you know. If you've got friends and family outside your work then they're counted too.
  - nodejs_rulez_1 5y ago
    CV: "serial growth hacker". (no offence intended!)
- jbluepolarbear 5y ago
  I have to mentally prepare for “every” non-personal conversation I have. I speak in a controlled speech cadence so that I can think about what I’m about to say. I speak with confidence and authority because I’m acting. It’s also exhausting and can really burn you out.
  - serverholic 5y ago
    I think a lot of people have to do that.
    - jbluepolarbear 5y ago
      It’s common in neurodivergent people and people of different classes. It’s a defense mechanism to appear to be normal. I started doing it in middle school because I was tired of being bullied and getting into fights.

void_mint 5y ago

A friend once pinged me about how I'd handle a request from a candidate to do text-only interviewing. He was outraged. The candidate said it would be easier for them to do a better job text-only, and his first thought was "Clearly they're scamming us." I told him, my first task would be contacting HR to ask if they needed some form of accommodation, to more elegantly address the "Why are you asking us to do this" concern he had, but also that if the candidate needed a legitimate accommodation I thought it would be great of them to accommodate. My friend had never considered that there are people that might need accommodation, and that it was a good point. The bummer is, I think, most companies just do not give a shit about accommodating anyone. If you cannot fit their mold, they'll just find someone who can. I'm hopeful that more companies will deploy interview processes to bring out the best in their candidates, rather than processes that will specifically weed out everyone but the specific archetype of person a given interview accommodates.

nickff 5y ago
One of HR's principal responsibilities is risk mitigation, and different/novel situations present unknown risks, so it is rational to avoid those situations. Most people are not mean (or even inconsiderate, just wary.
- void_mint 5y ago
  I'm not totally understanding. I suggested HR only because I thought they would be better equipped to ask sensitive questions about interview accommodations than my dev-friend.
stathibus 5y ago
Person-to-person interaction is an important component of most jobs. If a candidate could not conduct a verbal conversation as part of an interview, I would have a lot of trouble fitting them on any of my teams. Siloing with independent projects is an option, but I think would only be sustainable in larger orgs.
- void_mint 5y ago

robmerki 5y ago

>there is a lot of untapped talent in the neurodiverse community There is going to be a huge advantage for companies that realize this. Massive untapped demand for jobs that recognize different ways of getting work done. I wrote a blog post (https://beta.wildcardpeople.com/what-is-a-wildcard-person https://beta.wildcardpeople.com/what-is-a-wildcard-person) about how people with ADHD tend to do work, and I'm finding random people on LinkedIn putting it right in their bio.

jbluepolarbear 5y ago
I’ve never seen myself so accurately described. I love it. May I also LinkedIn this?
- robmerki 5y ago
  Yes please, share as much as you'd like. Glad you enjoyed it :)
nextlevelwizard 5y ago
Skimming the post this feels very horoscop-y, like this could fit most people who read it.
- StevenWaterman 5y ago
  That goes for most things about ADHD - it's a collection of symptoms which everyone experiences to different extents (which is why so many people claim that ADHD doesn't exist and everyone has it) The distinction comes when you experience those symptoms constantly and to such an extreme that it becomes debilitating - to such an extreme that in order to cope, you have to structure your whole life around it. In the context of that blog post, it goes from "yes this sounds like me" to "I need almost everything on this list or I will burnout and quit within 6 months".
  - nextlevelwizard 5y ago
    It is more that there are only positive points, very much like Myers-Briggs personality types or horoscopes. I get that this is basically a sales pitch, but since as you said everything here applies to everyone this feels just "oh, look at us Wildcards(tm) we are so good for your company!"