CaroleTucson wrote:
I could just as easily ask you if you can't figure out, your knotted shorts notwithstanding, that they're the ones doing the hiring, not you, therefore it might behoove you just the teeniest, tiniest bit to do things their way.
I'm not saying it's the best way or the only way. But it's their way. And they're the ones who will decide to hire you or not.
You can continue to beat your head against the wall if you want, but you're not going to get hired in most cases unless you come across well in the interview.
Oh, I understand that they are the one doing the hiring, but my reply was in response to the whole "it didn't seem like I really wanted the job" garbage because they base that on the fact that someone with AS likely can not (and did not) emote the way they were hoping to see during the interview. Even for NT's it is garbage, and really not just a little bit insulting. Unless a candidate is already working elsewhere and your opportunity is nothing more to them than a possibility of something better they currently have, the odds are that the person you are interviewing is not genuinely interested in getting the job is fairly low. To me, it is both garbage, and not just a little bit insulting, to imply that I don't want the job solely because of how I did or did not emote. For me (and I'd like to think a lot of NTs) job interviews are stressful and uncomfortable. I'd just as soon never do one again if I had the choice.
As Nan pointed out, the OP wants to know what people with AS wish employers understood. The "it didn't seem like I really wanted the job enough" line is terribly condescending and insulting. Maybe it's my AS perspective, but if I was hiring for a fairly important position (not bagging groceries at the local supermarket), I would expect that anyone I interview is serious about wanting the job until they say otherwise or they do something tangible at the interview to clearly express a lack of interest. STOP READING INTO FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND COME RIGHT OUT AND ASK. I think someone with AS, even with poor eye contact and such, could communicate how and why they are interested in the job if the interviewer bothers to ask. If you are willing to hire someone with a disability, you need to stop interpreting everything from an able-bodied perspective.
Would you not hire a man in a wheelchair because he can't literally "jump with joy" over the prospect of being hired? No. That'd be silly (and illegal).
13 Aug 2009, 6:27 am
