JOB interview techniques for aspies.

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1. eye contact! Imagine a little "X" at the back of the interviewer's skull and stare intermittently at it. You will feel comfortable making eye contact without feeling that you are making eye contact.
2. Actions precede feelings. Or as Fromm said," we do not run because we are afraid,we are afraid because we run." Relax your body (act relaxed.We aspies are great actors!) and you will feel relaxed and confident.

I have studied "meathod acting" ( not as a professional actor but only for philosophical insights). One becomes the role. I think we, as aspies, do that all the time,just to survive. Lots of practice have made us very good at it. I am "perfect" in every role I play in life. Ironically, such a talent makes one thirst for authenticity, spirituality. Even more ironically, that makes us cynical about social rules. Perhaps that is why we are bad at detecting social cues,we prefer to ignore them?

That has worked very well with me. I am a college student program at my university for students with high functioning autism/Aspergers, I have grown more comfortable over time talking with people. Almost feels natural to me now.

Scott

1. When you are asked... 'what is a problem you have that might make the job difficult' or a question like that, you should mention a problem that is technical in nature (i.e. mentioning that you want to learn about GIS software if the major part is not about using GIS software) but is not central to the job itself. Don't use the perfectionist line, or the 'too generous' line. Sounds fake.

2. Research the job and ask two questions that are pertinent to it and the company. Not too many but don't say 'I don't have questions' either.

For ideas and examples......

ALWAYS research the job AND the company. Find out what the company does. What its products/services are. Which markets does the company serve. Google the company. If the company is a publicly traded company, it will be part of a stock market exchange (generally NYSE/NASDAQ etc. if in the United States, or in another country's stock market exchange). If the company has a corporate website, you will be able to find investment information on there and get some sort of idea how the company has performed financially. If you find articles on the company online while conducting your search, you might consider bringing that up during the interview if you can possibly offer a solution to the company or inquire what the company's future plans are regarding the article. I tend to favor interviews that I can make more of a conversation than what feels like an interview going nowhere.

Some of the many questions I could ask at interviews....(never anything having to do with salary, benefits, politics,sex, etc.)
- Where do you see the company going in the next five years?
- Why did you choose to work for this company?
- What is the ideal candidate for this position?
Always want to ask questions that are open-ended, not close-ended questions that can be answered with either "Yes" or "No". The questions I'll ask at the end of an interview will vary from company to company and focus on the company itself.

Not having any questions to ask the interviewer gives the interviewer the perception that you don't care, that you are unprepared, and that you are wasting the interviewer's time. This gives the interviewer another reason to eliminate a candidate from potential further consideration with the interviewer's company.

The complaint I've often received is that while my answers in job interviews are good, they are too short. I tend to provide one line responses. My advice is to figure out how to elaborate a bit...not too much of course. They want to see how you communicate verbally.

I had to get coaching for my last job interview, which was in December 2011. It helped a lot. I also get help before I give presentations. These things really do not come naturally to me. I have always said only what was absolutely necessary. And engaging people in what I'm saying? Not top of mind for me at all.

Be prepared beforehand. Most general interviews are going to ask the same time of questions. If you mentally rehearse your answers you can present them in a calm and confident manner.

30 to 45 seconds or so.. going beyond 60 seconds starts to lose the interviewer's attention. When answering a question, you want to present a situation that is an example. You want to explain what happened, and what came as a result of your decision (sometimes the result is not necessarily positive, but something you ended up learning from helped you grow). Answer needs to be related to the interviewer's question, so don't go off wandering out in "left field" someplace and lose focus of answering the question.

For example, if I were to ask you, "Tell me about a situation when a couple of things came due at the same time. What did you do?" Interviewer wants to know how would deal with a stressful situation like this (because they are bound to happen). You would answer the question by bringing up an example of something that took place that relates to the question. Then, you would explain what happened. Then, you would mention about the result (positive or negative) that occurred. Perhaps, you end up telling the interviewer that you grew from the experience as a result of what happened, because of how you would go about handling things differently. If you don't have an example, you could tell the interviewer, "This is how I would go about the situation." Then follow the steps.

I don't give one-line responses, and won't ever give a one-line response. Reason for that is that the interviewer wants to know what your thought process and rationale is like. Wants to know if you are someone who fits into the scheme of things at interviewer's company or not. Giving a one-line response doesn't help.

My $.02.