Why the Tech Industry Needs More Autists

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Autism and employment

With the current economic climate, companies have come to expect more from their employees than in previous decades. Most specifically, they expect employees to have a broad range of skills with at least moderate proficiency and at least one skill that stands out among other skills. To put it simply: companies are typically looking for generalists.

This already is a problem for Autistic people, because Autistic people tend to have a narrower range of skills. And while they may have skills far superior to those of their “Neurotypical” peers, they often don’t have sufficient other skills of at least moderate proficiency. Autistic people aren’t generalists but specialists.

Ironically, many job descriptions mention great expertise in highly specialized fields. Judging by the job description alone, Autistic people would often be the best match for many jobs out there, due to their high level of specialization and often encyclopedic knowledge of their areas of expertise. Yet, when encountered with both a specialist and a generalist, companies almost always prefer to opt for the generalist, even when the job description clearly suggests otherwise.

What makes things worse, is that job applicants are typically judged based on one or more job interviews. Knowing what to say and when to say it can be hard even for the most socially adjusted “Neurotypical”. For most people with Autism, it’s the equivalent of trying to climb Mount Everest without any climbing material.

Because of the failure of recruiters to relate to Autistic applicants as well as the failure of Autistic applicants to relate to recruiters, the Autistic applicant is nearly always misjudged. Because efficient communication plays a key role in the assessment of an applicant, intelligence and skill-set are nearly always underestimated. Also, the applicant is nearly always believed to be a poor fit for the company’s culture, even when it’s a perfect fit.

The failure of the recruitment process to correctly assess the Autistic individual and the preference of specialists over generalists is a missed opportunity for both the company and the applicant. The result is that the vast majority of Autistic people are either unemployed or underemployed, regardless of their skill-set.

Autism and the tech industry

While companies in Silicon Valley may be more Autism-friendly in their corporate culture and recruitment process than most other companies, this does not apply to the tech industry at large. Even though it is well-known that Autistic people are often better programmers and engineers than their “Neurotypical” peers and how companies can nourish this potential, this knowledge has barely permeated the corporate cultures of tech companies worldwide.

Countless Autistic people with amazing skills in fields like programming or engineering are failing to find employment because corporations fail to recognize their skills. Others are incapable of achieving their full potential because they’re forced into a generalist mold, which results in a huge waste of energy on what they perceive as pointless, menial tasks.
Sure, there’s companies like the Specialisterne or Passwerk that are specialized in getting most out of the characteristics of people with Autism. However, these companies don’t pay very well and have a very narrow focus on rather low end tasks like software testing, quality control and data entry. They fail to provide the well paid, high end jobs that many people with Autism are the perfect fit for.

Today, it is way part time for a paradigm shift in how tech profiles are filled. It is in the best interest of traditional tech companies to not just consider Autistic people as employees but even create high end jobs specifically for people with Autism. This, not to achieve some politically enforced diversity quota or as altruistic acts of charity, but because Autistic techies often easily outperform most “Neurotypical” techies and come up with the most innovative ideas, if only they’re given an environment and context that allows them to optimally use their strengths with minimal impact of their weaknesses.

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