How long can you pass for "normal"?

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I can be normal here :D

ooo, you have like, six more posts to get to 1000!!

TallyMan, I wonder what they measure on that test. Maybe they could use it to diagnose Asperger's if they got such clear-cut, unmistaken results about your personality. Or maybe nobody got accepted in those times, because the test was crap and they later changed it. I've seen lots of people lose jobs because of HR's mistakes.

I don't know, but the impact of the test was very significant on their desire to hire me. As a guess I'd say it picked up that I'm not a "team player" preferring to work on my own, but I got the feeling it was something more fundamental than that.

At another job interview with another firm I sat a two hour technical exam covering logic and software development and passed with flying colours. However at the third level interview for the job a HR person asked me what I would do if a subordinate refused to do a task I set them. This question completely flawed me. I can get computers to do anything I want but have little understanding of how to get people to do something - especially if it is a confrontational type situation. My mind went completely blank and I could not give any answer at all. The HR lady was visibly baffled by my bafflement! I didn't get that job either.

I think TallyMan is a genius *nods* you always post so much more than I do :D and always enlightening. :)

Your sig keeps conjuring up the image of that kid (who looks like my avatar) showing Neo the spoon. Matrix must be the best film I've ever watched in my life. I tend to watch it every few weeks (it's almost an OCD thing )

Ironically, I didn't put the two together O_O that's awesome :D I love that movie. :D hence the av I have. :D

My son did the same thing - answered his personality profile questionnaire too truthfully. Big surprise, he didn't get the job. I've taken these things in the past, and they say you can't ever "hide" a personality problem while answering one, but you can make it look better. Just remember that all companies like 'team players.' Example: If you see a question where they ask you if you work better alone and or in a group, answer 'in a group.' Keep the "team player" mindset when filling out these things and you'll pass them with no problem. With so many people out there fighting for so few jobs, don't let a stupid thing like one of these tests stand in your way. Be honest, but not so honest that you keep finding yourself back in line at the unemployment office.

Have problems getting through interviews? I did. Then I took a class on how to get through a job interview. It takes you way out of your comfort zone, but you soon begin to know what answers/cues the person hiring you is looking for. Maintain eye contact, too, as torturous as it may be. NTs always think people who avoid eye contact are dishonest.

Yes. Eye contact is key. I've gotten very good at holding it, and then looking away. It helps if there is more than one person in the interview (very common). That way you can include everyone in your answer, while not freaking yourself out... It's okay to look down when you're thinking. It makes you look very serious, like you want to give the best answer.

Read books on good interview technique, and then practice on people you feel comfortable with.

I can usually pass for normal, unless I'm having a really bad day (meltdowns are a giveaway). As a kid, not so much....

I didn't talk until I was five, was developmentally delayed (in socializing, playing with toys) areas but far advanced for my age in others (like reading and math). I was in special ed as a kid ant not mainstreamed until high school when I learned how to "fake it" enough to sort of pretend I was NT....I forced myself to look at peoples eyes when I spoke to them. I tried really hard to make friends, and at one point I actually was a little bit popular (hated it)....but high school didn't work out. I dropped out at 15 and went to college, where I was only popular there because I was a blond girl at an engineering school with a male to female ratio of 5:1. I did have friends there, but I didn't form any lasting friendships. I only have three female friends, but the ones I have managed to keep I am very close to.

I can fake it enough to ace a job interview, and I'm pretty good at faking it at work once I decide to take the position. The only think that's bad is when I smile when I hear someone got laid off or laugh during a serious discussion with my boss.....

Someone who knows a lot about it can sometimes pick it up. I work with a guy who son is an aspie, and he asked me once if I'd ever been tested for it...he was actually joking only because he heard me rattle off the ten digit lot number of a random raw material, then do it again with another one. he jokingly asked if I had Asperger's because there's no way an NT could memorize thousands of ten digit numbers that constantly change when the lot runs out....

If I use my splinter skills (like my insane math skills) in front of people sometimes people joke that I'm a savant. I'm not really....I can do simple math with out a calculator....not that great at square roots, but I can rattle off a long series of prime numbers, and I'm really good at recognizing patterns in sequences of numbers.

Also I an really good with little details....I don't miss a thing, and once someone said...."you have the perception of an autistic kid."

It's only when joking around though. I think people actually do know but are afraid to offend me by asking. Either that or they just think I'm a loner or something.

I think we need to define "normal"

Yeah, it irritates me no end that social skills seem to be considered the #1 requirement for every job there is...

Cracked it!! ! I'll become a professional boxer - no social airs and graces needed there

or physicist :D unless you're a teacher >.>

I think the moment for me in my current job was when I came back upstairs from covering Reception and showed all my colleagues a sheet of paper on which I'd written the alphabet by holding my pen in my mouth. Oh, and a (rather oddly-shaped) smiley face.

Yep, I think they probably got the idea that I'm not 'normal' from there on in.

However, I don't think it's my AS that makes me 'not normal'. It's just who/what I am. Even without the 'disability' part of my condition, I think I would still be a highly eccentric person. I'd just have less problems, hehe.

You've just reminded me of a Summer job I had once when I was a college student a fair number of years ago. I was put onto the telephone switchboard of a large company and had to direct incoming calls to the relevant person (I hated talking to all those strangers) but one day a call came in from head office from someone very senior. He wanted to speak to the senior manager of this branch of the company. I buzzed through to him and said that "Mr suchabody wanted to talk to him", but he replied "I'm not in!". So I took this literally and then spoke to the senior person again and said "He says he's not in". After a few moments silence there was a barrage of profanities down the phone then he hung up. I got the impression I was in big trouble but thankfully left the company before it hit the fan.

Unlike people start seeing my mood swings, my procrasination, my violent temper, myself crying, shouting, breaking down on the floor, paranoid etc.... Then they guess that I might have something wrong in my head.