Interview

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Hello,

I have a job interview at a childcare nursery tomorrow and I am getting myself worked up and so anxious. Has anyone got any tips for interviews to share?

Is it a wise idea to share about my asperger's diagnosis or is it best to keep quiet?

I have worked in daycare settings for the last couple years and they have no clue about me having Asperger's. Though it got harder to hide the fact I was having issues. Talk about your strengths why you want to work with children. I love kids so I find it easy to talk about. Try to give them eye contact, I know for me that is hard but I work myself up before an interview and keep telling myself to give eye contact, I do a lot of positive self talk, you can do this, make eye contact, smile, show them your strengths. If they ask questions just answer them directly the best you can and show who you are. You don't need to know all the right answers. Try to think of examples of answers for possible questions ahead of time. Also sometimes in an interview they will throw in a icebreaker question, which if that happened I always got caught off guard because well its not what I expected and there's no logical answer. Sometimes they may ask something like if you were a fruit what fruit would you be and why. Always had hard time with questions like that. IN those types of questions it doesn't really matter what you say so pick something and go with it, which is hard I know. They will probably ask about your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on your strengths but mention that you have weaknesses too so it doesn't look like you know it all.

Look up what and what not to do during an interview, to find a lot of helpful guidelines.

I'm left handed. Most people that are right handed don't know this but it's harder to write for a left handed for 2 main reasons.

1- Your hand follow the text that you write. Basically if you write with the palm touching the paper, you will make a big mess. There's various alternative ways to write as a left handed to avoid making a mess.
2- Note books are made for right handed, with a margin on the left and non on the right. This make it difficult to start writing on the second page and even more difficult if there's those metal rings or springs seperating the pages.

While it's considered harder for me to write something on a piece of paper, I am able to do it with minimal problems if I put extra effort into it.

My question to you is this. Would you let your employee know you are left handed?

After the interview ask for a look around the nursery, at the end of the guided tour just say 'it looks like fun, when can I start'? It's something that has never failed for me.

As for being an Aspie, I'd keep quiet.

Are you seriously comparing having AS to being left-handed? That's absurd. I'm left-handed too, but I don't see it as a detriment, merely an occasional annoyance when an appliance won't work correctly or I have to sit in the crappy seats in class because they have all of three left-handed desks available. AS is a nightmare to deal with in comparison. There's screaming children that cause severe sensory issues, there's the necessity of keeping track of many different activities and people all at the same time, there's the constant social interaction and physical activity, there's the expectation of dealing appropriately with parents and showing the correct emotion even when you don't feel it, and a million other things besides. Now do you think AS and left-handedness can be acceptably equated with one another?

I would not equate left handedness today with AS but there were some similarities decades back. It was considered "wrong" and a sign of possible mental illness. Everything was designed with the assumption you were right handed. Teachers would rap your knuckles with a ruler if you tried to write left handed. That changed sometime during the 1960's before they had a chance to beat it out of me. Now it is just one more way I am diferent

I second this one. I had an interview at a tire warehouse that I was overqualified for. I asked for a tour of the facility, looked at the mess and said "I can come up with a FAR better system than this. Call me when you are ready to make me an offer...... you have my number." He thanked me and said he did have other interviews but as expected he called back the very next day to offer the job. I pretty much knew I had the job after I SHOWED him that a)he has a problem and b)I can fix it and I can guarantee nobody else did that. I only lasted 4 months but that's because I did everything I could possibly do to improve efficiency and then found a better job. I told this to my career coach and he told me that was a big no-no and I got "very lucky". I laughed and said "yeah, and the lack of job opportunities over the past 3 years means your advice wasn't exactly helpful" and never contacted them again.

The biggest thing is to BE YOURSELF but be YOUR BEST SELF! I know a number of daycare teachers due to my position and one of our tenants being a daycare and I would strongly advise a similar approach. ACT CONFIDENT because at least here few teenager/early 20s people are in that field and you will be fine. They want leaders who can follow the rules above everything else. Hope everything works out: interviews can be tough for Aspies but we can learn to be confident and assertive.