Interviews

Starting to be a pain in the.. EVERYTHING!!!

In any kind of interview or presentation, my mind goes one of two ways; completely blank so I cannot think of anything to say, or I panic, panic, panic. I try to make sure anyone who needs to know knows I have AS, and I pray they know what that might mean.

How is it for you??

It's not a simple matter of practicing what I plan to say. The better I know what I'm going to say, the more I worry I'm going to mess up because I have a good chance that is going to be lost because my brain is an A-hole.

May I ask what kind of jobs are you applying for?

There are plenty of websites and books (available for download "illegally") that can give you job interview tips. Type down a list of all the possible questions that they could ask you, and type a polite yet succinct response. Apparently in some interviews, they ask random stuff like "Do you prefer Chocolate or Strawberry ice cream?" which are totally irrelevant to the job, and I suspect it's coz they want to see how you react to it, whether you can give a "smart-ass" reaction. Unfortunately answering these questions are irrational and taxing to our mind, but that's how these annoying interviewers go...

I dunno which country you're from, but if it's hard for you to get on welfare, it should be relatively easier for you to gain access to job seeking and job interview assistance for free or a discounted price.

Frankly awareness of ASDs in adults is still poor and many employers are still prejudiced against HFA/Aspies without truly giving them a chance at the job, instead choosing one of the myriad of NTs from a large pool, given the current economic recession.

If you can afford to, and if you believe you may have other comorbid conditions such as ADHD or Dyslexia, perhaps you could be assessed by a Psychologist/Psychiatrist and gain those diagnoses. For some reason, ADHD and Dyslexia are less stigmatized than ASDs, perhaps due to much greater awareness about those 2 conditions, and that it has become more "fashionable" in the past 20 years.

On the other hand, HFA/AS can be an advantage for other jobs, especially the low-level ones that involve LOTS of repetitive activities or a lot of personal isolation (little people contact). So in these cases, it could be plausible for you to reveal your condition but only talk about the strengths of your condition and explain why you'd be very suitable for this job.

I'm from England, currently on ESA and applying for a college course.
Tried out for a couple of shops. I volunteered in Oxfam but had to give it up because I was driving me
crazy and I was scared of the manager, even though he was a wonderful guy. I can't stand repetitive activity.
I even went to this adults for employment course which went through everything. I have everything I need to construct the perfect interview, but when we did mock interviews, my mind just abandoned me.

Howlin Mad wrote:I'm from England, currently on ESA and applying for a college course.
Tried out for a couple of shops. I volunteered in Oxfam but had to give it up because I was driving me
crazy and I was scared of the manager, even though he was a wonderful guy. I can't stand repetitive activity.
I even went to this adults for employment course which went through everything. I have everything I need to construct the perfect interview, but when we did mock interviews, my mind just abandoned me.

I find it odd that you can't stand repetitive activity. The majority of ASD people are more capable of performing repetitive activities than NTs, unless it's the direct nature of the work which you can't stand (eg gutting fish repetitively vs stuffing envelopes repetitively).

Volunteering at a charity shop can be stressful, but it's less stressful than working (paid job) at a major department store/supermarket. You'll have to rote memorize stock phrases when speaking to customers, such as "Have a good day" , "That'll be $XXX.YY", "May I help you?".

Maybe you have to write all the interview notes down and memorize them until it's second nature.

Do you have any comorbid conditions?

Ok, start with - telling them you have AS - isn't helping you... If I was interviewing you - you throw out an 'excuse' like that - resume goes into file 13/big round filing cabinet/ AS/NT/psycopaths - everyone has problems, you don't need to advertise it or make an excuse out of it.

Second, relax; dunno what that is to you - count, deep breaths, close your eyes and think for a second. You don't 'need' the job. You wont be homeless if you don't get it (tell yourself that - even if that's not the case).

Biggest part of it; is not to feel pressured to speak immediately. Stop, think through what you want to say. Think again - about how it'll sound coming out (revise grammar etc) then say it. Make eye contact, smile, realize they're going to hit you with 'pregnant pauses' - they train interviewers to use them - helps feel out your personality... Don't babble incoherently if they hit you with one, they might sit there looking at you without saying a thing - doesn't mean they're actually expecting anything of you at that moment (sometimes like above - they're stopping to think themselves).

Amajanshi wrote:I find it odd that you can't stand repetitive activity.

I'm really imaginative, I'd be at home on a set, filming, writing, perfomance on stage.

Do you have any comorbid conditions?

I'm sure of it, but no one has ever spoken to me about anything other than AS.

Hephaestus wrote:Ok, start with - telling them you have AS - isn't helping you... If I was interviewing you - you throw out an 'excuse' like that - resume goes into file 13/big round filing cabinet/ AS/NT/psycopaths - everyone has problems, you don't need to advertise it or make an excuse out of it.

I always thought it better to let them know before hand, just for the few things like lack of eye contact, body language, verbal responses that might not be what they expect.

As for relaxing beforehand, I try to visualise numbers. Heck, I visualise tapdancing numbers, which is amusing, therefore relaxing. But I can't handle the being with people at the time of the interview. Once I start to panic, game over, and I don't know what to do about that.

Iam pretty good at interviews, But when I get the job , Keeping it is another story. I pretty much cant stand the workplace. It does make me suicidal. I cant explain how much I hate it. I Look at people who work all the time and ask myself how do they do it?

^^
Geez. My parents eventually went "enough's enough, go right now to Asda and apply for a job there."
I told them that's my idea of hell and they said "Nobody really wants to work there, but they have to, and they get on with it. So stop making excuses".
There are a lot of people without a suicidal bone in their body, and a lot that couldn't imagine what it's like to self harm. But in my books, if something makes you that unhappy, stay away from it.

insurgent wrote:Iam pretty good at interviews, But when I get the job , Keeping it is another story. I pretty much cant stand the workplace. It does make me suicidal. I cant explain how much I hate it. I Look at people who work all the time and ask myself how do they do it?

Yep i get that feeling too. It is hard to explain to others because they just think you are whinging. I have heard things like "nobody likes working, but we all just get on with it".
But understanding my particular version of AS has shown me that it really is a lot harder for me in that environment than for others - i'm not just making it all up.

I used to catch the train into work and dream things like i wish someone would drop a bomb on the city and blow up the buildings so that i didn't have to go in (preferably before all the people arrived), or i wish the train would crash and i would end up in hospital.....
The extreme level of dread (sick feeling) is really hard to convey.
Not that anyone at work could even tell.

I guess Ive been lucky in the sense Ive never really had a formal interview; I was just asked a few questions pertaining to my skill and required to demonstrate my abillities which was no problem because I kind of like what I do. I do wonder sometimes how Ive managed to keep my job so long since I am late almost on a daily basis, occasionally have personality incompatabilities with fellow coworkers and bosses, very slow with projects, dont do the jobs I dont like, etc I can only figure its because I am very good at what I do (not to sound egocentric) I even attempted to quit a few times when extremely frustrated and angry but was called back to work within the hour...

I think as long as you can demonstrate you are competant for the job it shouldnt be a problem wether you have a few quirks or not. As stated before, I wouldnt recommend volunteering the fact you have AS or any other disorder for that matter because either theyll think you are full of excuses or just a basket case. Lastly, make sure whatever job you are looking for is something you will enjoy and do well otherwise you will be miserable as hell and quit or get fired... Actually, there is another option for you, if you have a 'department of labor' you can always register as having a mild sort of disabillity, that way they will place you with an employer who is more 'sensitive' to those with disabillities. The downfall to this is the types of jobs that may be available...