No-rodivergence? Are employers inadvertently rejecting creative candidates?
I’m exhausted!
I had an interview at a prestigious university the other day, but it seems I am not being offered the post. I mean, I assume I’m not because but nobody has got back to me with a response as to whether they would like to offer me the position.
It’s not unusual for a university to make the offer to the preferred candidate that day, or the day after if it is late in the day. In fact, I was told that this is exactly what would happen. But nobody has called. I was told that the successful candidates (there were 2 posts) would know that day, and that unsuccessful applicants would be told the day after but I haven’t been contacted with an offer, and I haven’t been told that I was unsuccessful. I haven’t been told anything.
Am I just a snowflake?
Because of my ADHD I am wracked with anxiety about how well I did or didn’t do in any interview. My rejection sensitivity is currently in overdrive because I can’t help but think that the reason they haven’t put me out of my misery is because they don’t care or that they hated me so much that they don’t even want to let me know I wasn’t successful.
I keep replaying every answer I gave, chiding myself for going on too long with my answers, for not being more succinct. But I don’t do well with out-of-the-blue questions that require an insightful response, tailored to the job I’m being interviewed for.
But, am I just a snowflake that melts with every setback? I like to think that I’m not, and that I’m really resilient but times like these test that resolve.
How can recruiters help?
The problem with making accommodations for interviews is that if the person arranging the interviews doesn’t have that particular struggle, they won’t even think about the person being interviewed.
It would be great if recruiters could be more aware of neurodivergence and mental health issues when asking about accommodations.
Accommodation #1
I had asked for the questions to be provided in a written format, but they weren’t.
Providing the questions in a written format doesn’t give the interviewee an unfair advantage, because if questions were provided to all candidates then everyone is being treated the same. It gives those of us who work best with time to think about responses a chance to do exactly that.
I was told that I’d know by the following day, but nobody has contacted me.
It’s taken me decades to understand why I am the way I am and that it’s not a moral failing on my part, it’s just how my brain is wired. People with ADHD (officially ADD on my part because I didn’t meet the criteria for ‘hyperactive’ type) can be creative, , entrepreneurial and inventive, because we often had to figure out how to be normal in a world that saw us as different.
Accommodation #2
Many people with ADHD don’t apply for jobs they would like to do because we don’t meet 100% of the essential criteria. This, in my experience, is because our rejection sensitivity tells us that we aren’t good enough if we don’t meet every tiny bit of criteria.
I feel like a fraud when I write in an application that I have great attention to detail because on a couple of occasions I’ve missed something in a piece of text or similar. But actually, I really do have great attention to detail, even in boring situations with repetitive tasks where your mind can wander. I know this because I’ve collected evidence to that end to remind me that I DO see things that other people miss. I DO think things through to the nth degree to make sure all angles are covered.
So, my suggestion for accommodation #2 is to leave ‘has good attention to detail’ out of the essential criteria to encourage more of us who occasionally doubt ourselves to apply.
Accommodation #3
I think this is something that all recruitment teams and hirers could do in order to improve their hiring practices: don’t just hold face to face question and answer interviews!
By adding neurodivergent friendly ways to assess someone’s competence at a job you will be more likely to hire a candidate who can perform well when times get tough and stress starts to build.
These could be more like role-playing situations with other people, or, and I particularly would encourage this one; a day on the job.
I’d be more than happy, as part of an interview situation, to spend a day with my potential co-workers to give me an opportunity to assess the culture and environment as well as the workload.
I’m a creative and inventive person, and often the interview process doesn’t show that because of the need for uniformity and one-answer replies that make interviewers lives easier. I find it hard when put on the spot to recall situations in which I did whatever the interviewer is asking for. I plan ahead of time what sort of examples I might give in response to questions that I am asked, but even so, questions are often asked out of the blue, and in the intensity of the interview a good example may not come to mind which loses me points and potentially puts me out of the running.
Conclusion
Many employers are signed up to the Disability Confident scheme, but it comes across as just lip service with many employers, in my recent experience, not living up to the values of the scheme.
Recruitment teams and interviewers need to step up their game in interviewing, or forever take on the same types of people in the same types of roles, and missing out on genuine talent that can be transformative and can push their business or business area forward to stand out.
And don’t forget to let unsuccessful candidates know in good time. We put a lot of effort into writing a strong application, and providing answers at the interview. It’s the least you can do.
Isn’t it time for interviewers and recruitment teams to be more inclusive in the way they interview?
