Over on LinkedIn, employers and human resource managers regularly share interview tips and techniques with each other. Given the record unemployment of autistics, and especially non-verbal autistics, and the relatively high unemployment in certain sectors that autistics tend towards, I thought to share a bit from these conversations.
10 Unique Interview Questions (designed to trip us up)
Describe yourself in one word. There is no right answer to this question. Interviewers just want to see how applicants think on their feet and outside their comfort zone. Follow up question: name one negative adjective that describes you.
Tell me about an interesting experience or encounter you’ve had recently. This questions seeks to know what you like, dislike, and value. Be careful here to not info-dump.
What is your biggest pet peeve? They want to learn about what irritates you firsthand and are hoping you'll offer at least some insight: How do you handle minor frustrations? Are you easily rattled? Do your pet peeves arise routinely in the position? If you haven’t self-disclosed your diagnosis (or self-diagnosis), this can help them to discover your triggers and sensitivities.
How do you define success? This one probes into your personal vision, whilst also assessing questions of what you can add to the company's culture.
Do you consider yourself lucky? Here, employers are hoping to learn about your outlook and if you take all/most credit for successes best attributed to a team. Autistic people are often told they’re not a “team player,” and questions like this are designed to weed us out.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a manager’s instructions or point of view in the workplace. What did you do? Here, they hope to uncover your sense of professionalism and humility, along with your judgment and instincts. How you go about handling a disagreement with a fellow employee or manager speaks volumes about your character in their estimation, and whether you’re actually ready to be a positive team player or not.
How will you tackle this specific project expected of the role? This questions tasks the interviewer with uncovering your fit for the role. Can you highlight key components, including goals, who you’ll consult with (by title), what data you’ll analyze, how you’ll communicate with your team, the metrics for assessing your plan’s success, etc. This will necessarily trip up the non-verbal, who may lack the specific scripts to completely describe this scenario. Missing components to the proposed plan will be used as evidence of your “unfitness” for the role, regardless of your actual fitness and expertise.
When have you failed? What did you learn from this experience? They want to see if you can share a harrowing tale and how you ultimately used the experience as a teachable moment. If you can’t talk about failure, they believe, you may be seen to have a case of an inflated ego, which they then use as an excuse to not add you to their team.
What two or three trends in our industry might disrupt our work, and how should we go about meeting these changes? No one can predict the future, but they say that they want someone who is thinking about it every day. Adaptability, as they define it, makes the difference between a hire that is good for the moment, and a hire that will prove to be an asset for their team long-term.
Why are you memorable? This unexpected interview question forces candidates to not only think about what sets them apart from the other resumes in the stack, but also how others view them and the impact they’ll make at the company if hired. They hope to get a perspective into your honesty, humility, self-awareness, and confidence. They give bonus points for candidates that can deliver an answer that’s clear and right to the point, just like a good elevator pitch.
To sum it up, the interview questions provided in the article will necessarily disadvantage autistic job seekers who are non-verbal (gestalt language processors). We may struggle with extemporaneous self-description, finding it difficult to summarize our qualities in a single word. Sharing interesting experiences or encounters can be challenging due to our potentially limited social interactions or narrow interests (in their view). Our pet peeves may be related to sensory sensitivities, which may not align with conventional annoyances. Defining success may differ from societal expectations, and literal interpretations of luck may hinder nuanced responses. Navigating conflicts in the workplace can be difficult, and breaking down specific project expectations may overwhelm holistic processors. Fear of failure and limited awareness of industry trends could hinder our responses. Understanding what makes us memorable may be challenging due to difficulties in self-perception.
Modifying the interview process to accommodate diverse communication styles and providing additional context can promote inclusivity and accessibility. But, so few employers do. There’s a better chance of this happening for you if you self-disclose. But, I understand if you don’t want to. Thus, I’m sharing this here to help you get prepared.
Good luck. Let me know how it’s going for you in the comments below.