Job interviews are all about making the interviewer like you, and the best strategy is pretending you like them. That and all the casual deception and lying expected of applicants is difficult to pull of if you’re socially neurodivergent.
Yeah, and when I try to do that, I fail miserably. It feels like everybody involved in the hiring process is incredibly “corporate-brained”, and I’m very obviously not. I’m also pretty awkward when I don’t know the person I’m talking to, which doesn’t help. Why does this whole circus have to exist, the deception and lying?
Ask a neurotypical person. I have no idea. It makes little sense to me why you’re ability to do something would be judged by your ability to recall and talk about a time you did something. I know there’s a lot of things I can do and have done, but I don’t remember doing them in the past because my brain just doesn’t index things that way. And especially when you’re expected to come up with answers on the spot. Like I could probably come up with something I really did if you gave me at least a few inutes.
Because I ruminate on my failures a lot, those are easy to recall. So sometimes, in a pinch, I’ll talk about that situation as if I’d actually done the thing I was supposed to have done.
It is pretty wild when you realize there is 0% checking of all those, " Tell us about a time when" stories. You can absolutely 100% lie, and as long as you’re not misrepresenting your abilities in a way that would be caught out,
Also nuts that you’re supposed to be present as an inhumanly perfect thing, a robot.
They don’t check those “tell us about” answers, but then they want a reference for an unrelated job I had when I was between jobs 10 years ago lmao. I appreciate your perspective. It often feels like everybody is doing fine all the time, and it’s good to hear that I’m not the only one who just doesn’t understand the point of this whole process.
Job interviews are all about making the interviewer like you, and the best strategy is pretending you like them. That and all the casual deception and lying expected of applicants is difficult to pull of if you’re socially neurodivergent.
Yeah, and when I try to do that, I fail miserably. It feels like everybody involved in the hiring process is incredibly “corporate-brained”, and I’m very obviously not. I’m also pretty awkward when I don’t know the person I’m talking to, which doesn’t help. Why does this whole circus have to exist, the deception and lying?
Ask a neurotypical person. I have no idea. It makes little sense to me why you’re ability to do something would be judged by your ability to recall and talk about a time you did something. I know there’s a lot of things I can do and have done, but I don’t remember doing them in the past because my brain just doesn’t index things that way. And especially when you’re expected to come up with answers on the spot. Like I could probably come up with something I really did if you gave me at least a few inutes.
Because I ruminate on my failures a lot, those are easy to recall. So sometimes, in a pinch, I’ll talk about that situation as if I’d actually done the thing I was supposed to have done.
It is pretty wild when you realize there is 0% checking of all those, " Tell us about a time when" stories. You can absolutely 100% lie, and as long as you’re not misrepresenting your abilities in a way that would be caught out,
Also nuts that you’re supposed to be present as an inhumanly perfect thing, a robot.
They don’t check those “tell us about” answers, but then they want a reference for an unrelated job I had when I was between jobs 10 years ago lmao. I appreciate your perspective. It often feels like everybody is doing fine all the time, and it’s good to hear that I’m not the only one who just doesn’t understand the point of this whole process.
Hm. I really related to the autistic view of job interviews, if you’re looking for more support.
Here’s a funny one, which points out what interviews would be like if the roles were reversed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmEJEt6M9U0
I was deemed officially as not having full blown autism, but damn, can I relate.
That’s actually a great video and I feel very seen by it! Thank you for sharing it :3