7 Interview Tips for Neurodivergent Job Seekers

Job interviews are multilayered sensory experiences, which can make them feel especially daunting when you’re a neurodivergent job seeker. Connecting with interviewers, engaging in small talk, making eye contact, and remaining focused while answering questions for an unspecified amount of time can all feel a bit overwhelming.

Preparation can make the process more logistically and emotionally manageable. Consider these tips as you get ready for your next interview.

The Process is Valuable, Regardless of the Outcome

A job interview can feel heavy and urgent, but it’s worth challenging that notion by sorting out what this meeting is and what it’s not. A job interview is an opportunity to learn more about a particular role and institution and to meet the people who work there.

An interview is not an evaluation of a candidate’s value as a human being. Interviewers are not making a decision about whether or not they like you. They are not judging you as a person. They are just trying to see if your skills and experience might fit their open position.

Job interviews can feel like they are all about the outcome; after all, you need a job and this institution has one to offer. But becoming a confident, successful candidate is a process. Each time you practice, you can learn something valuable. Whether you get the job or not, earning interview experience is an important takeaway.

Consider Your Disclosure Strategy as Part of Your Preparation

Deciding how and when to disclose a learning difference is a personal decision for each candidate to consider. It’s up to you to decide what disclosure strategy feels right for you.

Landmark College, which is designed for students who learn differently, created the session Neurodiversity Disclosure in the Workplace, which shares perspectives from Landmark students, alumni, and other professionals about how they navigated disclosure. It is also important to know the law, so that you feel safe, informed, and confident in the approach you choose.

Jan Coplan, senior director of career connections at Landmark, explained that candidates who decide to disclose as part of their interview process can position themselves to self-advocate throughout the application and screening processes, which can be helpful. She shared this text, for example, that a candidate might mention prior to an interview: “I have this diagnosis, although I can’t make eye contact with you when I’m responding, I am very interested in this role and feel like I’m a great candidate for it.” Requesting interview questions in advance is another example of how a candidate might self-advocate, she explained.

While many employers will accommodate such requests, not all will. Remember that you are also evaluating the company that is interviewing you. “If the company pushes back and says, ‘Oh, no, that’s against our policy,’ you really have to consider is that a place you’re going to end up wanting to work… Is it a company that is doing everything they can to support your differences, or are they creating barriers?” Coplan said. “Because if those barriers are in the interview process and the application, they’re going to be in the workplace too.”

Look for Inclusion Clues

Inclusive practices benefit job candidates, employees, and employers. “In any space humans occupy, including academic and professional, we benefit from diverse identities, viewpoints, backgrounds, and other aspects of a multicultural community,” Dr. Randy Williams, vice president for inclusive excellence and associate professor of education at Elon University, explained. “Often, there is much opportunity to share knowledge, cultivate understanding, and exhibit practices that allow the richness of diversity to manifest in our communities. Inclusion is vital to supporting belonging, expanding perspectives, and enacting just behaviors.”

How do you identify an inclusive culture? Williams pointed out that “Hearing reports of flourishing from a wide range of identities is one indicator that signals inclusion on campuses.” He recommended researching affinity-based employee resource groups at the institution, and paying attention to what the organization indicates about how employees are supported when it comes to their well-being. An emphasis on belonging, work-life balance, and flexibility can be indicators of an inclusive culture.

Asking your interviewers about the professional culture at their institution is also a good strategy, Williams pointed out. He recommended asking: “What does it feel like to work here?”

Self-Awareness is an Attractive Quality in a Candidate

Coplan emphasized Landmark’s strengths-based approach, which encourages shifting the narrative from: “‘I have a deficit that I need to make excuses for or apologize for,'” to a more positive “‘My brain works this way. I’m wired differently. Here are the strengths of my diagnosis versus, ‘Here’s what you’re going to need to accommodate me for.'”

Whether or not candidates are comfortable disclosing their diagnosis as part of their interview process, Coplan noted that demonstrating self-awareness tends to be a good strategy. “As a supervisor, I love when someone has that ability to say, ‘I don’t work well when people keep coming into my office every 10 minutes asking for help. I need designated times. Not that I’m unavailable, but that is how it works best for me,'” Coplan explained.

Williams also finds self-awareness to be appealing in job candidates. “Don’t shy away from communicating the type of work environment you thrive in the most, providing examples of how you added value to an organization where your ideal setting enabled institutional and personal success,” he recommended. “As an interviewer, I credit candidates for their self-awareness and evidence supporting their awareness.”

Rehearse

It may feel funny running through interview questions while sitting in your living room or at the dining room table, but practice can help build fluency and confidence. “One of our key suggestions is repetition,” Coplan explained. “Lots of reps. Practice interviewing with various different people in various different circumstances.”

Rehearsing interview questions gives you the chance to hone your narrative. This can be especially helpful when it comes to calming nervousness and anxiety. Those answers that you’ve been practicing will be available to you when emotion is running high, which makes it easier to calm down, concentrate, and focus on sharing the responses you’ve been practicing.

Share Visual Examples

Coplan noted that it can be helpful to bring work samples — a portfolio, a PowerPoint, or another visual aid — to share during the interview. This can relieve some of the pressure around making conversation. “Then candidates are in the driver’s seat,” she explained. “They’re dictating and they’re able to demonstrate.” She recommended that candidates mention it before the interview if they decide to bring visual aids.

Debrief

After each interview, reflect with someone you trust on how it went and what you learned. Note what went well. Think about what you might like to improve. Embrace your job search for the exciting prospects it offers and the lessons it stands to teach.