A large company in my country posted some tech-related openings saying that they would like to hire someone who has been diagnosed formally with Autism.
I was very skeptical about such a posting. It sounds like a big corp just want to write a bullet point about "doing good in the community" without understanding what those individuals need in a workplace. A large workplace is cruel for people who cannot read faces, read between the lines and work together with other. Educating the entire department on Autism spectrum on short notice could be unrealistic.
The stereotypes say the folks with Autism are so good in one single thing that other shortcomings are overlooked. In reality, many have just average or above-average intelligence but are not genius. They could be "brillant jerks". If you have two people with the same skillset, you'd choose someone with people skills because teamwork is important in modern workplaces.
Someone I know has a formal diagnosis for Autism. They went for training in tech. They are high-functioning that they read & write, navigate the city and play video games. They need special prompting to say what they could do: Open-ended questions such as "tell me about yourself" would invite a blank face for them. Even if they disclose their disability at job application time, I wonder what the HR and the hiring team could accommodate given the hiring process is here for fairness to all candidates.
This person wasn't offered a job even after going through the in-person interview.
Does the job in question have anything to do with accessibility? It seems like the most obvious and one of few positive reasons to make a listing like this.
I was very skeptical about such a posting. It sounds like a big corp just want to write a bullet point about "doing good in the community" without understanding what those individuals need in a workplace. A large workplace is cruel for people who cannot read faces, read between the lines and work together with other. Educating the entire department on Autism spectrum on short notice could be unrealistic.
The stereotypes say the folks with Autism are so good in one single thing that other shortcomings are overlooked. In reality, many have just average or above-average intelligence but are not genius. They could be "brillant jerks". If you have two people with the same skillset, you'd choose someone with people skills because teamwork is important in modern workplaces.
Someone I know has a formal diagnosis for Autism. They went for training in tech. They are high-functioning that they read & write, navigate the city and play video games. They need special prompting to say what they could do: Open-ended questions such as "tell me about yourself" would invite a blank face for them. Even if they disclose their disability at job application time, I wonder what the HR and the hiring team could accommodate given the hiring process is here for fairness to all candidates.
This person wasn't offered a job even after going through the in-person interview.