Reasonable adjustments for interview

[Interviewhelpautism]

I have been offered an interview for a job I’d love. I have autism and adhd.

I’d like to ask for reasonable adjustments but I’m not totally sure what’s reasonable.

I’d like to ask for someone else to be present (interview will be on something similar to zoom) and for questions or areas of competence that will be asked in advance. But I don’t know if these are even reasonable.

can anyone advise?

I’ve never had an experience of having someone else present for an interview but I would absolutely accommodate it - on the basis I guess that the panel can see they aren’t typing answers to you or something.

not unreasonable at all to ask for areas of competence that will be assessed.

Everything can be considered reasonable if you can explain how it will help you give the best interview.

What will having someone there do for you?
Will that person by answering any questions or simply there to reassure you? If the latter, do you need to ask for them - because they could simply be off camera not talking but giving you visual support.
Do you know if you would need someone supporting when doing the role? I'm thinking now of access to work and practical support when you get the role.
As an interviewer I'd be wondering if you need someone at the interview if you'd need them at work and how that may impact.
Pending role, will you need someone only occasionally when doing something particularly stressful or is it the type of job where you'll be doing very similar work thus this wouldn't be applicable for the role, simply the recruitment stage

In terms of questions in advance, this actually comes up quite regularly so I wouldn't see this as unreasonable.

The biggest thing with any adjustments requested is 1) it shows your understanding of your needs which offers a level of maturity and reassurance.
2) it shows your confidence in being able to ask for what you need, which makes me think when you're in employment IF there are any performance issues you'll be in a place to recognise yourself what can be done to support you, but ideally you wouldn't even get to that because you know what you need

We need to start flipping reasonable adjustments and showing them as a strength.

Thanks for replying to both of you.

the person will be there purely to reassure me not answer questions, I’d write everything down. It would just make me less anxious and they could off camera encourage me.

I wouldn’t need someone supporting me in the role, purely for the interview.

I know I can do the job, I did it all for my degree, it’s an entry level role, so perfect for me. I just finished my degree 4 years ago and done other things since.

Asking for the questions in advance should help. And for additional time to help you with processing things.

you can ask for adjustments to ignore lack of eye contact etc, to provide further clarification, prompt you if you’ve gone off topic a bit.

and interview is a strange situation. It’s not the case that requirements to perform in an usual and highly stressful situation indicate anything about your ability to do the job.

i actually work in recruiting autistic individuals; if you want someone in the room, I wouldn’t bother asking if you can make sure they are off camera- unless you will need to engage with them during the interview.

100% ask for questions/at least themes in advance so you can prepare your best answers.

Autistic myself and I always say at the start of an interview “if I leave any pauses before answering, I’m just taking the time to consider my best response”.

if you will struggling with eye contact etc, ask for this not to be judged- if you communicate differently be yourself!

i also always offer to answer any questions they may have about hiring someone with autism at the end of the interview- it shows you who will be an arsehole or who will be a good manager. Have some fairly generic answers prepped though so you don’t end up committing to something; e.g if they ask what reasonable adjustments you need for the job, “at uni x,y and z helped me produce my best work, I’d be happy to work together to work out what is best for my new workplace”

It might be a good way to gauge their attitude towards the adjustments you'll need in the role