I am applying for a job for the first time since I got my ASD diagnosis (which was in my 40s).
On paper, the job is a perfect fit for me, using my highly technical specialised skills which are in strong demand. However, last time I was job hunting I found that time after time I would be shortlisted for interview but would end up not getting the job, being usually the second choice/reserve candidate (often getting a second interview where they are choosing between the final two). I am not very good at job interviews and I suspect that this may be partially due to effects which are part of ASD. I was job hunting for 5 years whilst stuck in a job I hated, before eventually getting a job from someone who knew me having worked with me, and knew my skills and didn't care about my interview performance.
I have decided that I will tick the box declaring that I have a disability. I will need some fairly minor adjustments if I am successful getting the job. I just need to make it clear that although I have excellent communication skills in a lot of ways, I do find "people facing" work exceptionally draining and will need "down time" to recover from time to time (the job itself is about 80% computer screen analysis work and 20% presentations and communications, so this isn't an issue) so I just want to ask for sensitivity to that when scheduling people-facing activities, so that they are not clustered too close together. However, the monitoring form doesn't ask for details of any adjustments needed for carrying out the job, they just ask what adjustments might be needed for the interview.
I could say "none" - I am perfectly capable of carrying out conversations with no one having a clue that I have ASD so maybe that is the right thing to do.
If I write on the form something about having ASD and asking for understanding of this from the interviewers, my worry is that they will assume that I have terrible communications skills (this is not the case).
So firstly I am looking for advice as to whether to give any further detail at all. Would it be better to just do my best at the interview without any accommodations and hope that my skills and experience are enough for any shortfall of interview technique to be overlooked (historically this strategy seems unlikely to work). Secondly, what kinds of reasonable adjustments might be OK to ask for in interview which will enable me to be judged fairly without interviewers jumping to (incorrect) conclusions that I might be incapable of carrying out some of the job? I can talk to people, I can work well in teams, I can do public speaking presentations, all sorts of things. But what I don't seem to be able to do is succeed at job interviews. But I don't know exactly why this is the case. I suspect that in general, a neurotypical interviewing panel will just get more positive "gut feel" resonance with a neurotypical interview candidate, and that stuff about my body language or other subliminal factors might just generally tip the balance away from my favour.
I have googled for ideas of autism appropriate adjustments to job interviews and its not very helpful - the suggestions seem to be of things which would red-flag me as likely to be not very good at the job, which would be counterproductive.
One idea I have had is that some questions that are typical at interviews might be phrased in ways that aren't very ASD friendly. e.g. "Tell us why you are the best person for this job" - where I guess most people would just take the opportunity to sing their own praises but I would be likely to get bogged down in considering the fact that I have no idea what the other candidates are like, and whether or not I am better than them.