Hiring managers of mumsnet give it to me straight

[trekking1]

I have an interview coming up. If I ask for an accommodation due to having autism will that lower my chances of getting the job? The accommodation is I would like the interview questions sent to me in advance.

I know a lot of companies these days like to say they are accommodating and non-discriminatory, but I just can't help but believe it will actually lower my chances of getting the job.

About 2/3 of the roles in my team heavily depend on being able to deal with complex questions on the spot. For those roles I don't think someone who asked for this would be suitable

For other roles then I agree with others , if I was sending questions to one candidate I would send to all.

For the roles I recruit for, that would be a problem. We ask certain technical questions in order to gauge how well the candidates really know their area of work. Knowing the candidate could have googled the answer in advance would worry me. However, we'd go out of our way to make sure the candidate was comfortable and had all the time and resources they needed to interview well. We try to make our interviews quite chatty and informal anyway as it better reflects the company's culture.

If I was recruiting for a role that didn't ask specific technical questions then I'd have no issues sending the questions in advance.

I think it probably depends on the hiring manager and the organisation, but I still think you should ask, the way they handle it will tell you a lot about the culture of the organisation.

We offer this up front as a reasonable adjustment now to prevent people having to feel awkward about asking.

I work in the Tech/Engineering sector where there are higher levels of autism so it seems to be much more readily accepted.

This is a refreshing thread as a person with adhd. Nice to see mostly helpful answers.

I've never asked for the questions because i was worried it would single me out and allow them to discriminate but i simply do not have the skills i need to interview. I am incredibly good at my job, but interviewing well is a totally different skill set and i have failed the last 20 or so interviews I've gone for despite on the whole getting good feedback because if they ask a technical question the answer flies out of my head. (I'm fine with the discussion/usual working with others kind of questions) If i was sat at my desk working, i would be able to lay my hands on that answer within 5 seconds but my adhd causes memory problems in a high pressure situation.

I can absolutely do the job. I just can't do the interview.

Next time i apply im going to follow your lead op and ask for the questions.

Erm what 😂😂

I wouldn't give all questions for a coding interview because for the job you need to get to the answer very quickly on the job. So we ask a few questions to judge whether they have a good knowledge of those, it implies they know lots of other things too. We could say they there will be 3 questions relating to python though.

Perhaps other jobs have similar requirements for fast knowledge recall

I thought this scenario might help you adjust how you ask for the questions

It wouldn't work for 'entry level' roles in my work as we need to assess your knowledge of managing emergency situations, so you having the opportunity to memorise a scenario in advance wouldn't let us assess that.

However it would be fine for more senior roles - when you have proven experience in clinical care.

It wouldn't bother me if you asked and I would happily look for a fair solution. Good luck!

This is what I was thinking but you could say, I was going to ask about how you operate in a team, then some questions on python, then some on unit testing.

I often ask what they know about the company, to see if they have done any research at all, so I would keep that one secret still..... But have a low bar, it's to judge genuine enthusiasm, rather than hear the actual answer. If they are enthusiastic about the industry/role, we are more likely to be successful.

It's never been an issue for any candidates in my public sector organisation. My wife is autistic and she's always been given questions in advance when she's asked. Although she was then thrown at a recent progression panel to go up to her next level of grading as the questions they started with weren't as they were on the list and then they asked a lot of additional questions at the start which I think was aimed at getting her off the ground but threw her a bit. She still did really well though and was successful. So I think it isn't an issue to have them in advance but be prepared that you might be asked a bit differently depending on the sector. Plus remember interviews are a two way process. You also get to decide if you want to work there and if they struggle with you being autistic at interview stage it's probably not the right fit.

Where I work you'd be given the questions ahead of time if that's what you needed. Please ask... if they say no... you don't want to work there. Good luck OP. I'm lucky to work for a company that recognises that not everyone is comfortable in a traditional interview situation. I hope you find a company that supports you.

Quite obviously you've never been and despite what you claim, could be, a Manager.

OP, it is actually quite refreshing when people ask questions about the interview so they can prepare, whatever the reason. As such, do ask.

Ask, their response will tell you a lot about the culture of the organization. You need to think about how it will be to work there and what accomodations will be provided, not just about the interview.

In my company we'd be really open and supportive. I'd ask what I could do to make the interview more accessible. That could include sharing questions in advance, meeting the interviewers ahead of time, extra time in the interview or adjusting the format to suit ( face to face vs video)

You need to ask

Yes. For when I recruit, it would be.

The roles I manage I involves lots of fast paced negotiation and ability to think on your feet when working with foreign partners/governments - English often isn’t their first language which complicates the negotiations. You can’t ask them to ‘give’ you their negotiating position up front - they’d laugh tbh as it’s like asking for a cheat sheet in their eyes. It’s not how those negotiations work

So, if you needed (for example) the questions upfront, I’d worry it meant you wouldn’t be able to handle fast paced negotiations in the future and would end up damaging my organisations credibility with partners.

I wouldn’t mark you down for it, but I’d be quite clear at interview what the job was and make clear that in the job we couldn’t offer that sort of support in the future as thats not how our organisation works/runs.

Just for info really - I had an internal interview (public sector) last week. They posted the questions in the Teams chat.

Voluntary sector here and we do the same. We’d far rather have a meaningful conversation with someone and give them the opportunity to give it their best shot

I would be happy to provide questions in advance, but as the interview is meant to be a conversation to get to know you, so I would ask follow up questions based on your responses. Large global law firm (business services side, not a lawyer) and we are actively trying to ensure we are open to recruiting ND people and make reasonable adjustments in the interview process.

I didn't know this, I've worked in the NHS over 25 years , I've never heard of it.
It's actually a great idea.

Ok well I guess I meant in NHS comms which was the sector I worked in.

For those saying that if one person asks, everyone should have the questions to make it fair... You really don't need to do that. You're making it fair by providing the person with adjustments.

It really is time for the traditional style interview to be changed. Way too many people get a job because they're good at doing an interview... not because they're good at the role.

I'm interviewing for teachers at the moment. (Private sector, summer residential courses for teenagers).
It's not happened to me, so whether my line manager would agree to it or not, I can't say. The last person I interviewed told me he was autistic though and it was noted on my write up and recommendation for employment (I said yes)

I think it depends very much on the type of job, and also the type of interview. A lot of the questions we ask are hypothetical what-ifs to do with classroom management and safeguarding. It'd be unfair to the other candidates if some had the questions beforehand and I'm going to presume any teacher going for interview knows that that is the kind of thing that will be asked. Maybe not in other industries though.

Good luck!

Other candidates might have undiagnosed SEN for starters (or not feel comfortable saying, or not even realise they have SEN - my mum has only just realised at 60 she has dyslexia for instance)

Plus I would be assuming the request for questions in advance is because that is genuinely needed, not to steal an advantage over other candidates (who may have all kinds of battles of their own)

Yes, same here. My interviews tend to be very conversational so while I would be happy to send the basic questions in advance, I don't just run down a list and ask the questions one after the other. It's more that I have a list of things I'm trying to find out about you, or gather more information on.

We go to a lot of meetings and events, so part of the interview is seeing how good you are at having a conversation with someone you don't know!

Not for my place of work, university, we actually encourage people with disabilities to apply, you get an interview if you've met the criteria, even if you were say 15th on the shortlist, you'd get bumped up to interview. I've just sent questions in advance for a candidate who is ASD. I find ASD people are often better tomwork with too, no nonsense, back biting, just honesty, albeit brutal at times!!
Good luck! What is the role? What is the industry?

I think this is becoming more common - the best way to do it seems to be for the employer to send them out to everyone with the invitation to interview. This gives everyone the same amount of access to the questions. I have recently encountered this as a candidate and it works well, but you still need to be on top of your game because they know you have had time to prepare!

However, when I was hiring, I did not think very warmly of a candidate who asked for the questions late in the day, the night before a full day of interviews. It was far too late to give everyone else a fair amount of time to access the questions - the 9am candidate might not have even received them prior to the interview! - and the late timing made it difficult to discuss the best approach with the panel.

In the end I decided to send her the questions as an image file (to minimise easy searching), one hour before her interview slot. I did not reveal who had requested the questions to the panel. It didn't seem to give her any particular advantage and she wasn't appointed she still claimed not to have received the details of another part of the process, which was clearly set out in the invitation email.