ASD & struggle with interviews, how to improve

[Jobseeker0]

I’m awful at interviews. I’m always polite, start with a professional small ice breaker at start (weather, how was weekend), and ask good questions at the end.
l prep lots, tailor my prep to job ad, rehearse out load etc, yet still incapable of doing well at interview.

Companies either ghost (even after final stage interview) or give useless generic feedback.

Frustratingly my voice sounds a bit nervous and faster paced when answering and I hate myself for it - propranolol don’t work for me, only a shot or a small bump of K would actually rid the nerves (obviously I don’t risk doing this!!)

Recently I’ve been using ChatGPT on voice mode to perform mock interviews so it can judge my on the spot answers. The feedback is suspiciously too good though which makes me think well it’s just saying what I want to hear, ultimately I’m talking to myself
eg ChatGPT will say “That was really well done!….” or “That was really good!…”

Thats clearly not helpful enough I need to know how to improve my on the spot answers.

Any tips to anctually improve? I hate how I’m still so incapable at interviewing well, meanwhile feels like almost everyone else can get through interviews fine, even those who lack ambition

I’d rather not practice with friends as know they will be only be too soft too, plus it’s a big ask anyway

I think you might be over thinking it and trying too hard if that’s possible.

Are you applying to disability confident companies?
(previously 2 ticks)
You can ask to see the questions beforehand as a reasonable adjustment. Some employers then offer them to all candidates. This might help your anxiety as you aren’t worrying about the unknown.

When you arrive don’t try to make small talk about the weather or their weekends etc. This isn’t appropriate. Just smile or maybe say thanks for seeing me or nice to meet you.

At the end you don’t have to ask any questions. Sometimes something obvious might come up or there might be one thing that you are desperate to know.
It won’t go against you if you don’t ask anything.

There are some good resources on the NAS site

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/employment

Thanks @24Dogcuddler I sometimes apply to disability confident employers. Just from my experience, even if a company claims to be DC doesn’t always mean they are in practice.

Interesting perspective, I wouldn’t say I spend too much time waffling, it’ll only be a very small ice breaker. It just feels more natural and friendly for me to make a brief comment about weather to seem more personable. I will try not to do this moving forward though

”It won’t go against you if you don’t ask anything” - thanks for the fresh perspective, I had worried not asking anything may make you seem disinterested to the panel. I understand asking a ‘lazy’ question could give wrong impression eg haven’t read job ad or researched company enough but I would have presumed asking a thoughtful question is better than not asking

Don’t be afraid to be you. Good luck.

As someone who has done a lot of interviewing. You’re being scored on your answers and then the scores are compared and whoever scores the highest is the successful candidate. We don’t score questions asked or not asked at the end. Although a thoughtful question about the job, indicating you’ve given it some consideration is welcome. The only proviso there is if someone asked or said something really inappropriate eg racist, sexist. As that would be an absolute no.

Unless you’re totally drying up and not answering much at all, I wouldn’t be scoring you down for sounding nervous, speaking faster etc. That’s really really common and as the interviewer you just want to help them give the best answer they can.

What has your feedback said? Do you use the STAR technique when answering?