Kelly Everly-Hall was ready for her interview. She wore a nice outfit, had reviewed her resume and knew she had many of the skills needed for the IT job she was seeking. But things went quickly downhill when she faced a panel of three interviewers, something she had never done before.
She got nervous, rambled and struggled to make eye contact. She had a hard time describing her skills, so she asked if she could demonstrate them on a computer. The answer was no. She didn’t feel comfortable asking clarifying questions.
“I knew 10 minutes into it that I wasn’t going to get the job,” says Everly-Hall, whose autism makes some social settings difficult. “It was like I lost before I even started.”
A new job marketplace seeks to remedy that problem by connecting neurodivergent people like Everly-Hall with companies that have committed neurodiversity hiring programs. Launched this month, the Neurodiversity Career Connector features job listings by U.S. employers seeking applicants with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and other conditions associated with neurodivergent, or atypical, brain functioning.
The site was launched by the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable, a group of nearly 50 companies with neurodiversity hiring programs and support systems for new employees. Microsoft leads the group, which wants to decrease job barriers and improve neurodiversity in the workplace.
“We’re trying to solve the problem where employers say they want to hire neurodivergent talent and can’t find people. And we have job seekers who say they can’t find who all these employers are,” says Neil Barnett, director of Accessibility and Inclusive Hiring at Microsoft.
The concept of neurodiversity emerged in the ‘90s as an inclusive movement that views neurological and developmental conditions as normal variations in cognitive traits that should be embraced as a part of human diversity. An estimated 15% to 20% of people around the world have a neurodivergent condition. Autism, the initial focus of many neurodiversity hiring programs, affects about 2% of American adults.
Some neurodivergent people struggle with social dynamics and new environments like traditional job interviews, which highlight social skills and the ability to answer vague questions like “Describe a challenge you faced,” says Susanne Bruyere, academic director of the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University.
“Large organizations are really good at assimilation to build large workforces that inadvertently shave away the beautiful, unique edges and what the neurodivergent community often refers to as their ‘spiky profiles,’” Shukla says. “But it’s the spiky profile you want to retain and support to allow that innovation to rise to the surface.”