Fork me on GitHub
#jobs-discuss
<
2018-09-07
>
thomas09:09:44

so.... this afternoon I have to see if a mathematician who has been diagnosed with Aspergers would be a good fit for us...

thomas09:09:11

he has some programming experience c/c++ and some java (and the job would be java)

thomas09:09:28

anything I should look for? ask specifically?

thomas09:09:56

the idea is that I am going to give him a current customer problem and see how he approaches it.

Conor10:09:20

You could try some of the ideas from https://www.autism.org.uk/recruiting to adapt your interview

👍 12
👏 4
Vincent Cantin07:09:41

That’s indeed a very useful website.

Vincent Cantin07:09:53

> avoiding general questions (eg ‘Tell me about yourself’) That one made me laugh but it hits the spot: That’s the kind of question that sounds like “tell me about the universe” from an unprepared candidate’s perspective.

thomas10:09:36

I'll have a look at that

jgh10:09:40

why do you know he has been diagnosed with asperger's?

thomas11:09:47

I was told and I assume he told us during the first interview, but not certain.

gklijs11:09:42

I know someone with Aspergers who put’s it into his resume, I wonder why it would be relevant

lmergen12:09:45

probably because it’s factual :)

rmprescott13:09:58

It's also not a binary thing. It's multifaceted. And several aspects have an overlap with skills that good devs usually have. Possibly more relevant to your culture and day to day interactions with other stakeholders.

gklijs13:09:47

The diversity in people with Asperger and how it affects them has such a wide range I would say it says very little. It’s not like when you’re blind or are in a wheelchair when there are obvious things you have to take into account. And some might work fine in a team without adaptions, while others might need a strict routine.

4
jgh13:09:44

> probably because it’s factual :) maybe but does it put companies in an awkward position wrt disability laws and such? I'm not too familiar with how this works, wouldn't he be worried about potential discrimination?

cullan13:09:53

It could be useful to filter out companies that would discriminate or not be accommodating.

jgh13:09:06

fair enough

cullan13:09:12

I agree it would probably be best to leave it off though.

gklijs13:09:17

Also in de Netherlands companies can have some financial compensation for taking in people with disabilities. And it also could be it has a huge impact on how well you do on interviews, that it probably also makes sense.