[RivieraKid]

A hugely important factors behind getting a job are: being likeable, looking good, not being weird, having a good sense of humor, etc.

If you are in the bottom, say, 10% in these factors, employers will pick other candidates. And obviously, they won't tell you why.

[Veen]

Sadly this is true. I've had conversations with very smart people who can't find a job. They often attribute it to some hiring shortcoming or bias, and sometimes that's the case. But for a couple of these people the reason was obvious: they were not "presentable" and didn't have a personality that would enable them to function well in a team, i.e. they didn't dress properly, didn't look after their personal hygiene, and were quite unpleasant to talk to.

[kcplate]

>i.e. they didn't dress properly, didn't look after their personal hygiene, and were quite unpleasant to talk to.

While I have not (thankfully) been in a hiring role for some time now, I can confirm that these three factors dq’d a ton of candidates when I was. Here is the reality…there are not a lot of roles in medium-corporate companies where a single interview with a single person gets you hired. So if you don’t tick that presentable box, even if you are technically skilled, I have to have a conversation with the next interviewer that goes like this: “I know this candidate comes off as a pompous ass with rumpled cloths and smells like feet, but…”

You better be beyond brilliant for me to sell you despite shortcomings that I have to caveat to the next interviewer.

[anticristi]

Reminds me of my wife. :)

After her PhD, she was writing cover letters that were screaming "I hate the recruitment process".

One day, something clicked. Her next cover letter read like the first chapter in her bibliography. And one month later, she had too much work. :)

[WhisperingShiba]

I for one, will never kiss the corporate ring

[kcplate]

A nobel attitude but generally not one that persists past 30 or much after the first kid is born.

[anticristi]

Or when the housing market hits you with the hammer of reality and reduces your whole "personality" to a number. :(

[shiado]

A crazy stat is that 85% of autistic college grads are unemployed. Being "normal" really is the most important thing in life to fit in.

[dv_dt]

The crazy part is that having autistic tendencies correlated to some level of being great at looking at realities and getting work done.

Makes me think I should start a company focusing on recruiting in that community.

[TimTheTinker]

You wouldn't be the first. In fact, along with certain foreign hires, I'll bet this is a play a lot of companies are keeping close to their chest.

[humanrebar]

Seems like there's a competitive advantage for some company to make room for people who are not neurotypical. Though I wonder what that would look like.

[zokier]

Those are also important factors in being successful in jobs; you need to co-operate with your team-mates, stakeholders, and leadership, and to do that well involves having good rapport with them.

[mbrodersen]

Absolutely. The soft skills are key to being successful. Especially when your competition is equally well educated.

[adolph]

> If you are in the bottom, say, 10% in these factors

How do you know if you are in the bottom 10%?

[philovivero]

The old adage fits here.

If you can't look around the room and identify who the bottom 10% are, you're the bottom 10%.