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Good luck. I’d have to consider whether or not a company that used it as an actual hiring criteria was doing me a favor, though. First, in the US, I’m not exactly sure it would be legal. We have the ADA, which basically states that we shouldn’t use what are considered “disabilities,” as a negative. Not sure what it says for positive. I’m not sure about the EU, but, from my experience, European nations tend to have even stricter rules than the US. In my case, my own neurodiversity has been a real asset. It’s made me an excellent programmer, and has certainly been key to my basic success. I was a manager, for 25 years. That’s fairly unusual for aspies, as “people skills” are not often our strong suit. Which brings me to the work environment. If the company has a management career path that includes promoting aspies into management, it may be great, as I think that it’s important that managers have empathy for their employees, but it might also be a difficult place to work, as we don’t always make the best managers (I feel as if I was an exception, but there were some “out of band” factors in my personal development, that probably made a huge difference –but that’s a story for another day). The other possibility, is that the managers are all neurotypical, which makes me wonder about the career path. In my experience, I started at my last company, on the same exact day, as another engineer, who was almost Central Casting for “aspie coder” (I’m a bit “dorky,” but it’s not as obvious, for me). We worked together for 27 years, until they finally closed down our department. For most of that time, I was his boss. I have no problem admitting that he’s a far better coder and tactician than I ever was, but I have my doubts that he would have been as good a manager. On the other hand, I was pretty much a perfect manager for him, and he thrived in the department. He is now working for a well-known European megacorp, and I hope that they give him the space he needs to work. He’s an amazing engineer, and it was an honor to work with him. |