Reply To: Easy and Hard Tasks at Work

[Patte Rosebank]

@Blackdog, it helps to rehearse job interviews with someone else as the interviewer—because we’re so used to being in our heads, that it’s unfamiliar territory for us to be interacting with another person. Especially if the other person is in a position of authority to judge us.

After you’ve done a practice interview, discuss it with your partner to learn from it.  Then, switch places, and you be the interviewer, trying to meet the needs of the company. It’s really an eye-opener to see it from the other side like that. And to realize that interviews (like auditions) are uncomfortable for everyone, but they’re the best way we have to find the right person for the job.

Before you can rehearse, you need a script. So, research commonly-asked interview questions, and figure out what they’re really asking, and how best to answer them to focus on the positive.

For example, I’d worked a lot of temp jobs during a 10-year period. Potential employers tend to see that as “unreliable, because she hasn’t held a long-term job”. But being a temp. actually meant that “I had to keep my skills at peak-level, so I could just get in there and do it, because there isn’t time for a steep learning curve. In fact, I’d quickly become the instant-help-desk for the department, because I knew more about Microsoft Office than they did.”

You may find it helpful to contact your local HRDC office. They’ll have counselling services to help you figure out which jobs and settings would be the best match for your skills, experience, and working style, as well as taking you through practice-interviews. They also offer grants to companies, to help cover the cost of supports for disabled workers.

Based on my own experience, the not-for-profit sector tends to be much more welcoming to workers with disabilities, because it’s all about seeing the possibilities and making them happen.  In Canada, these jobs are listed on http://www.charityvillage.com.  Well worth a look!

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