Autistic Applicants’ Job Interview Experiences and Accommodation Preferences: An Intersectional Analysis

Abstract

Although more organizations are seeking autistic applicants, autistic people remain in an unemployment crisis. This may be due in part to job interviews, which often implicitly evaluate relational and social skills—an area with which many autistic people struggle. To determine how to better support autistic applicants, we conduct a mixed methods study to identify, from their own perspective, the accommodations that would have the greatest impact on autistic individuals’ interview anxiety and performance. Additionally, we examine differences in interview anxiety and preferred adjustments to the interview process between both autistic and allistic participants and intersectionally across gender. Findings revealed additive effects of neurotype and gender on interview anxiety, with autistic participants reporting higher anxiety than allistic participants, and women reporting higher anxiety than men. Interestingly, despite a small number of notable differences, there were far more similarities between groups regarding preferred interview adjustments. These findings suggest that many adjustments to the interview process may be helpful across neurotypes, although they are perhaps particularly beneficial for alleviating the comparatively higher anxiety levels experienced by autistic applicants. Overall, there is a need to consider how and whether current interview best practices (e.g., standardization and structure) can be adapted to facilitate the inclusion of diverse neurotypes across a range of individual differences. As a starting point, we offer practical guidelines for managers wishing to improve the interview process for autistic and allistic applicants alike and set a foundation for future research.