[geeks] Bad monster. No donut.

[Phil Stracchino]

velociraptor wrote:
> On 11/9/06, Phil Stracchino <phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net> wrote:
>> But of course, I can't *prove* any of them were because I'm disabled.
> 
> And this was my point--you need to find out how to work around the
> problem by getting the advice of people who have dealt with the issue
> from both sides (i.e. hiring and legal compliance).  For instance,
> after receiving management training a handful of jobs back, I know
> there are some questions that should not be asked in an interview (by
> the hiring manager or anyone else).  Those same questions should not
> be answered by an applicant if they are asked.

I know such questions exist.  Honestly, I have no idea what they are.


> I know this will rub you the wrong way, but I suggest applying for
> government jobs.  There are more people with disabilities @
> $curr_gov_job than any other work site I've ever been at.  Which I
> find pretty cool, though it is a sorry statement on every other
> job/employer I've ever had.

Well, now that I've become a US citizen (on September 15), that has
become an option.  Previously, I couldn't even apply to any company that
did any contract work for any government agency, classified or not.
There was a job Jeff Cole got me an interview for that it turned out I
couldn't be hired for because one of the company's customers was the US
Postal Service.

>> I can't, quickly or easily, and frankly I don't want to.  I'm *tired* of
>> moving around the country involuntarily.
> 
> That advice wasn't really directed at you, just a more general
> "enhancement" to my previous suggestions.  Even I know anyone who puts
> "Free Stater" in their .sig is unlikely to relocate. ;-)

Well, yeah.  :)

There are actually quite a few tech employers around here, too.  Many of
them are defense contractors like Raytheon and BAe Systems.

> Perhaps another tactic is to avail yourself of some of that psych
> testing and find out where your disability might actually be a job
> benefit, and then get retrained to do that kind of work.

Yup, that's one of the things we're going to be doing in my therapy.
There's many areas in which some Aspergers traits are quite useful.
(Ability to hyperfocus for extended periods, for example.)

The other part of the test results that I didn't mention was the
cognitive parts of the testing ... while there were weak areas that came
down as far as "average for my age and educational background", the
simple truth is that many of the cognitive scores were off the top end
of the scale.  I achieved the highest scores the psychologist had ever
seen in fifteen years of neuropsychological testing.  She repeatedly
used the phrase "unbelievably brilliant".

Surely there's got to be a way to leverage that somehow.



-- 
 Same geek, same site, new location
 Phil Stracchino                     Landline: 603-429-0220
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net         Mobile: 603-216-7037
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater