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Interviews can feel tough when you’ve got dyslexia: there’s often a lot of pressure around memory and masking, and in a very real sense, we’re signing up to have our skills judged by people who don’t really know anything about us. It can be an anxiety-inducing experience, especially if we really want the job that’s at stake.
Luckily, we’ve got a few hacks up our sleeve that go beyond your mum’s advice of ‘have fun and be yourself’ (although that’s not a bad suggestion either).
Let’s dive in…
📝 Don’t pre-prepare yourself into a corner.
A lot of anxious folks feel like we’re doing the right thing if we prepare, prepare and over-prepare a perfect speech that we can memorise and reel off in the interview. But if you’re a dyslexic person who struggles with their memory, this might be a recipe for even more anxiety. What happens if you forget it all?!
Remembering things under pressure is difficult for people with some neurodivergences, and it’s worse when you know the stakes are high. Instead of memorising a speech or a set of answers, try to verbally practice potential interview questions with a friend. Not only will it help you be more adaptable in your responses, it also helps you come across as more confident and less rehearsed.
🛠️ Get the boring stuff nailed down.
Getting the logistics sorted beforehand can reduce the mental load you have to deal with on the day, and decrease any anxiety you might bring forward into the interview. Simplify where you can, and allow yourself to do things on easy mode: would getting a taxi be a smoother ride than worrying about public transport timings, for example?
🎤 It might help to tell them that you’re dyslexic (but you don’t have to).
In 99.9% of cases, you’re not required to tell a prospective employer that you’re dyslexic, but disclosing opens up their legal requirement to support you with Reasonable Adjustments to the hiring process.
This could involve the ability to see questions beforehand, making the interview shorter, changing up written trial tasks, or even just getting you some reading support. And conversations like these also open up the prospect of talking about your dyslexic strengths!
⏯️ Try not to let a pause throw you off.
It’s easy to lose your thread when you’re talking. Remember that it’s actually a very natural and human thing to pause or stutter, and that literally everybody does it. Take a breath and start again.
If you’re interviewing remotely, you can also create a set of emergency sentence prompts to have on your screen or taped to the wall behind your computer. Remember, it’s better to keep them at eye level, because that way it’s less obvious that you’re reading off something.
⭐ Hack the interview format with the STAR method.
STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result, and it’s a handy format for structuring your responses to interview questions.
Use it to respond to questions like ‘give an example of a time when’ or ‘explain how you did this’. Talk about the situation that arose, what task it generated, what action you took, and how that resulted in a positive outcome. Keeping your thoughts in order is trickier when you’re stressed and anxious, and following a linear format like STAR allows you to be creative and showcase your skills without getting off-topic or not knowing where you’re going next.
Nobody loves job interviews... but there are a few ways we can make them work better for us. 💙
