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Re: Job Interviews & Stuttering

From: Louis Roden
Date: 10/2/00
Time: 10:41:40 AM
Remote Name: 209.49.170.12

Comments

Hello Bobby!

Your concerns, my friend, are understandable. As an HR professional, I often find applicants with disabilities (especially those not manifested physically) struggle with how to make a potential employer "aware".

Once your interview is scheduled, I think it is appropriate to send an email or note to the individual that you are meeting with that you stuuter, all the while adding how you have dealt successfully with your diability, and how this tenacity will add even more value to your skills as a employee with XYZ corporation. I received an email very much like this from an applicant - I found it to be honest, and very resourceful.

The key, of course, is to assure that the interviewer is focused on your skills and abilities. Making them aware of your stutter in advance may very well take any surprise out of the mix, which would surely detract from their ability to judge you based on your skills.

In the interviewer, I agree with the others that a lighthearted comment or observation at a particularly difficult momment may also ease the tension a great deal. Helping people to smile, even in an incomfortable circumstance, often is the best medicine!

Best of luck!


Last changed: September 12, 2005