To reduce the challenges of job searching, autistic applicants should rehearse socially appropriate responses and practice answering interview questions about teamwork with examples from previous experiences, according to a new Cornell study. 

The study, from researchers at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability in the ILR School, also found that employers should ensure that recruiters and hiring managers understand the business case for hiring autistic workers, provide interview questions in advance and conduct interviews in informal, one-on-one settings. 

“The long and the short of it is that the interview is the biggest barrier for people with autism getting jobs, and their interview anxiety was so high that we knew we had to figure out how to lessen it,” said Susanne Bruyère, professor of disability studies, who led the research and co-authored “Supportive Employer Practices and Strategies for Autistic Job Seekers: Managing Interview Anxiety and Demonstrating Teamwork Skills,” which published July 17 in the Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling. 

As young adults with autism move from high school to adulthood, fewer than half pursue any form of education or training and fewer than one-third report having a job within eight years of graduation. Yet typical traits of autistic people, such as creativity, concentration, accuracy, persistence and ability to excel at routine or repetitive work, can make them highly successful employees. 

“Autistic people are often expected to demonstrate neurotypical communication styles in interviews, which can be a significant challenge for many of them,” said Katie Brendli Brown, research and evaluation associate at the Yang-Tan Institute and lead author on the paper. “An employer might think, ‘this candidate wasn’t professional, they didn’t have eye contact, they didn’t look like they were paying attention.’ On the other hand, an autistic candidate might think, ‘I had trouble interpreting the intention of what they were saying,’ or ‘there was so much going on in my interview environment, it was hard to stay focused.’” 

Applicants might also be anxious about whether it’s better to mask their autistic identity or to reveal it. 

“We focused on anxiety because everyone can experience interview anxiety,” Brendli Brown said. “It’s normal, but it’s heightened for many autistic people.” 

Co-authors were research associate Matthew Saleh, Hsiao-Ying Chang of the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation and Timothy Vogus of Vanderbilt University. 

Experiences during high school, called “predictors,” also contribute to employment outcomes for people with autism. Other recent research led by Brendli Brown found that having paid employment or similar work experience during high school, as well as participating in career development or career awareness activities, are significant predictors of post-graduation employment for autistic people from low-income backgrounds. The research showed that goal-setting, autonomy and decision-making skills were also important in relation to future employment. 

“Getting a job with living wages has a big impact on your quality of life,” Brendli Brown said. “We wanted to know what skills and experiences a person could have in high school that are linked to employment after high school because we want young people to have the best chance at getting the job they want in the future.”  

Brendli Brown conducted this study as a researcher in the Autism Transition to Adulthood Initiative (ATTAIN) at the Yang-Tan Institute. The paper was published earlier this year in Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities as “Predictors of Employment for Autistic Youth: Initial and Follow-up PROMISE Survey Results.” Co-authors were Leslie Shaw, ATTAIN’s principal investigator and senior research associate at the Yang-Tan Institute, and Hassan Enayati of Abt Global. 

A third study, led by Shaw with Brendli Brown as co-researcher, evaluated high school predictors in terms of a variety of life outcomes, such as falling in love, getting married, moving into one’s own home and being arrested. 

They found that building skills for goal-setting and empowerment were significant predictors of all these life experiences and that having skills for autonomy and decision-making predicted moving into one’s own home and falling in love, while developing social skills supported falling in love, getting married and being arrested. Autistic students with larger support networks were also more likely to fall in love. 

“People’s lives are larger than just their job,” Shaw said. “It’s often further education of some type, whether it’s particular job training or college, but it’s also all these other life experiences.”  

The study, “Autistic People and Life Experiences: the Role of Student Skills and Support,” which published earlier this year in Frontiers in Psychiatry, describes a survey of 272 people in the U.S. with autism, ranging in age from 15 to 84. 

Funding for the interview research came from a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Vanderbilt University; the Yang-Tan Institute was a sub-awardee.  

A gift from K. Lisa Yang ’74 funded both ATTAIN studies. 

Tonya Engst is a writer for the ILR School.