My experience through an interview (+ ADA question)
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My experience through an interview (+ ADA question) This is actually my first post! I recently had a 30 min virtual interview today for an Analyst role that I am really excited about, and I wanted to share my experience, especially as someone who has a moderate stutter which turns more severe in situations like these and has made a lot of aspects of life that are easy for others, very difficult. Leading up to the interview, I made sure to email the HM a little while before. I explained that while my speech might be slower or more difficult at first, it does improve as I get more comfortable in any situation/environment and it does not impact my ability to perform the responsibilities of the position in any way but rather sometimes my brain just works much faster than I am able to get the words out. It seemed to have gone pretty well, I think. I did my best to pace myself and just overall slow down. HM could tell I was struggling a bit, so I hope that doesn’t affect my chances. HM said he would let me know the next steps towards the end as there are still (2) more rounds before they decide. I’m really hoping to move forward with this position! I have applied to hundreds and I mean hundreds of places and this is one of the only interviews I have gotten in the last few months. I plan to send a thank you email tomorrow morning to show my appreciation for the opportunity. I wanted to mention in a non-desperate way that with this position, I would be able to finally pursue speech therapy which I feel would help me a great deal. In my younger years (not too long ago), I was able to see a SLP (speech language pathologist) briefly and that seemed to help me a ton but it is pricey and I wouldn’t be able to afford without a decent position. Would that be a good idea or don’t even mention it? Would the recruiter not selecting me just because of my stutter be considered discrimination? Although I am qualified in every other way. I was reading up some on the ADA and it does not seem to mention stuttering, and if it does, it is pretty vague. I was just curious about that because “Surveys of people who stutter have reported high rates of unemployment, discrimination in attaining employment, and denial of promotions because of stuttering.” Any advice, thoughts, positive feedback would be greatly appreciated!