I'm looking for work at the moment and haven't been getting very far. I have an interview on Tuesday at a big publishing house and it's the first interview I've had in months, it's also the furthest I've ever got in such a cool company. It's also admin which I've never done in a permanent role and tend to avoid applying for, basically there are more experienced and better candidates out there for the job.
I was trying to work out what I did differently this time and I'm sure that I ticked the 'i have a specific learning difficulty' box which I don't normally do. Did I get an interview because of this i.e some kind of 'two ticks' or positive discrimination thing?
Should I feel bad about this? I'm very aware that learning difficulties are real and cause real problems but people don't take them as seriously as physical disabilities and although I know I shouldn't be I'm a bit embarrassed. It's depressing to go to an interview knowing I'm there because the company feel obligated to interview me not because of my merits.
Also if they do happen to ask about it what should I say? how do I sell myself while explaining problems I might have in the role?
Any advice of words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated
I really wouldn't worry about it. Job hunting is an incredibly competitive activity and you can be assured that the people who end up getting the jobs will have used just about any tactic plausible to give them the edge. If you've been invited for an interview it's because something in your covering letter and CV has impressed them.
Disclosing Dyspraxia on it's own is not going to get you an interview on the grounds of some positive discrimination drive. Because ultimately it's an exercise in wasting time.
There may well be many more suitable candidates than you with much more relevant experience and it's true that many recruiters are risk adverse and will reject inexperience in favour of experience but the clever ones look for transferable skills and you must have ticked enough boxes to warrant a closer look.
I'm to job hunting at the moment, and out of well over 50 applications I've only been offered about 3 interviews.
“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore”
