How to Make Myths in the Job Market Work for You

Summary:
A job interviewer may still believe a myth he or she may have learned as a child and has never questioned as an adult. What to do? Position yourself as an "exception" to that myth in the mind of that job interviewer.

Invisible Elephants

Set Yourself Apart


Invisible Elephants

Have you ever felt that a job interviewer was thinking
the following thoughts as you tried to show why you
were the best candidate for a job?

You're not capable.
You can't keep up.
You're dependent.
You have a low opinion of yourself.
You believe people always take advantage of you.
You're always angry.
You're an easy mark.
You're a whiner.
You're a trouble maker.
You're a liability instead of an asset.

Those are some of the common misconceptions about people with disabilities that are still alive today in the minds of some employers.

Such myths are like invisible elephants which sometimes squeeze in between you and a hiring manager during a job interview, blocking any real communication or any real understanding. As a result, you don't get hired, and you don't know why.

Those 10 myths (and probably many others) are real. Your challenge, according to Debra L. Angel and Elizabeth E. Harney, authors of No No One is Unemployable: Creative Solutions for Overcoming Barriers to Employment, is to learn how to make such commonly held myths work for you instead of against you.

Having those invisible elephants follow you around from job interview to job interview can be a drag. You basically have three options for dealing with the herd. You can become a victim, a rebel or an exception.

Angel and Harney say that considering yourself a victim or becoming a rebel does not work in the job market. Those two responses only lead to despair or anger.

Instead, the authors recommend, position yourself as an "exception to the rule" so that your personal herd of elephants is not just invisible. It's no longer there.

Presenting yourself as an "exception to the rule" means job interviewers see you as a "profit generator" instead of a "liability to the bottom line," in spite of the fact that there may be a little extra cost in time, money and effort due to expected accommodations. Job interviewers see you as capable, independent and motivated. And you're a problem solver.

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Set Yourself Apart

Below are portions of comments that two bloggers posted to the eSight Networking Forum this last week. They're both eSight members who know how to set themselves apart as exceptions to popular myths about job seekers with disabilities.

Suzy writes:

"I tell people (as a counselor) to watch info commercials and listen to how they are selling the product. Then think of yourself as a product and how to sell yourself.

"...(After) giving permission to the prospective employer to ask me questions (about my disability), I then let the interview continue about my skills and abilities. That gives me an equal playing field with others competing for the position."

Barney notes:

"Living with a disability forces each of us to become problem solvers extraordinaire. These same problem-solving skills are transferable to the workplace.

"What questions do you have about my ability to perform the essential functions of this position? Let me show you how I would do them.

"That demonstration of proactive problem solving (shows) how professional and capable (we) are."

During the 90s, we began to hear stories about "super crips," those of us who surprised others with what we could do at work. Those surprises or even smidgens of success in a mainstream job sometimes yielded "super crip" stories about us at work -- a context others perhaps used to reconcile our apparent physical disabilities with our abilities to properly apply mainstream work skills.

That happened in my own career.

In fact, by conducting myself in the same professional manner as my colleagues, I received recognition because my achievements were unexpected due to what others considered severe disabilities. Other abled employees, exhibiting the same conduct, did not receive such recognition. That gave me an advantage, even during mergers and reorganizations in which abled colleagues would seemingly be in line for my job.

By 1985, I had become known as "an over-achiever" by my CEO -- maybe not true or accurate but helpful to my career because I showed that some myths about individuals with disabilities were, at least in my case, invalid.

I had a "personal brand" (an image not entirely shaped by myself) in the 1980s before personal branding became popular.

Today we have many "over-achievers" -- exceptions who are changing "the rule." And they are positioning themselves as "individuals" instead of "representatives" of people with disabilities.

I don't consider my by-chance reputation as an exception a "sell-out" to the mainstream community because I subsequently touched a lot of people by being employed in the mainstream and had a chance to introduce more "exceptions" about disability employment to a diverse group of employers through my day-to-day business contacts.

Today, with so many exceptions, the rule in the minds of many people is no longer the rule of 50 years ago. The myths about people with disabilities working within a mainstream employment setting are gradually being abolished.

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