« The Value of a Good Answer | Main | Sharing Recognition, Power »
November 14, 2006
How to Make Myths Work for You
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 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.
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.
What’s the toughest disability employment myth you’ve encountered during your job searches? How can you make it work for you instead of against you?
Add your comments to this posting
Posted by Jim at November 14, 2006 05:39 PM
Comments
When you have a chance to face a myth, make sure you succeed and then use it again and again in your favor:
I have worked as a consultant in numerous international assignments. Although everyone assumes that if you are blind you will have trouble with mobility in general and traveling in particular; once I went to a 6-country 3-week business trip, I suddenly had an example that put that myth to rest as soon as I brought it up. Before that I had to make due with more normal trips, but it still worked when presented as something natural. Just make sure you explain how you go about doing things you know others wonder about and give people a chance to ask questions.
Posted by: Fernando Botelho at November 16, 2006 03:35 PM
I like the following from the above article for several reasons. 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. My first reason is he thinks of himself as himself not as a representative of males, all humans, humans who live in the twentieth century or a representative of some disability group. He is willing to find joy and be creative without the secret fear that his disability group will either resent him or be angry with him. The term "super crip" is accurate. Those of us who have succeeded, even a little, in corporate setting and have held good or reasonably good jobs have been exposed to wrath from disabled folks. We need to speak honestly about the resentment and anger which often is directed against people who succeed and have a disability by the very people who ought to be congratulating us. We are instead attacked by other disabled people for leaving some of them behind, and yes they are whining about it. This is truly a sad state of affairs and means extreme lonliness for creative capable disabled folks who find they are thought of as different by able bodied folks and different in a different sense by those with disabilities. Imagine for example, that you are quite overweight and manage to change your life style so that you not only lose thirty pounds but keep it off for years. How awful to be disliked by those who have not succeeded in doing so!
Posted by: Elizabeth at November 29, 2006 11:40 PM