Leveling The Playing Field

How to ask for accommodations in your interview process

NOTE: The following post is taken from the set of resources I provide to my NextPath Jobseeker Cohort. The cohort is aimed at Software Engineers from underrepresented groups, but this piece is one that anyone in any industry can find value in. If you’re interested in learning more about my cohort program, check out my personal site.

Leveling The Playing Field

When we design interview processes, we want to accomplish the following:

• Achieve signal on specific skills necessary for the role

• Provide a hermetic environment (even playing field) where we can judge each person equally

• Accomplish the task in a timeframe that is reasonable for the company

That second bullet point can be a bit tricky to navigate. A fair interview process isn’t necessarily one-size-fits all. Rather, it is one where everyone is given an equal opportunity to display their capabilities and job fit. Companies want to accomplish this, but don’t always know how- after all, this is their first time meeting you. This means that in any situation where you do not naturally have an even playing field, it is your responsibility to make the interviewer aware of anything you need that could, say it with me now...

Set Yourself Up For Success

What Should I Do?

Ask Early

When you’re asking for accommodations, you want to do this before the interview, as early as possible. You want to make sure you’re helping them help you by giving them enough time to make alternative plans.

Be Direct

When you’re asking for some accommodations, or really when you’re asking for anything in life, it’s best to be direct. This means don’t overexplain why you need something, and don’t ask for multiple different things- if they want to come back with an alternative, you can discuss it then, but don’t say “I would love to have X but if that’s not possible maybe we can do Y”.

The only information you need to deliver is:

• Why you are asking for an accommodation (you do not need to be super transparent here)

• What you’re asking for

• Why it is helpful

What To Ask For

Your ask should be directly and logically tied to your need. I say this because often, we’ll ask for a “happy medium,” as in something that feels like a lower effort ask for the company, but is also lower value.

For example, if you are someone with a learning disability such as Dyslexia, you may have difficulty reading a technical interview prompt in a high pressure situation. The ideal accommodation might be to receive the prompt via email prior to the interview, but you may “settle” for asking for extra time during the interview itself. This is counterintuitive- if the issue is a difficulty reading and comprehending the prompt while in the interview, extra time won’t help. Additionally, as an interviewer I personally would prefer having you read the prompt async over having to allocate more time from my calendar for our session.

Bottom line- identify what you need, ask for it, and if they push back you can handle alternative arrangements at that point.

Here’s some ideas of things you can ask for:

• *he prompt to be sent to you 10-30 minutes prior to the interview so you can read and comprehend the task. I have seen companies respond to this by sending the prompt hours beforehand.

• Using your own code editor and sharing your screen rather than their in-browser IDE. This is helpful if you have accessibility needs (special fonts, key binds, etc.) or are just a vim-nerd like me and code better when you’re using your own tools.

• If you are ESL, and you are concerned about communication difficulties, it is ok to mention this especially if you caveat that the issues only arise in high-stress situations such as interviews. It might be tough to accomodate, but an interviewer who shares the same primary language as you may be available. You could also let the interviewer know that turning on closed caption in the meeting (Google Meet and Zoom both support this) might help.

• For Vision Impairment, use of a screen reader or other technology might be necessary. I would encourage you to inform the recruiter of this prior to the interview, as you want the interview to be aware, especially if there is anything they may need to change about the materials and/or how they provide them to you.

• For Hearing/Verbal impairments, receiving behavioral questions prior to the interview and providing written responses.

• If appearing for an in-person interview introduces a higher burden for you than others, it is ok to ask for a remote interview, even if the role is in-person. Indicate that this won’t be an issue for daily work, but as you want to set yourself up for success in the interview, you would prefer a remote process.

• You can always ask for more time in the interview, whether it is behavioral or technical, if that is an accommodation that will help you- not to give you an advantage, but again, to level the playing field.

Remember that you are a human being with free will and can ask for anything, so the sky is the limit. They can always say no.

Are You Sure I Can Do This?

Yes. Remember that companies want you to succeed, because they’re investing their time into the process. And it’s actually a legally protected practice- the ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations. So if you ask for something and they do not deem it reasonable, it is in their best interest to work with you to figure out what a reasonable accommodation might be.

See: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/job-applicants-and-ada

As for the real question of will it hurt your chances, highly doubtful. In my experience, companies will always be eager to provide some sort of accommodation. I’ve seen certain hiring managers go so far as to being offering these options proactively. On the incredibly rare chance that a company views a request as an issue, it says quite a bit about how they operate as a company.

At the end of the day, you are far more likely to be rejected in an interview for being perceived as performing poorly due to not having accommodations, than you are for having asked for one.

How Do I Word It?

Something like this, feel free to edit it into your voice, but remember to be direct and unapologetic:

Hey [RECRUITER], hope you’re well. I’m excited for the interview, but before we schedule, I wanted to write you to ask about an accommodation. I [am dyslexic | have a reading impairment | live with vision impairment | etc], and have difficulty with [reading comprehension in stressful situations such as interviews | mobility, which can make the commute to an office draining | coding in unfamiliar environments such as a browser based editor | etc].

It would be helpful to have [ACCOMMODATION], if possible.

Thank you,

[NAME]

A Parting Note

You not only can ask for accommodations, you should. We want to hire self actualized, self aware people. That means we want someone who asks for what they need. These are the employees who get things done. They don’t wait around for someone to help them, they find assistance and make it happen.

Try it out. Choose confidence. Don’t apologize for what you need. If you follow this advice, please share your story with me! I’d love to hear about your experience.