I've been on the job hunt since the beginning of April after escaping a toxic work environment. My resume looks really good. I've got over a decade of good experience as a programmer. The code I write is top quality. I architect my software like a pro. I'm a good mentor to junior programmers, and I work well with my senior peers. I have never been fired from a job, and if I leave, my coworkers and superiors always beg me to stay.
I shouldn't still be looking for work after almost two months of applying, right?
To be perfectly honest, I'm just not good at meeting people. It takes me a while to warm up and develop a rapport with people. I'm not the smoothest talker, and I don't drop the kind of buzzwords that a hiring manager will drool over. Sometimes I'll be long-winded, sometimes I'll struggle to find the right words. Overall I'm just slightly off, socially, for lack of a better word.
I've been diagnosed with ADHD since I was a kid. It's manifested in troubles at school. I got bad grades not because I wasn't capable, but because I just wasn't cut out for school. I struggled to keep focus long enough to do homework, I struggled to express myself and my needs. Hell I couldn't even make it through college. I dropped out and entered the workforce.
When I'm in an interview, it's as if my brain moves faster than my mouth, and when I'm done talking, I've often forgotten the prompt. I stumble over words. I express what I want to say, but often in an unconventional way or tone.
This has led to rejection from companies not willing to consider a guy who doesn't exude charisma at first interview. I know that these companies would benefit from me. It's just frustrating that they'll never realize that.
I bet I'm half as likely to get a job as someone with my exact skills and experience, but is socially conventional. And yet I have to work twice as hard just to seem socially conventional. I've been spending two months trying to cosplay a more attractive manner of speaking and it's both humiliating and exhausting.
Interviewing needs to change. I don't know how, but it needs to change.