[geeks] Handicapped people looking for work

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Maybe I've been here too long, but something comes to me about handicaped
or disabled people looking for work.

Why not come out and say it on your resume?

I figure there are three kinds of people out there:

1. Those that don't want you because you are disabled, handicapped or
   have special needs or accomodations. They'll see that eventually,
   but it will be before you are made an offer and you'll never get the job.

2. People who don't care. They will accept you based upon what you can do
   and if it fits their needs, take you as your are.

3. Large companies who are looking to make ADA (Americans with Disabilities
   Act) points and actively recruit you.

In the first case it saves everyone a lot of trouble and you some disapointment,
in the second it has no effect, and in the third gets you a "leg up".

When I told a psychiatrist I knew about the Israeli practice of using
psychometric tests to make sure you will fit in, he suggested that they
used passing the test as a negative. If you passed, they should avoid
hiring you. :-)

The psychometric test is not the only voodoo they use here. Some
companies still do graphology tests. At one time we applied to live on a
"high tech" Moshav (a collective farm with private housing which you
owned). One of the things that they wanted was a handwriting test. I
asked what I should write, and was told that I could write anything, the
person interpreting my writing did not understand English anyway.

I wrote a two page disertation on who gaphology was bull.

We did were never refused acceptance, they did not really want us because
we were 38, which was too old, they wanted people who would come in
at around 30 and start at the bottom, not people over 35, who could
walk in and take the top jobs. 

I also think they were put off when I asked if they had their own
private PBX (it took six months to get a phone line from the post
office), a lan with communal printers, how many ham radio operators were
members, etc.

By 1996, when we actually got on an airplane and moved here, they had
gone out of buisness. 

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667  Fax ONLY: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
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