Employment Interview

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HappinessCounts

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When you apply for a job and you receive a call from an employer how do you respond to them?Relay, Captel, e-mail? Do you go in person without calling them?

What has been your experience? What has worked best for you?

Is it appropriate to have someone call for you to set up an interview?
 
They usually contact you by number for interviews like they do to normal people. For me, Relay was the best bet, unfortunately.
 
Oh boy... I could write a book! In the past I would get both emails and phone calls from recruiters... responded more to emails and did call (amplified handset and later added DAI cord) for interviews or 'chats' with recruiters. I don't do those anymore because my speech comprehension has sucked (the audiogram lies...lol).

These days I use email, text chat if they're willing (SKYPE mostly), video (SKYPE again) and relay. Have kind of shied away from Cap-Tel etc because the delay between the person speaking and my reading the captions was HORRIBLE. I try to get them to use email but even when I say... "I prefer to"/"I must"/etc communicate by email or text they will STILL send an email..."Can I have your contact number" or "Please call me"... so...I use Relay.. has worked out mostly.

Just not the 'getting hired' part... so I keep pounding the digital pavement.
 
True, they will set up interview mostly but getting hired is the hardest part. Back in the days when computer was getting popular, I thought e-mail would be more accepted, but people still want to call the old fashioned way. They find it weird that you cannot call them. I told a woman if she could email me instead because I have a hearing loss. She said okay but I could tell she froze subtly. I email her to follow up and even showed up but was being ignored. :( Rejection hurts....

Ever tried having someone call for you? Do you think this is wise? Mom took a message once and told her to email me. It worked and she emailed but to get second part of interview was cancelled the last day and ignored on follow up for rescheduling another interview.

I did have people calling and when I called back on relay they would say they called to tell me they will keep my resume on file. Made me angry. They would not admit that they did not want to hire a deaf person.
 
HappinessCounts said:
True, they will set up interview mostly but getting hired is the hardest part. Back in the days when computer was getting popular, I thought e-mail would be more accepted, but people still want to call the old fashioned way. They find it weird that you cannot call them. I told a woman if she could email me instead because I have a hearing loss. She said okay but I could tell she froze subtly. I email her to follow up and even showed up but was being ignored. :( Rejection hurts....

Ever tried having someone call for you? Do you think this is wise? Mom took a message once and told her to email me. It worked and she emailed but to get second part of interview was cancelled the last day and ignored on follow up for rescheduling another interview.

I did have people calling and when I called back on relay they would say they called to tell me they will keep my resume on file. Made me angry. They would not admit that they did not want to hire a deaf person.
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Employment rejection is usually common in the deaf community. Discrimination at its finest.
 
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HappinessCounts said:
I told a woman if she could email me instead because I have a hearing loss. She said okay but I could tell she froze subtly. I email her to follow up
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I get that a lot too sadly. Sometimes I'm able to meet face to face (to prove who I am lol- I do okay with one on one verbally if I have to. Only once I took my FM system- too bulky to do so never did again. That same interview they were willing to write the questions down.

I don't know about the having another person call them- maybe say they're interpreting or the 'go between'. I've never done this direction other than my parents taking messages when some recruiter calls their number (leftover from the first time i lived here and used their number- no cell phone for me at that time).

I've had ok luck with Video Relay-- good chats but 90% of the time I don't hear back. The actual interview phone calls- had a few of those and most went well but somebody else always gets chosen over me (sometimes internal candidate which they planned on anyway- just going through the motions of interviewing outside the company) or sometime 'going with another candidate' (read: more recent experience ; I've been out of work too long :( ).
 
Dismal Shadow said:
Employment rejection is usually common in the deaf community. Discrimination at its finest.
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I know. It just funny because it doesn't seem to be getting better with the years of more awareness. It doesn't matter if you speak well and can read lip well. They tell you that you speak well too and can see you understand them, but it doesn't matter that you try to be as "hearing" as possible to make it easy for them. :cry: It just takes a special employer to give you a chance.
 
DeafDucky said:
I get that a lot too sadly. Sometimes I'm able to meet face to face (to prove who I am lol- I do okay with one on one verbally if I have to. Only once I took my FM system- too bulky to do so never did again. That same interview they were willing to write the questions down.

I don't know about the having another person call them- maybe say they're interpreting or the 'go between'. I've never done this direction other than my parents taking messages when some recruiter calls their number (leftover from the first time i lived here and used their number- no cell phone for me at that time).

I've had ok luck with Video Relay-- good chats but 90% of the time I don't hear back. The actual interview phone calls- had a few of those and most went well but somebody else always gets chosen over me (sometimes internal candidate which they planned on anyway- just going through the motions of interviewing outside the company) or sometime 'going with another candidate' (read: more recent experience ; I've been out of work too long :( ).
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I'm always looking for a trick but it seems there isn't any. Just keep looking is the answer I always get. I am done asking for any tricks lol

Have you worked with VR? I don't think that they do anything special even for school. Everything is your responsibility or the school's responsibility. All VR is good for is for paying for school or pay some device you need. I am thinking of closing my case with them and just keep looking as I always have. Their way is to tell you to just keep looking or send you off to another agency for other assistance such as with a specialist to help you find work, but it's still the same and you have to look. Nothing extra helpful. They contact you if they have a lead and can be real slow. I am told I am fine and my resume is fine. I think they are best suited if someone really needs extra help with resume, interviews, etc. They cannot do anything about the discrimination or prevent them. :(
 
Ohhh yeah I've worked with VR... even though in some cities they DO have a counselor for the Deaf (which is awesome I like mine), a lot of the work still falls on the client. I keep bugging mine about some sort of career assessment I could have done there (to figure out if I should attend school or what) but still not done. I sent him 2 different breakdowns (AA degree vs a 'boot camp' program for programming), he said he'd have to talk to supervisor about that.. have gotten the same with my resume... from various sources- that my resume is "awesome".

The problem I find mostly is that lower level or 'lower functioning' disabled or more severely disabled get the priority with more help than deaf. In a sense I do get that. So..for the most part I just keep looking on my own... I do have a few sites that are "geared to disabled" but nothing to show...yet. VR IS good for helping with paying for equipment and hearing aids though lol.
 
I am completely retired by this time so can't help with interview process. But when it comes to calls InnoCaption is back and they are faster and accuracy seems good. I am not involved with the company — just really glad to have the service back.
 
I haven't applied anywhere in a long time as I've been working my current job close to 9 years. But when I was looking, I did not even add a phone number, only an email address. It forced them to contact me that way.

And it is my opinion that if them having to use email or know that I am deaf, and that is a turn-off for them, they weren't worth working for anyway, IMO.
 
AlleyCat said:
I haven't applied anywhere in a long time as I've been working my current job close to 9 years. But when I was looking, I did not even add a phone number, only an email address. It forced them to contact me that way.

And it is my opinion that if them having to use email or know that I am deaf, and that is a turn-off for them, they weren't worth working for anyway, IMO.
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Totally agree with this.. my number is not included on my resume or on most sites...some that require a number I just enter an area code and 000-0000 lol.
 
AlleyCat said:
I haven't applied anywhere in a long time as I've been working my current job close to 9 years. But when I was looking, I did not even add a phone number, only an email address. It forced them to contact me that way.

And it is my opinion that if them having to use email or know that I am deaf, and that is a turn-off for them, they weren't worth working for anyway, IMO.
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DeafDucky said:
Totally agree with this.. my number is not included on my resume or on most sites...some that require a number I just enter an area code and 000-0000 lol.
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Ditto
 
Some great stuff here! :)

For phone, I just have a Google Voice number, and then have a friend (preferably one with a very attractive, deep, clear voice) speak a message.

Then whenever someone calls, GV automatically transcribes to print. It's not perfect, but good enough for me to work with. If I get really stuck, then I just have someone interpret it, or I call my VP account and play the recording so it gets interpreted.
 
Not a bad idea, Muse. The only issue I have with all that is it leads a potential employer into thinking we can do more than we can as far as phones or Communcations. So I make it clear up front that email is the only way to go, if they don't like it, too bad. But it hasn't been an issue as of late because everyone uses email now. It would've been a far bigger issue back in the days.
 
I should add that my office is so tech-savvy that not only do we use emails for all communications, we use text too. My boss texts me from one office over. Lol. And while I love that, the downfall is they text me all weekend long to do new projects! Ok.Wait a minute! :)
 
AlleyCat said:
The only issue I have with all that is it leads a potential employer into thinking we can do more than we can as far as phones or Communcations
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Ditto to this, even when I list my # I add a "(text only)" so that way I'm clear that I cannot do voice calls. The problem is if you "act" like a hearing person they're gonna get really confused when they wonder, hey why aren't you replying to my phone message. And that might make them wonder if you're trustworthy if you're being sneaky about hiding your disability.

Like Alleycat says, there will always be an a$$hole employer that doesn't care if you can do your job and can't handle you being deaf. It's a mixed blessing if they don't want to hire you, you would be better off waiting out for someone who's nice enough to look past the disability.
 
I didn't think you could leave off your home phone number and just leave an e-mail. It's something to try. I never tried adding zeroes. I thought that would make employers throw away your resume because it'll seem something similar to not proofreading your resume. I dislike adding a phone number, but I worry about missing potential interviews that will lead to a job.

Some people are weary of people who do not want to talk over the phone.
 
DeafDucky said:
Ohhh yeah I've worked with VR... even though in some cities they DO have a counselor for the Deaf (which is awesome I like mine), a lot of the work still falls on the client. I keep bugging mine about some sort of career assessment I could have done there (to figure out if I should attend school or what) but still not done. I sent him 2 different breakdowns (AA degree vs a 'boot camp' program for programming), he said he'd have to talk to supervisor about that.. have gotten the same with my resume... from various sources- that my resume is "awesome".

The problem I find mostly is that lower level or 'lower functioning' disabled or more severely disabled get the priority with more help than deaf. In a sense I do get that. So..for the most part I just keep looking on my own... I do have a few sites that are "geared to disabled" but nothing to show...yet. VR IS good for helping with paying for equipment and hearing aids though lol.
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I think you should e-mail his supervisor supervisor if your counselor's not getting around doing the career testing. You could e-mail his supervisor and ask politely if you could have one. Say your counselor isn't sure you could have one but that you're very interested. I have had vocational testing 3 times in my life paid by VR without problem. I didn't have to ask for it.
 
HappinessCounts said:
I didn't think you could leave off your home phone number and just leave an e-mail. It's something to try. I never tried adding zeroes. I thought that would make employers throw away your resume because it'll seem something similar to not proofreading your resume. I dislike adding a phone number, but I worry about missing potential interviews that will lead to a job.

Some people are weary of people who do not want to talk over the phone.
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Use the number you have been assigned by one of the captioning services for your cell phone.

Here is the service who's app I like the best: http://www.innocaption.com/
They even offer VM which is captioned when you use them to retrieve it.
 
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