5
tyrogge
7y

This not a rant, but I want to ask you some advice from you the community.

Before that I want to tell you about me. I have an invisible handicap. I'm half-deaf. I have some moderately severe loss between ~500 - 3000 Hz. To give you some idea, its in the range of clock ticking, whispering, piano notes, pronounced letters (m, n, p, h, g, ch and sh sounds), leaves crushing or waving in the wind.
I use hearing aids, however I can't always count on those because if it's too loud (ex: airplane flying over the building), I can't hear the voices that are speaking in that moment. Or sometimes the tubes where the augmented sounds are passing to my ear are repleted because of humidity. So I don't hear 100% better but rather in the range of ~70 - 80%.

I'm going to need to do an internship next year to finish my studies. Since I will take interviews, I want to ask you if I should mention those details to my interviewer or keep it very simple and tell him that I use hearing aids?

I ask you this because I know people with hearing aids had problems to find a workplace because the interviewers feared the "unknown". Some needed to sign up for help for handicapped people to receive a workplace. For them it is a downside because they are tagged as "handicapped" in society.

I know here are some interviewers and I wanted to know some advice from them as well from you guys of the community.

If you want to know more about hearing loss, feel free to ask questions.

Comments
  • 5
    Absolutely, totally, 100% mention your limitations. But probably just that you have hearing difficulties and advise the interviewers how best they can put their questions over and set up the room.

    Interviews for me are about giving the client a chance to reveal their best. You can't do that if the surroundings limit you. And don't be afraid to ask for a question to be repeated or clarified. Better you answer the question asked and reveal your skills than answer something you've misheard and leave the wrong impression.

    As an interviewer, I'd rather know than be saying afterwards "Do you think that guy understood what we were asking?"
  • 2
    Tell them in a polite but matter of fact way. "before we begin, I want to inform you I have hearing aids. If I ask for a question to be repeated, I likely didn't hear it. If you could <whatever they need to do to help you> I would appreciate it because I am happy to have the chance to show you what I can do". However it feels most right to you, but if a candidate was that open and gave me a way to make at least this one interview easier for them, I'd be happy to. Interviews are tough enough without hearing loss, any good company will help you through it and treat you with the same fairness and respect as anyone else.
  • 2
    @CrankyOldDev @kp15 @QueenMorgana Thank you for your advices! They're very helpful! I will keep them in mind and use them.
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