Employers: would you hire a qualified applicant with a speech impediment? (job offers, employees)
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OK, so I have this friend who keeps getting turned down for jobs in his field. This person has a bachelor's degree (with a high GPA), as well as almost two years of relevant, albeit contract-based, work experience. Although he has no problem getting interviews, they never result in job offers. I think it is because he has a severe stuttering problem, which he has had since birth. I feel that many employers disqualify this person simply because of his speech impediment, even though he does not work in a speech-intensive field, such as sales.
Employers, would you even consider hiring an applicant who stutters? Why or why not? Also, what advice would you give to my friend on searching for a permanent position?
OK, so I have this friend who keeps getting turned down for jobs in his field.
What is his field?
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Employers, would you even consider hiring an applicant who stutters? Why or why not?
If the work involves verbal communication of any consequence or on a regular basis and especially if that involves prospective customers rather than internal staff... then stuttering would reasonably seem to preclude an applicant to do these.
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Also, what advice would you give to my friend on searching for a permanent position?
Something that DOESN'T depend on verbal communication of any consequence to be effective in the work.
Has he always had problems getting jobs? Even part-time jobs in high school and college? If not, then I would say it is not his speech impediment.
As stated above, there are millions of people looking for work right now, and for most it is taking upwards of a year to land something. Your friend has to expect that it will take that long, no different than anyone else.
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For most of the positions I hire if he were the best qualified it wouldn't matter, as verbal communication is not frequent and is limited to co-workers.
The Planner in my department has a sever lisp. He does a great job and after a while you stop noticing.
When I was an intern someone who worked for IT has a very very bad stutter that sounded like she was crying all the time. That was something you couldn't not notice.
If the work involves verbal communication of any consequence or on a regular basis and especially if that involves prospective customers rather than internal staff... then stuttering would reasonably seem to preclude an applicant to do these.
This. As long as his job did not involve giving frequent presentations or spending hours upon hours verbally communicating with clients and leading meetings, its a non-issue. If verbal communication skills are a main requirement, then that is a different matter. In my field, there is frequently a lot of technical, written communication - doesn't matter how well-qualified an applicant is, if they have poor writing / grammatical skills, I cannot consider them.
Reasonable accommodations should be made to ensure qualified speech-impaired employees are able to be successful in their jobs. Your friend should consider it a blessing he didn't get hired by that company, because if they aren't willing to work around his stuttering then that's not a company he needs to work for. I would hire the best qualified applicant and stuttering WOULD NOT be a factor. I'd simply ask what reasonable acommodations would he/she like for me to make to ensure they are successful.
Air traffic controller probably not, anything that doesn't involve effective and timely communication then I wouldn't consider that a factor in the hiring decision at all.
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