by William Hughes
On February 3rd, 2014, I started working as a third-party contractor for Specialisterne Metro New York (now a part of Specialisterne USA). It was their second hiring initiative for autistic people, the first being with SAP in late 2013. I was a last second invitee for the “hangout” session in October 2013, where I learned about the program and the goals of the organization. I was also among the first people accepted since I would learn later on, I was the only person with a master’s degree (MA in Political Science, Stony Brook University, 2012). It was down to either them or another program that worked on getting autistic people jobs, however, they started with volunteer positions. Specialisterne delayed the start of their program until November 2013, and had they waited another week, I would have joined the other organization and this would be a very different article.
I did my job well enough to be considered an ad-hoc supervisor when the Specialisterne staff were in meetings, which I didn’t realize until the second time it happened. I got notified about the new job as an intern for the marketing department and was ready to consider giving someone else a shot at the job until I found out on the day of the interview that the pilot project was ending the next day. I went down to the interview in stone silence, realizing that I had to make a massive shift of gears to get the job. I met with the hiring manager and was told I was “overqualified”, but was able to convince her to hire me anyway. I had to wait for a month while logistics were worked out, but I started there on September 29th, 2014.
The job went well and I grew into the position, while the company was mentioning the pilot project to the point where the CEO was asked to speak to the United Nations on World Autism Awareness Day, which was April 2nd, 2015. I had a meeting with my assigned coach and she asked me if I ever thought about telling my story. I told her I had, and ironically, I was contacted the next day about doing an interview for Inc.com. I was excited at the possibility and thought I had a week or two to get ready. The editors wanted the headshots immediately, so I was brought in the next morning to a photography studio for that purpose. The photos were never used, but I was allowed to use the headshots in my LinkedIn profile. The article would appear in May of 2015 and would be picked up by Salon.com, where it resides today: https://slate.com/business/2015/05/specialisterne-the-business-is-changing-employers-perception-on-autism.html.
It took until April of 2017 to finally be brought on as a full-time member of the marketing team, and stayed with the Metro New Year group until September of 2019. I was then moved over to the North American team and remained there until April of 2022.
The last year or so was problematic, as I had earned a second master’s degree (MS in Data Analytics, University of Maryland-Global Campus, 2021), yet I was not considered for any possible new assignments, never mind a new role. This had me thinking about where my opportunities would come from. I decided to check into doctoral programs in Leadership, and found the PhD in Global Leadership program at Indiana Tech, where I was accepted in February of 2022. Fortunately, I was getting interviews left and right and took a new job with a staffing firm called ProLink, accepting the position one day before three people were promoted over me at what was now WTW.
I stayed with ProLink for about five months, but since their priorities changed, I was out of a job until November of 2022, where I started at Stradley Ronon, a mid-sized law firm with a very large reputation in investment management. I actually applied in October, but due to logistics issues, I was hired in early November, but had to wait until after Thanksgiving to start. Basically, the job is very similar to what I was doing at WTW, but with a twist or two that will be coming in 2024. The people are generally very easy to work with and very professional.
So, would I go back to the way things were? Absolutely not! I have no desire to go back to the bottom of the totem pole at a company where there was no real room for me to develop my career. I know the real reasons behind this, but they won’t be discussed here. I tied myself into knots starting in September of 2021, two months before I earned my degree, but also about two months after a proposed merger of WTW with a competitor fell through, which left me hanging. A series of meetings and attempted job changes yielded nothing worthwhile, due to a series of problems I also will not discuss here. I was fortunate to land the ProLink job and more fortunate to land the Stradley Ronon position less than 2 months after the ProLink job ended.
In hindsight, I would have been better off speaking with a career counselor in September of 2021 rather than waiting until April of 2022, by which time I was offered the new job. I’m fortunate to have the PhD program and am approaching the half-way point in term of credits, with the real research to begin in 2025 (I need IRB approval first). Meanwhile, I am putting myself out there with two YouTube channels, what will be eventually three websites and currently accepting public speaking engagements via LinkedIn.
What were the highlights of the past 10 years? Here are my top 5:
- The Article: In March of 2021, I wrote an article for myself on LinkedIn discussing what I hoped to see for neurodivergent people in 2021. It was picked up by a Canadian business journal, and is still on the Canadian HR Reporter website: https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/diversity/my-story-and-my-hope-for-neurodiverse-people-in-2021/356671
- The Public Speaking Engagement: This just recently happened, but on January 24th, 2024, I spoke to a group of Fordham University students about my life, my career, and my research goals. It was an exciting few weeks to get it together, but I pulled it off rather nicely.
- The Interview: I mention this earlier in the article, but this was the 2015 interview I did for Inc.com.
- The Masters: I started a second masters in Data Analytics in 2019 and finished in 2021. This was a long, slow haul, but the end result was worthwhile. I completed the capstone in three weeks start to finish (a study on NYC students and their acceptance rate into the specialized high schools, along with a comparison between NYC students standardized scores and those of Washington, D.C.), even though the class went a few weeks longer.
- The PhD Acceptance letter: I was in Minnesota for my sister-in-law’s funeral when I interviewed and was accepted the next day. I was thrilled to get into a program where I could study towards my goal of creating a leadership development program for neurodivergent people, something that is sorely needed since so many hiring initiatives don’t even consider members of the community for promotion.
Notice something about this list? Only one of them (The Interview) occurred while as the result of my work. Otherwise, these events occurred outside of work, which reinforces my belief that I’m not going back to where I was. I’m pushing hard and putting everything together to build something that is far bigger than myself. I approach this project with two principles: First, if autism is on a spectrum, then so are our talents! Second, if my career advances as the result of my research, that’s great. If someone else advances as the result of my research, that’s even better. I’ve built out the concept a bit, but again, I can’t start research until 2025.
To sum up, with apologies to Alvin Lee and the band Ten Years After, I’m NOT going home! Too much has happened in ten years for me to even think about it.