commentr/StutterDecember 13, 2022

Content

Hey! I just launched the first Slack-based stuttering community specifically for professionals who stutter two months ago and it's totally free. We already have 140+ members and we talk about this exact topic multiple times a week. Feel free to join if you're interested ([www.stutterfreely.com](https://www.stutterfreely.com)). I feel like I know interviewing and recruiting down to a science at this point given how many I've been through. The most important thing in any interview is disclosing that you're a person who stutters. I just had one this morning for a venture capital role and that's always the first thing I start with. Telling the other person that you're a person who stutters takes the elephant out of the room - this means that whenever you stutter during your interview now, the other person has context for why this is happening, reducing your anxiety of what the other person may think about your stutter. As simple as this sounds, this is a great anxiety-reduction tip. Before I started doing this 1 year ago, I used to think that the job would disqualify me if I talked about my stutter. I felt that I was applying for competitive finance roles that weren't necessarily the most open to these kinds of things, but I was completely wrong. Telling people I stutter at the start of interviews has been the BEST strategy that I've implemented and I successfully got into a venture capital role because of it. Why? Because stuttering is just 1 of 1,000,000,000,000,...vulnerabilities that exist. Regardless of what type of vulnerability we have, sharing them builds a connection with the other side. My speech therapist calls these "empowerment speeches". This means that whenever we disclose our stutter, we're actually empowering ourselves. We're diverse and unique and have tons of different skillsets that others may not have because of our stutter (ie: emotional intelligence). So step 1) disclose at the beginning and step 2) make sure you have the content down. I write out all the standard questions I think an interviewer will ask me and literally write out answers in bullet point format. Why bullet point format? It helps keep us concise. We as people who stutter are also prone to cluttering. Bullet point structures help keep us concise and efficient. Happy to chat more about this in the community! Also, open to interview-prepping with you :)

Themes

Coping & AdvocacySchool & WorkSocial & Relationships

Subthemes

Self-Advocacy & BoundariesEmployment & CareerDisclosure & Telling Others

Codes (1)

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