Combating a speech disability and getting a job in the IT field
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Combating a speech disability and getting a job in the IT field Hello, I am 17 years old and have stuttered almost my whole life. My dad stuttered when he was younger and said that he doesn't know how or when it disappeared since he never took speech therapy, but his stutter is now non-existant and hasn't stuttered since. When I was younger, I just assumed that my stutter would disappear the way by dad's did, but as I am getting older I feel like its not the case. I am in a dual enrollment college program where I take full time classes in college although I am technically in high school. I have already successfully completed almost 2 years of college as a Computer Science major and expect to graduate in 2018 with a Bachelors in Computer Science by the age of 19 (sounds crazy right!). I am looking for an internship over the summer to get some job experience, but I have a stutter. Whenever I speak, my face tenses up and I block on every 3-5 words for a second or two and I feel like it could get in the way of me finding a job in the future. I want to know how much this effects interview process and what bosses/recruiters care about when it comes to the technology field. I am becoming self conscious of the way I talk because I feel like I wont be able to make it in the job field and I am scared of never being able to find a job because of this. I genuinely want to know how big of a deal this is and how professionals deal with these kinds of things. I am scared for the interview process because as you know I have to speak and I want to be able to share what I know and ultimately get the job, but if I stutter and they don't see me as a good candidate, they will just hire somebody else. I should combat this. Am I screwed, or do I have a chance. Any tips that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.