CALGARY- Jay Serdula has a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics, a masters degree in physical oceanography and several years of experience working with the Canadian military. Still, he says finding work has never been easy.
“I suspect that a lot of the people who interview me for a possible job, decide after five minutes not to consider me any further,” he says.
Serdula has asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder that makes social interactions difficult.
“Most of them would not succeed in a regular interview situation, they would be too honest, too direct,” explains Garth Johnson, CEO of Meticulon Consulting.
80 per cent of adults with autism are unemployed or under employed, but a new Calgary-based consulting business is hoping to change that. Based on a company developed in Belgium, Meticulon offers free job assessment and training to both adults with high functioning autism spectrum disorder and the companies that may need them.
“Our folks are very good at any job which is highly focused, requires precision and attention to detail,” says Johnson.
Meticulon is currently assessing and training its first group of candidates with hopes to place them in jobs this January. A number of Calgary companies have already expressed interest in hiring candidates for IT related positions such as software test engineering, quality assurance, digitization and data management.
The company hopes to match 400 adults with autism with IT jobs over the next five years.
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