CHANGING YOUR JOB

When to change your job

If you are in mid-career, you will probably want to keep your job because you have acquired skills, experience, a good level of pay and financial commitments to match. This is particularly true for technical and professional skills, as the examples of Tim and Colin show. But if you are near the start of your working life why not change to a career that better suits your deafness? This is what Martin did when he trained to become a computer programmer/analyst.

There may also be circumstances in which, no matter how determined you are to keep your job, the amount of direct communication required with colleagues or customers is too great for you to cope with. Terry and Ronnie both tried hard to continue with their jobs for a long period after they had become profoundly deaf; but both decided to give up eventually.

So if you want to keep your job and are not sure if you can manage it, why not ask your employer to help by getting you all the relevant technical aids and/or support workers (see Keeping Your Job) to give you a fair trial? If you still find it difficult to do the job it may then be better to make a change.

How to change your job

The first step is to decide what other jobs you might like to do. The best plan is to examine all your existing skills and interests to see which of them could be applied and developed in other jobs that you could do now that you are profoundly deaf. This examination should help you to decide what other jobs and careers you want to pursue.

The next step is to decide how to make the change. There are at least three ways of doing it:

· persuade your present employer to give you a different job;

· apply to a new employer for a different job, expecting to receive the necessary training on the job; and

· leave your present employer to retrain in a different occupation and then apply to a new employer for a suitable vacancy.

The Stories provide examples of all three approaches:

· Martin, having worked as a civil service clerk on general administration, passed a selection test to train as a computer programmer in the same government department and developed a new career in this field;

· Gloria, after a long break from her previous job, used her transferable skills in administration and personal experience of disability to win selection as an assistant to a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) and received specialised training for the job after selection; and

· Tony, made redundant as an experienced electrical engineer and training instructor, retrained and qualified in basic accounting skills and then secured a job as a part-time accounts clerk with a new employer.

To help you decide which of these approaches to adopt consider the following questions.

Can my present employer offer me any other suitable job?

If you are working for a large organisation like a government department, as Martin was, it may be fairly easy to identify a different job and career that suits you; but you may be working for a small firm which employs staff in a limited range of occupations and has no vacancies at the moment. Even if you can find a different job with your present employer, make sure that the training arrangements for it meet your needs (see Will I be able to cope with retraining?) and that you are satisfied with the pay and prospects.

However, if you are in mid-career, you may worry that if you turn down the chance of another job with your present employer, you may never be able to get a different kind of job with a new employer because of your age and lack of experience in the new occupation. This is a very understandable concern; but Tony's experience shows that if you have transferable skills and are sufficiently determined, you can retrain in a different occupation and get a job with a new employer, even in your 50s.

On the other hand, if your present employer is anxious to retain your skills and experience, he should consider creating a new job specially for you by transferring the tasks that you can no longer do to other staff and perhaps giving you some of theirs.

How could I cope financially with unemployment?

If you do have to leave your present employer to retrain and look for a different kind of job, you are likely to face a period of unemployment. This could be a long period if you need to train for new qualifications. You will also need time to identify suitable vacancies, prepare your CV and go through the application process for each job.

How will you survive financially during this period? You can see from the case studies that the financial impact of unemployment can vary considerably for different people. Tony was fortunate to leave his employer with a large redundancy payment , a pension and a wife and children who were all working full time; so remaining unemployed while he retrained in accounting skills caused him no financial difficulty. Gloria faced a significant drop in income when she was medically retired; but at least she could then rely on a small pension from her employer in addition to unemployment and disability benefits. By contrast, Terry and Sharon had to raid their savings every month to meet their financial commitments during his relatively short period of unemployment. This put him under pressure to apply quickly for any job he could rather than wait for the sort of job he wanted.

Clearly you should consider your financial position carefully before you leave your present employer and negotiate as favourable terms as possible for your departure. If you are a long-serving employee, you may be able to persuade your employer to agree to a generous "exit" strategy. This might include, for example, agreement for you to train for a new occupation part-time or full-time before you leave the firm.

Secondly, you should seek advice on whether you will be entitled to a pension based on your medical condition (medical retirement). Thirdly, you should seek advice on the benefits to which you will be entitled when you are unemployed. (See further Organisations for advice on benefits).

How can I get back to work after a long break?

You may be forced to consider a change of job and employer because you were deafened by a serious infection (such as meningitis) or accident (such as a skull fracture) and have been away from work for a very long time, as happened to Gloria. Perhaps, like Tony, you have become profoundly deaf while already unemployed.

In either case you may feel out of touch with the employment scene and benefit from taking part in a programme designed to familiarise you with work routines again and build up your self-confidence. You may also see advantage in updating basic skills (in word processing, for example) before returning to work or embarking on longer term training for a new occupation. Gloria's story offers an example of a well-structured programme of work preparation and updating, and Tony's story shows how it is possible to retrain in basic accounting skills through a correspondence course based on distance learning.

Your DEA should be able to tell you what work preparation and training programmes are available locally (on how to contact your local DEA see Disability Employment Advisers).

Will I be able to cope with retraining?

Often retraining for a new occupation involves joining a group of hearing people. Before you sign up see the organisers to make sure that the training can be adapted to meet your needs. Key points which you need to cover are:

· if the training includes lectures or seminars, the trainer must arrange for you to be seated just in front of him or her and must face you and speak clearly at all times;

· the trainer must supplement the spoken word with visual material by using a blackboard, OHP slides or flipcharts;

· the lectures should be reinforced with handouts, preferably including an outline for you to see before each lecture and more detailed notes for you to take away at the end of it;

· the trainer must be prepared to reserve some time to review with you on your own any points which you may have missed or want to check;

· any videos used must have subtitles; or you should be provided with a written transcript before they are shown, and the trainer should be prepared to run through the videos with you.

If the trainers can meet these requirements you should be able to keep up with the training as well as hearing trainees can. This has been the recent experience of both Gloria and Matilda.

However, on any course where trainers cannot meet these requirements, an alternative may be to provide you with separate one-to-one training. This may be a better approach where the subject matter is complex and specialised and needs to be learnt quickly, as in Tony's case where British Airways wanted to equip him with a sound knowledge of the firm's accounting procedures before he could start work.

Finally, if you are a poor lip reader, ask for a notetaker to be booked for you for the lectures/seminars, if possible through Access to Work.

How can I persuade a new employer to take me on?

Applying for a job with a new employer is stressful for anyone. It is often a complex and arduous process, involving research to find the right job and the right employer; painstaking self-assessment to bring out your best points in completing the application form and perhaps a CV; and thorough preparation for, and skilful self-presentation at, any selection interview. For a profoundly deaf jobseeker the whole process, but particularly the interview, is even more demanding.

So here are a few suggestions which may help at each stage of the application process.

Choosing the right vacancies

Once you have decided what kind of job you want, compare it with the kinds of vacancy being advertised to get the best match you can and make sure that you have the skills and aptitudes to do the jobs on offer. (In many cases you will need to ask for an application in order to get a detailed job description as part of the application pack).

If you feel that some aspects of the job will be difficult for you to do because of your deafness, consider first how you could overcome these difficulties: with a technical aid such as a textphone or a loop system; a support worker such as a notetaker; or by restructuring the job to reduce its communication requirements (e.g. by arranging for someone else to answer the phone or attend meetings). You should never abandon applying for a job you want until you have examined all these possibilities.

Choosing the right employer

Before applying for a particular vacancy do some research on the employer's attitude to employing disabled people. In the past employers had a legal obligation to employ a minimum quota of disabled people in their workforce; but this obligation was seldom enforced and has now been replaced by the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act. So you need to look for other evidence that an employer has a positive attitude to employing disabled people.

For example, is there any reference to an equal opportunities policy in the advertisement for the vacancy or in the firm's description of its policies and achievements in its annual report or on its website? Or has the vacancy been advertised with the "two ticks" symbol (two ticks encircled by the words " Positive about Disabled People")? This symbol means that the employer has made a commitment to interview all disabled applicants who meet the basic criteria for the jobs on offer and, more generally, to offer disabled people equal opportunities within the organisation. Bear in mind, however, that it does not necessarily mean that the employer has ever employed a deaf person or is deaf aware.

Even if there is no two ticks symbol and you can find no reference to a positive equal opportunities policy, you may still want to apply because the job is exactly what you want. But in that case you may find it difficult to convince the employer that you can do the job despite your deafness.

Producing a persuasive application

Once you have identified a vacancy you want to apply for and have checked on the employer's personnel policy you will need to spend time working on your application for the job. You may be asked to provide your own CV, but are more likely to be asked to fill in a detailed application form. In either case highlight skills and experience which are particularly relevant to the job and make sure that all the information you provide is geared to the stated job requirements. Never rely on a "standard" CV; think about your skills and aptitudes afresh for each new application.

Consider carefully whether to mention your deafness in your application. The person sifting through the application forms may not be deaf aware and may not understand how a deaf person could do the job. So your application may get sifted out without you having the chance of an interview. This seems to be what happened to Terry, for example; he was called for interview as soon as he stopped mentioning his deafness in his job applications. If, however, you decide that you will mention your deafness in your application, you must also explain how you will cope with any communication requirements that would normally be difficult for a profoundly deaf employee to meet.

It is no easy matter to produce an application which makes the most of your skills and experience, meets all the stated job requirements and is clearly and concisely presented. If you lack confidence in dealing with job applications because you are out of practice or not sure how best to describe your skills and experience, seek advice (see further Organisations for Help with Employment).

Getting communication support for a selection interview

If you are shortlisted for interview, you must first decide how you want to deal with your deafness at interview. Unless you are sure that your deafness will cause you no difficulty at interview, the best plan is to explain that you are deaf when you accept the offer of an interview. Then you can ask for the interview to be set up in the best possible way to meet your communication needs.

Most employers ask if job applicants have any special requirements when they invite them to the selection interview; but in any case, you should make your needs known when you accept the offer of an interview. Probably you will want to ask to be seated fairly close to the interview panel, with the light coming from behind you and in a position where you can see everyone's face clearly. It may also be helpful to know the names of the panel members before the interview so that you can identify them more easily when they are introduced to you.

In addition, you may want to ask for seating to be provided for a lipspeaker or notetaker to support you at the interview. Having this support could be a great advantage if any of the interview panel turn out to be difficult to lipread and/or you anticipate that the panel may ask you complex questions.

To get the lipspeaker or notetaker apply to your local DEA who will book the lipspeaker or notetaker and pay the cost through Access to Work. Do this as soon as you know the date and time of the interview because lipspeakers and notetakers are few and far between and need to be booked well in advance. However, if you are called for interview at short notice so that there is not enough time for the DEA to book a lipspeaker or notetaker, you may want to ask the employer to let you take with you to the interview a friend or relative, who is easy to lipread.

Preparing for the interview

You need to prepare carefully for the interview, and, when you have completed your preparation, rehearse what you are going to say with a hearing friend to test the impact of your presentation.

Your preparation for the interview should include:

· finding out as much as you can about what the firm does, how it is organised and how the job on offer fits into it so that at interview you can show that you are well briefed;

· selecting your most relevant skills and experience and working out how to present these to the interview panel, with brief examples of your achievements;

· considering how you will explain any gaps or deficiencies in your skills/experience or work record;

· deciding how you will answer questions on the effect of your deafness on your ability to do the job.

If you are not sure of all the communication requirements of the job (e.g. use of the telephone and participation in meetings) find out as much as you can about them so that you can work out how to cope with them and convince your interviewers.

If to do the job successfully you see the need for a particular technical aid (e.g. an amplified phone, a textphone, a radio microphone or speech-to-text system like Palantype), you must be ready to explain how it will help you; if you want the support of a notetaker or lipspeaker, you should be ready to explain the circumstances in which you will need this help. And in all these cases you must be able to explain how the employer can recoup approved costs through Access to Work.

On the other hand, you may want to suggest that parts of the job (such as answering telephone queries) should be transferred to other staff. In that case be ready to suggest what other tasks you could do to compensate for those transferred to other staff.

Performing well at interview

On the day of the interview give yourself plenty of time to get to the interview, stay calm but make sure that you are happy with the seating arrangements before the interview begins. When the questions start try to relax. Give yourself time to think before you answer each question. Don't be afraid to ask for a question to be repeated or even written down if you cannot understand what is being asked. Before the interview ends, remember to ask for any information about the job or the organisation which you still need before deciding whether to accept the job if it is offered.

What about further training and advancement?

If you get the job, you will need to settle in and prove that you can do it competently. Once you have reached this stage, you should have the same opportunities for training and further advancement as any other employee. The employer should be prepared to adjust in-company training schemes to suit your needs, and you should not be barred from supervisory or management posts simply because of your deafness. (See further Disability Discrimination Act).

The experience of Martin and Tim shows that it is perfectly possible to be an effective and successful manager despite being profoundly deaf. In addition, Tim's experience suggests that if you are sure of your own abilities, it is better to press your claims for promotion than to allow concerns about your deafness to spoil your chances. It is important to use whatever means are open to you (in Matilda's case her annual appraisal review) to let your boss know how you want to develop your career.