Wow, it's is so great to hear from an Autistic person who has commonly been on the other side of the interview table! Thank you so much for sharing this, James. I'm sure it will help empower a lot of frustrated and stressed neurodivergent job applicants reading this. I have been the one doing the interviews a few times in my life, first as a lab manager and now as a faculty member on hiring committees, and i've had to pour through more program applications from students than I could count, and so I always try to stress to people that we are faced with a deluge of information from a ton of applicants that is usually not well streamlined into a coherent narrative. If I have to go hunting for the reasons you could be a good fit, I will miss things! The more an applicant makes the "story" easy for me to follow, the better. It shows strong communication skills and an understanding of context, too. The social-performative aspect of job interviews has never felt natural to me, but I do think most of us can learn how to filter information and craft the right "story" from the truth.