Silicon Valley Neurodiversity Programs Struggle to Retain Autistic Workers

Corporate neurodiversity hiring programs launched by companies like SAP, Microsoft, and JPMorgan around 2015 have seen rising hiring rates for autistic candidates, but retention rates for those hires remain significantly lower than for neurotypical employees. Critics argue the core problem is the traditional behavioral interview, which rewards neurotypical traits such as verbal fluency, eye contact, and spontaneous rapport-building rather than actual job competence. Autistic candidates often expend significant cognitive energy 'masking' neurotypical behaviors during interviews, leaving little room to demonstrate their technical or analytical strengths. This structural mismatch means companies may inadvertently select for candidates skilled at mimicking neurotypical norms rather than those with the most relevant abilities. Large language models like GPT-4 and Claude are increasingly being explored as tools to reduce these interview barriers by offering more structured, bias-reduced assessment formats.