How Career Services Can Improve Outcomes for Neurodivergent Students

Career centers are under pressure to deliver outcomes for every student, yet the systems students are funneled into were never designed with neurodivergent talent in mind.

Up to 85% of autistic adults with a college education are unemployed.

This isn’t a capability gap. It’s a design gap.

Many neurodivergent students bring deep focus, precision, reliability, and strong technical ability - traits employers actively need.

But hiring signals like eye contact, small talk, and ambiguous behavioral questions often screen them out before those strengths are even visible.

For career services professionals, the role is not to reshape these students to fit outdated norms.

It is to redesign advising, communication, and preparation so their strengths translate into outcomes.

Here’s how to adapt your advising, communication, and interview prep to actually support neurodivergent students.

What are the unique career challenges and strengths of neurodivergent students?

Neurodivergent students often face severe barriers in traditional hiring processes, leading to an 80% unemployment or underemployment rate among autistic graduates. However, they also possess exceptional strengths such as deep focus, high loyalty, and advanced technical aptitude that make them highly valuable assets to employers when properly supported.

To effectively advise these students, CSPs need to understand the realities of the neurodivergent talent pool.

According to a McKinsey report, the autism rate sits at about 2.85% in the US, while dyslexia impacts 13-15%, and ADHD affects 5-7%.

Despite representing a massive portion of the student body, traditional hiring funnels, which heavily index on eye contact, vague social cues, and ambiguous behavioral questions, routinely screen them out.

However, when placed in the right environment, the advantages are undeniable.

Research published in the Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability highlights that neurodivergent individuals frequently bring unmatched reliability, loyalty, and a natural affinity for detail-oriented, highly technical roles.

Your job as a CSP isn't to "fix" the student to fit a neurotypical mold; it is to help them identify employers who value these specific strengths.

Also Read: How can career centers identify and close career readiness gaps in students at scale?

How should career services adapt their communication frameworks?

Career services professionals must shift from generic, open-ended career counseling to highly structured, literal, and strengths-based communication. Provide clear, step-by-step guidance, use written follow-ups with explicit action items, and maintain a consistent support loop rather than treating career advising as a one-time transactional meeting.

According to a study on Building Neurodiversity-Inclusive Postsecondary Campuses, autistic college students require more consistent, individualized appointments than their neurotypical peers to see similar positive outcomes.

Actionable adjustments for your advising sessions

• Drop the open-ended questions: Instead of asking, "What do you want to do with your life?", ask, "What are three technical skills you enjoy using, and what environments make you feel overwhelmed?"
• Use visual mapping: The University of Montana's Career Center actively points students to the Neurodiversity Hub, which offers structured, visual frameworks for career building. Use whiteboards to map out career steps chronologically.
• Provide written follow-ups: Executive dysfunction can make processing a 45-minute verbal advising session difficult. Always send a follow-up email outlining the exact 2-3 steps they need to take next.

Also Read: Career Counseling Techniques to Ease Student Anxiety in 2026

How do I format interview practice for a neurodivergent student?

Ditch the standard behavioral mock interviews. Instead, focus on literal interpretations of questions, provide question scripts in advance, and teach the STAR method using highly specific prompts. Allow the student to practice in the sensory environment they will face, and normalize discussing their specific operational needs.

Standard interview prep often relies on teaching students to "read the room." For neurodivergent students, you need to provide a tactical playbook.

• Implement the Two-Column Method: The University of Victoria's Career Services recommends having students create a two-column table. On the left, list the company's core values. On the right, map out a specific, literal experience that matches it.
• Script the answers: The UConn Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills advises neurodivergent students to write out their answers to keep them under a minute, combating the tendency to ramble or over-explain. Sit with them and edit these scripts.
• Remove the element of surprise: Give the student the mock interview questions 24 hours in advance. You are testing their ability to articulate their value, not their ability to process unexpected information in real-time.

When and how should students ask for workplace accommodations?

Students should request accommodations only when they specifically need them to perform the job or navigate the interview, rather than feeling obligated to disclose their diagnosis upfront. CSPs must teach students to use functional, needs-based language rather than medical terminology when submitting these requests to prospective employers.

Disclosure is deeply personal and highly strategic.

The Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois breaks down the pros and cons beautifully: disclosing during the interview gives the employer time to accommodate, but disclosing after an offer is made provides legal protection and establishes the student's merit first.

Coach students to advocate functionally

• Avoid: "I have ADHD and Autism, so I need accommodations."
• Use: "To ensure I produce my best work, I operate best with written instructions rather than verbal check-ins, and I utilize noise-canceling headphones in open-office environments."

Institutions like Landmark College, which caters specifically to neurodivergent students, prioritize teaching self-advocacy and goal setting.

Teach your students to treat accommodations as standard operational tools, much like a dual-monitor setup.

Also Read: How can career centers identify and close career readiness gaps in students

What specific language should career advisors avoid using?

Advisors must avoid ableist language, deficit-focused phrasing, and toxic positivity like calling conditions "superpowers." Do not use terms like "suffering from," "high or low functioning," or casually use diagnoses as adjectives. Instead, adopt person-first or identity-first language based strictly on the individual student's stated preference.

The language you use sets the tone for psychological safety in your office.

• Stop trivializing diagnoses: According to Workhuman's guide on ableist language, casually saying "I'm so OCD about my desk" or "I'm a little ADHD today" minimizes the actual, lived experience of neurodivergent individuals.
• Ditch the "Superpower" narrative: The Law Society's guide to disability terminology explicitly states to avoid calling neurodivergent traits "super-powers" unless the student uses the term themselves. It glosses over the very real exhaustion and barriers they face daily.
• Ask about identity language: Some students prefer person-first language ("a student with autism"), while many in the community strongly prefer identity-first language ("an autistic student"). Never assume; simply ask, "How do you prefer I refer to your neurodivergence?"

Also Read: How to Build a Messaging Playbook for Student Personas?

Wrapping Up

Designing equitable career outcomes for neurodivergent students does not come down to one workshop or one advising session.

It requires consistent structure, scalable support, and tools that help students translate their strengths into outcomes - again and again.

That’s where the right infrastructure makes a difference.

Hiration is built to support this exact shift - giving students structured, AI-guided support across resumes, interviews, and career exploration, while giving career teams the visibility and workflow control needed to guide cohorts at scale.

From personalized resume optimization and interview simulation to assessments and counselor analytics, everything sits within one secure, FERPA and SOC 2-compliant system.

The goal is to extend your reach - so every student, including those who don’t fit traditional molds, gets the clarity, preparation, and confidence needed to succeed.