Disability in Finance?
Hey guys, just wanted to ask a couple of questions regarding people who have disabilities and are currently recruiting/working.
How are people with disabilities (especially visible ones) treated during the hiring process and in the office? Is there any significant discrimination or roadblocks to their career progressions, especially in sellside/client-facing roles? Finally, should someone with a non-visible disability disclose it during the hiring process (AKA disabilities falling under DEI quotas or programs), or should they keep it discreet?
To be quite honest, I think having a visible disability (i.e. in a wheelchair) gives you a decent sized advantage in the hiring process, even if not in an official diversity program. Banking is a tough culture in general, but if you can do the work I don't think anyone will discriminate against you for a disability.
Non-visible disabilities I would definitely keep as quiet as possible, there is no benefit from disclosing at all. I think only 1 or 2 banks even have "disability" programs anymore, mostly because they had to cast such a wide net with these programs (people with anxiety or IBS were included) that they weren't achieving anything
This can be tricky and subjective. The visible disability can help you get recruited so the bank can add you to their diversity stats. But, depending on the nature of the disability, you may end up collecting sympathy but not an offer. For disability that is not visible, be discreet unless you anticipate needing some type of accommodation at work.
Can you please elaborate a little on this? For instance, what kind of disability would be "looked down upon" versus an "acceptable" disability? (I'm trying to gauge which category my own disability would fall into, but I'm not comfortable expliciting stating what it is)
That's up to how your interviewers view the disability. There can be a bias, even amongst people who believe they are not biased. ADA prohibits discrimination but they can't police all biases all the time.
To give some concrete examples of things that could hurt your application, someone with depression or anxiety may be classed as having a disability, but IB interviewers might be concerned about how someone with those disorders would do on the job given the stress and general life-ruining impact of this type of job. Or someone with autism might be perceived in a negative light, versus if you hadn't disclosed they may not have noticed. An "acceptable" one to disclose would be like diabetes I guess, anything where no one would question whether or not you could do the job
Just a lot of negatives and few positives to disclosing
At the firms I’ve been at no one will care, it comes down to can you do the work and are you pleasant to be around.
What about for visible disabilities? Your comment makes sense when thinking about junior level work, but what about the client facing aspect? Will MDs not hire me because my physical disability woud look bad to bring infront of a client?
Will it be hard to win clients as an MD?
There is a lot of disability in the industry. In particular a lot of retarded behavior. I would say this is largely tolerated. A lot of times this group does not ask for accommodations as often as they should.
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