Traditional job interviews reward quick conversation and easy rapport, qualities that can obscure real talent among neurodiverse candidates. That is the argument from Justin Nelson, Managing Director and Head of the Asset Management and Financial Principals Coverage Team at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Connecticut, who says financial firms need to rebuild their hiring process from the ground up.
Communication Skills Overshadow Ability
“For neurodiverse candidates, the biggest challenge is typically communication, their ability to interact with people,” Nelson says. He describes how something as ordinary as a conversation can present a real hurdle. “Things that you and I probably take for granted, that makes it so easy for us to be having this conversation right here, it’s very hard for them.”
Justin Nelson JP Morgan overseeing more than $15 billion in assets, and he has watched capable candidates get filtered out simply because interviews measure the wrong thing. He says neurodiverse individuals frequently bring creative and computational strengths that traditional interviews are poorly suited to detect.
“Interviews can be hard for them, so an employer has to think differently about the hiring process,” Nelson says, pointing to organizations like Broad Futures that help employers build alternative evaluation methods and connect them with neurodiverse candidates directly.
Building Support After Hiring
Redesigning interviews is only the first step, according to Nelson. He also advises managers to give clear, specific tasks tied to a larger plan once someone joins the team, rather than leaving employees to interpret vague instructions on their own.
Justin Nelson’s broader argument is that employers who make these changes gain access to a segment of the workforce that conventional recruiting continues to overlook, all while filling roles that require precisely the analytical strengths many neurodiverse candidates already possess in wealth management and beyond.
His team at JP Morgan stands as one example of what that talent pool can contribute when given a fair chance. Nelson says he hopes more managing directors across the industry will treat interview redesign as a practical business decision rather than a favor to candidates, since the payoff shows up directly in the quality and reliability of the people ultimately hired. Read this article for more information.
Find more information about Justin Nelson JP Morgan on https://azbigmedia.com/business/the-evolution-of-finance-at-tufts-justin-nelsons-contributions-to-building-a-finance-program/