Transcript of the interview with Alex Tolez

Law Graduate

Alex graduated from a law degree and spent some time working in legal firms before moving into human resources. He speaks about his personal approach to disclosure and his experiences in the workplace as a person with a disability.

Alex: My name is Alex I work as a job analyst, graduated a couple of years ago from a law degree and worked a couple of jobs as a lawyer before deciding to go back and do HR (human resources).

What were your key challenges in looking for work and how did you overcome these?

Alex: I think it is pretty hard to get a full time law job straight after uni, like I wasn’t an high distinction student so you know are competing against a lot of people and just basically to find a law job that was in a firm that I was interested in and practicing the field of law that I was also interested in pursuing.

In the times that you did apply for jobs did you disclose to the employer, and if yes at what stage, or if no what was your reason?

Alex: I never disclose my disability. I think that’s an excuse not to employ me and I just didn’t feel comfortable disclosing it.

Was there ever a stage that you disclosed or did you keep it to yourself?

Alex: When I was comfortable in the job I disclosed it. I had two legal jobs prior to this one and they took varying times to disclose it. But more often then not you work your way around it. I’m fortunate, I can mask it in a way that I had to, and if I didn’t feel comfortable sharing that information I didn’t say anything.

So once you did feel comfortable about disclosing it, how did your employers react?

Alex: One of them just said, you’re here you’ve got the job on merits, do the work, do the best you can. And the other firm I was at asked me what I needed and gave me the relevant hardware that made my job a bit easier.

Did you ever prepare to answer questions about your disability when you talked about this to your employer?

Alex: I think once your comfortable in the role then you know about the problem so you can describe what it is. Fortunately there are technologies that make my job a lot easier. It is part of that, but at times my eyes decide not to work, but you work through it, and you know you make do. I don’t know what it’s like on the other side so I guess it’s just who I am and I just go through it. It’s something that I’m not conscious of really working around, it’s just the way I work. You’ve just got to be comfortable within yourself. I think there is some great services that the university assisted me when I was studying that helped me get through my law degree. And I think you should do what’s comfortable from your own perspective. If you want to disclose it, disclose it.

So do you have any further advice to current UTS students with disabilities and going out there into the workplace?

Alex: I think just go for the job that you want is the main advice, don’t let it stop you. It’s a bit of a clichéd response, but I think that if you really want a job in your chosen field and you work hard throughout your studies and it doesn’t effect you intellectually and you’re going to get the marks, you’ll get the job eventually. I’m very happy where I am now and it’s taken maybe 18 months from graduation to get there. But if you put in the hard work, and you have the necessary skills set, you’ll get there. You just have to make sure that you work hard as an undergraduate because I think that’s were you do get complacent (when you’re enjoying the undergraduate life and maybe you can work harder to get those better marks). I think my biggest regret is that I took the degree a bit too easy in the first couple of years and got the good marks in third and fourth year, but initially I was just having fun. So do work hard, and there are services that are available to make it easier that the university offers, so make sure you take them up. Don’t be shy because everything that gets you onto that level playing field can help.