Edition 6: Video Games, Neurodiversity, Recruitment and RecFest 2023

Hello everyone! I am a little late with this write-up as I only got the recording link a few weeks ago; then I had a bit of a quarter-life crisis so I had to put the brakes on everything for a bit while I got my life sorted. All good now, though??

I wanted to use this opportunity to give a massive thank you again to Matthew Baccino for approaching me to speak at RecFest as a guest of Join Talent , and to Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill for being the one to give me the confidence to be bold and do something different with my talk which turned out to the best decision ever so thank you Kat!!

I've got some highlights to share with you, but if you're just interested in the summary of my talk and the recording, scroll down to part 2 ???.

Part 1: My Highlights from RecFest

?? Packed out a RecFest tent

I've always found DEI talks at non-DEI focussed conferences to be less popular choices, and I was also on very early in the day, and there was a backlog of people at the entrance of the event.

So I was genuinely surprised when I saw people pouring in and filling up every single seating and standing space, and even sneaking around the back entrance to squeeze in ??.

It's incredible to see how many TA (Talent Acquisition) folks and recruiters actively choosing to attend a talk on neurodiversity over the other 8 talks on at the same time as mine.

It fills me with hope that we are moving in the right direction where the people who are in a position to support ND folks in the workplace and hiring process now want to be a part of the conversation, and that's one of my proudest achievements ever. So massive thank you to everyone who came and watched! ??

?? Staying in the most beautiful lake house

Join Talent did not spare any expense for this trip... I stayed in this absolutely stunning lake house in the Cotswolds with Kat, her husband and Jill Larsen , one of the other speakers who came all the way from the US. Just look at that view ??.

?? The most unique venue for a conference you ever did see....

You'd be forgiven for thinking you've stepped into a festival rather than a conference... This had to be the COOLEST setting for a conference I have ever seen (ignore the big grey clouds the weather did brighten up later in the day haha). There were loads of vendor stands with activities and freebies; I especially loved the 360 Oscar Cam one!

?? Hot-tubbing in the sun

It was genuinely incredible to get the opportunity to spend quality time with and get career advice from Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill and Jill Larsen , who are both such inspirational women. I mean, it was definitely even better spending it in the sun, in a hot tub drinking copious amounts of champagne...

Buying a sparkly blazer from a shop called "Witches Knickers" in Cirencester

We actually went to Cirencester twice, and I saw the blazer the first time we went, and I seriously debated it before talking myself out of it. Then somehow, the second time we went, I let myself get peer pressured into buying it, and it became my iconic MCR DevCon blazer. No regrets.

Ferris Wheelin'

Obviously me and Josh Wingate had to do the Ferris Wheel with Louis George taking our video (it was giving Regina Georges's mom in Mean Girls vibes, IYKYK ??)

Part 2: Summary of my talk and recording

You can check out the talk recording here.

In this talk, I:

Explained Neurodiversity definitions using Pacman

Talked about barriers Neurodivergent people face in the hiring process using Mario Kart

And spoke about the issue with neurotypical communication expectations in interviews using Tetris

I won't give away any more spoilers but you can watch the talk on the recording and if you're interested in bringing me into your community/meetup/org to deliver this talk ping me a message on LinkedIn or email me on [email protected] ????

Speaking at RecFest was one of the best experiences of my life. It was such a unique event, but my highlight had to be seeing how many attendees genuinely wanted to learn more about neurodiversity and want to actively campaign for change in their hiring processes to make them more accessible to ND people, which is all I could ever hope for.

Thank you for reading, and stay fabulous!

Parul x