The standard job interview, built around quick conversation and easy rapport, may be screening out some of the best candidates in financial services. That is the case Justin Nelson makes as Managing Director at JP Morgan Private Bank, where he leads the Asset Management and Financial Principals Coverage Team.
Nelson’s team manages more than $15 billion in client assets, and he sees a direct link between the skills that make someone a strong analyst and the skills that a typical interview fails to capture. For neurodiverse candidates in particular, he argues, the mismatch is severe.
Interviews Test the Wrong Skills
Nelson says conversational ease, the ability to read a room and respond smoothly, has little bearing on whether someone can perform detailed analytical work. Yet most interview formats still reward exactly that kind of fluency over technical depth.
“Interviews can be hard for them, so an employer has to think differently about the hiring process,” Justin Nelson JP Morgan said of neurodiverse job seekers navigating traditional screening.
He points out that candidates who struggle in a thirty minute conversation may still possess exceptional computational and pattern recognition skills, the kind financial firms claim to prize above nearly everything else.
Practical Fixes for Financial Firms
Nelson’s suggested fixes are modest in scope but require a shift in mindset from hiring managers. Structured assessments, task based evaluations, and partnerships with groups like Broad Futures and Adelphi University’s Bridges Program can replace or supplement conventional interviews.
Once hired, Nelson adds, neurodiverse employees generally need clearly defined tasks tied to a visible plan rather than open ended assignments. For JP Morgan and its competitors, Nelson frames the change as a way to access overlooked talent at a moment when financial services firms are struggling to fill specialized roles across asset management and related disciplines. See related link for additional information.
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