Hacker News story: Ask HN: How did you navigate an illegal termination?

Ask HN: How did you navigate an illegal termination?
I was recently terminated after requesting accommodations for my disability. I’m on the spectrum, and asked to not be penalized for performance if I had to retreat to a conference room to decompress after being screamed at by my direct supervisor – the rest was pretty basic stuff like don’t touch me without permission since people had a habit of sneaking up behind me and startling me rather than send a teams message. (An issue if you have sensory issues) This is not actually the first time I’ve dealt with discrimination in the workplace. Unfortunately, I work in a relatively specialized field (infosec). Despite having more experience than during my last job search for analyst roles, some of it on things you simply can’t learn on in a home lab like a SIEM + having documented pentest experience, I haven’t gotten a single phone screen or interview. Due to recent geopolitics “going federal” doesn’t appear to be an option. How would you deal with a situation like the above? Should I expand my search to other titles? Maybe go into sales or something? During my last search, the barrier seemed to be I couldn’t document my experience since I was mostly self taught, but I was at least getting interviews and people seemed to respect that I was honest in my skills and had a genuine interest in the subject matter. (It’s actually my “special interest” – every day I read HN + a custom multireddit I made to stay abreast of developments in infosec) I’m feeling really dejected – I gave up on a dream of doing tech policy to “return to my roots” as a hacker here in my home county and my role, which was for a local government, was rewarding and had great benefits. (Pension, time off etc.) I could handle not being a cultural fit for DC, but I feel like my homeland has abused me. Feelings aside, as a practical matter… I need income. Has anyone else navigated a situation like this? How did you manage to get interviews and eventually a role? Are there any projects I could do to help make myself more marketable? (In the past I’ve done things like fly out to network at Defcon but that is not feasible this year due to my financial situation.) 2 comments on Hacker News.
I was recently terminated after requesting accommodations for my disability. I’m on the spectrum, and asked to not be penalized for performance if I had to retreat to a conference room to decompress after being screamed at by my direct supervisor – the rest was pretty basic stuff like don’t touch me without permission since people had a habit of sneaking up behind me and startling me rather than send a teams message. (An issue if you have sensory issues) This is not actually the first time I’ve dealt with discrimination in the workplace. Unfortunately, I work in a relatively specialized field (infosec). Despite having more experience than during my last job search for analyst roles, some of it on things you simply can’t learn on in a home lab like a SIEM + having documented pentest experience, I haven’t gotten a single phone screen or interview. Due to recent geopolitics “going federal” doesn’t appear to be an option. How would you deal with a situation like the above? Should I expand my search to other titles? Maybe go into sales or something? During my last search, the barrier seemed to be I couldn’t document my experience since I was mostly self taught, but I was at least getting interviews and people seemed to respect that I was honest in my skills and had a genuine interest in the subject matter. (It’s actually my “special interest” – every day I read HN + a custom multireddit I made to stay abreast of developments in infosec) I’m feeling really dejected – I gave up on a dream of doing tech policy to “return to my roots” as a hacker here in my home county and my role, which was for a local government, was rewarding and had great benefits. (Pension, time off etc.) I could handle not being a cultural fit for DC, but I feel like my homeland has abused me. Feelings aside, as a practical matter… I need income. Has anyone else navigated a situation like this? How did you manage to get interviews and eventually a role? Are there any projects I could do to help make myself more marketable? (In the past I’ve done things like fly out to network at Defcon but that is not feasible this year due to my financial situation.)