How, and when, do I tell prospective employers that I am a non-driver?

December 24, 2009 12:05 PM

How, and when, do I tell prospective employers that I am a non-driver?

I'm in the process of seeking new employment. I work in a field which generally does not involve a lot of transit - but I could be in a position, if I move into a higher level job, where I might have to go places offsite. Even if I don't, I may find myself being asked to run an errand for supplies, or deliver an important document.

The issue here is that I am a non-driver, and it's not entirely by choice. I get debilitating panic attacks when I am on the left side of a car. Not just the driver's seat, but behind the driver's seat, too. I do not have a license, and yes, I have been like this since I was a young teenager. Please don't suggest I get some therapy; that's not what this question is about.

As a result of this, I've learned to adapt. I live in a big city with an excellent public transportation system, and I do not apply for jobs or work anywhere not accessible via public transportation. I would never apply for a job which states in the job requirements that I must have a driver's license. I am aware of my limitations, and being in a big city, they're pretty easy to accommodate.

If someone ever asks me why I don't drive, I generally respond by saying, "I have a disability which precludes me from driving." But is that a good idea to tell a potential employer? I've never actually been diagnosed with anything but high anxiety. If I do tell a potential employer, when do I tell them? In the interview? After they've made an offer? What do I say? I don't want them to think that I'm just trying to get out of what many see as a peripheral job duty - "Drop this at the field office on your way home, would you?"

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (26 answers total)

I wouldn't recommend bringing it up until you're already hired.
posted by Electrius at 12:13 PM on December 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

If the responsibilities section of the job listing does not include "your own transportation" then it is safe to assume that you don't need to tell them in the interview. It is not something like special prayer-time requirement, or carpool responsibilities, etc.

If, in the course of your job, you are asked to drive something somewhere, all you have to do is say that you don't drive. I wouldn't mention the disability, I'd just say "I never learned to drive, don't have an interest in driving" and leave it at that. Again, if it is not a specific job responsibility, your employer does not need to know.

That said, some job applications ask how you'll be getting to work (you'll see this mostly with temp and/or admin positions), and that's where the problem is. That question seems to be more about how reliably often you'll be able to make it to work, and/or make it on time. Sometimes public transit schedules get snarled, meaning you might be late.

But, again, you are under no obligation to inform your employer of your non-driver status, unless the job description specifically calls for it. I've worked in many offices where it would be impossible for some employees to leave and get supplies or drop something off simply because they carpool and/or just don't have their own transportation. From what it sounds like having your own transportation doesn't seem to be a requirement. You don't need to disclose it, and if you mention the disability that precludes you from driving, they are going to assume it is something way worse than just a phobia/fear of being on that side of the car. Additionally, once you're there for a while, they'll know someone drives you or you take public transport, and they won't even bother asking you to run errands for the office. You might not be promoted becuase of your non-driver status (though I don't know that would be the case), who knows? But for now, for the position for which you're applying, you're a non-driver, period. They don't need to know why - other than that you never learned (anything else would sound vague enough to imply DUI).
posted by necessitas at 12:16 PM on December 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

If being able to drive is an important part of the job, they will ask whether or not you can drive during the interview (which of course would be entirely legal and you should answer truthfully). Otherwise, why on earth would you ever mention any disability to any potential employer?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:16 PM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I agree, no need to mention it until there's an immediate need to do so. And if you're asked to deliver a document on your way home or some such thing as part of your job, don't mention it even then, because you can do so via taxi or public transit.
posted by orange swan at 12:17 PM on December 24, 2009

I would never apply for a job which states in the job requirements that I must have a driver's license

Then you're already doing enough. Don't tell a perspective employer. Once you're hired, if someone ever asks you do do something involving driving, just politely inform them that you don't drive, don't have a license, and have no intention to change that. If they need you to personally hand-deliver something, you'll just expense the cab ride.
posted by toxic at 12:19 PM on December 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

If the job description (written down) doesn't explicitly state that your job entails some amount of driving, then it's none of their business.
posted by Skot at 12:19 PM on December 24, 2009

necessitas has it. I'm also a non-driver and it's not been an issue in work environments. At the very worst, when I needed to get somewhere on my own and couldn't carpool I could usually call a cab.
posted by annathea at 12:20 PM on December 24, 2009

For what it's worth, I've known non-drivers who use this to their advantage. Site work this weekend in Armpit USA? Sorry, can't help. You see - I don't have a license. So instead they go to places where there are good public transportation options, which, happily, tend to be places you probably don't mind going to.
posted by IndigoJones at 12:22 PM on December 24, 2009

Yeah, I would say "never," unless it explicitly comes up.

I've noticed in the last decade or so a trend of discriminating based on where people live. Maybe it's an L.A. thing, but people are explicitly saying they don't want to hire someone who lives far away, because they believe the employee will get tired of long drives and quit. By the same token, an employer could potentially not hire someone because they believe a non-driver would have trouble getting to their office.

To me this seems like a new and subtle form of discrimination ("Our office is in Beverly Hills, so people who live in Compton need not apply"), but it's not illegal yet that I know of.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:23 PM on December 24, 2009

Discuss it if it becomes salient, but never give someone a reason to rule you out or lessen your consideration unless you really need to. Never tip your hand.

I am a non-driver by choice. I know how to drive a car, but have never gotten my license. I don't care for the upkeep costs, I don't care for the pollution and just generally do not believe in a 1:1 motor vehicle:human ratio.

In my city (Portland OR) this is a mostly unremarkable set of beliefs. So when people ask me why I don't have a car I just say "I've never cared to". Something that supports this greatly is that a decent cyclist can move between sectors of the city at around the prevailing speed of traffic.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 12:23 PM on December 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

At least in New York, this is ridiculously common. It's the rule not the exception for people who grow up working class or middle class in the city not to have learned to drive as kids, and plenty never fix that. Plenty of people who know how to drive have let their licenses lapse. You can just say "I don't have a license; never got one." No medical explanation needed.

I'd also say that in pretty much any transit-intense city, there's really no culture of expecting people to have driven to work and to have a car to do incidental tasks, take people to the airport, etc., and a full infrastructure of messengers and delivery people and limo drivers (vendors and in-house). That's just not New York but Boston, Chicago, Philly, DC, SF and Toronto. You're just not likely to be asked to run an errand like that.

If you're talking about Miami or Dallas or LA, then, yeah, I can imagine it might come up a lot. (Then again I can't imagine someone who physically can't drive would choose to live in one of those places...)
posted by MattD at 12:31 PM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have a good job that involves a lot of travel (intl) and have never had a car, nor had a reason to drive a car for work related reasons. if you don't need a driver's liscense for the job, you're probably good to go. There are some jobs where I can see this being an issue- consulting, regional sales rep jobs....

often what seems like a big issue to us only is because we're self-conscious about it, the interviewer probably cares less. maybe it could help us to know what kind of jobs you're looking at?
posted by saraindc at 12:35 PM on December 24, 2009

Lots of people in the US don't drive (many of them are people from New York). I took a 25-year hiatus from driving, and went on quite a few business trips in that time, and colleagues and clients took my not having a drivers license completely in stride.

Don't even give it a second thought in the application process. If at some point you're asked to go to the branch office in Rural Falls, then you can talk about how to problem-solve around the lack of public transportation (and the answer might be "Maybe Janine should go to Rural Falls, and I'll go to Minneapolis instead").
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:50 PM on December 24, 2009

I don't drive either. There have been a couple of job interview situations where the employer asked questions like "What if we wanted you to work out of our Red Bank office two days per week?" And I was like "Well, is there a train that goes there from Brooklyn? Because I don't drive." And then they say "Oh, maybe that wouldn't work."

Nobody ever asks why I don't drive. They don't care.
posted by bingo at 1:26 PM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I don't drive. There's nothing stopping me from learning, apart from a dislike of cars. It's never been a problem. Every now and then someone asks me if I can drive (work, friends, whatever) and I say "I don't drive". They say "Huh?". I say "I never learned.". Usually stops there.
posted by handee at 1:35 PM on December 24, 2009

The situation usually presents itself when the employer asks for forms of ID. An expected form is one's current driver's license. If you present a state ID instead of a driver's license, you should be fine. They will assume you don't drive. If you must drive for your job, someone will likely discuss the matter with you. Otherwise, if a curious employee asks you about it and you want to keep your reason personal, you can just say that public transportation has always worked better for you.
posted by Piscean at 1:35 PM on December 24, 2009

If the responsibilities section of the job listing does not include "your own transportation" then it is safe to assume that you don't need to tell them in the interview.

If being able to drive is an important part of the job, they will ask whether or not you can drive during the interview

If the job description (written down) doesn't explicitly state that your job entails some amount of driving, then it's none of their business.

Not true, in my experience. Almost none of the job descriptions (never mind job ads) for positions I've had have mentioned driving, even though driving has been expected and required for all of those positions. Outside of New York, the ability to drive is the expected norm, and, unfair though it is, for positions like mine it would be on you to clarify early on (in the interview or before applying) whether your non-driving was a deal-breaker.

As to the practicalities of explaining it, I'd be reluctant to mention the word disability because many people have a lot of biases about disabilities. People I know who don't drive (either medically or by choice) just tend to say "I don't drive" or "I never learned how to drive and don't have a license." Even out in the vast hinterland, it's not all that uncommon, despite the assumptions otherwise that I mentioned by employers -- you have a lot of company in the non-driving world.
posted by Forktine at 1:44 PM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

A lot of New Yorkers NYC) do not know how to drive, so it is not uncommon for people not to be able to drive. Unless the job description states that having a valid drivers license is necessary, you do not have to bring it up. I can drive, but I prefer not to. When people ask me to drive places, I say no. I always have said no, and while it has been awkward, it really has not been a major problem. So unless you are applying for a job as a driver, it should not be expected or a requirement.
posted by fifilaru at 2:14 PM on December 24, 2009

Another thing to think about is this: if you can get to the interview and the place of business without driving, there will be other people working there who cannot or who choose not to drive.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:24 PM on December 24, 2009

From out in left field: can you drive a right-hand drive car? Buddy of mine had an old mail truck that was built as right-hand drive from the start; obviously, BRitish cars are all set up this way.
posted by notsnot at 2:27 PM on December 24, 2009

If you are applying for jobs at larger companies this will probably rarely come up (unless the job description says so), at smaller companies it is going to come up a lot more often just because more people do more things in those types of companies. That being said, if it isn't a requirement and it ever comes up once you have the job all you really need to say is: "Oh sorry, I don't drive, never have." I would NOT say anything about a disability since this has never been diagnosed by a doctor (not saying you don't have a disability, just that this could be construed as making up a disability if it has never actually been diagnosed).

As someone who DOES drive but HATES it, I often come up with excuses about why I can't drop that thing off somewhere or go pick up lunch, sometimes I wish I didn't have a license and I could just say that.
posted by magnetsphere at 4:41 PM on December 24, 2009

FWIW when I was a manager at my last job I was specifically prohibited from asking in an interview how a prospective employee would be getting to work, but I have no idea if that was company policy, or a city/state law.
posted by forthright at 6:54 PM on December 24, 2009

I also can't drive (never learned). I wouldn't bring it up until after you get the job. It may be reassuring to realize that nobody will ever be like, "hey, you- go drive and get the thing" because even if you were a driver, who says you'd have the car with you that day? There will always be options besides you specifically having to drive, and once they like you and find you valuable, nobody will mind that you don't drive. Plus, at my work, I've noticed that lots of people actually prefer to be the driver, so they'll likely be happy they get to do so without having to share turns with you.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:53 AM on December 25, 2009

I live in Northern California, and when looking at job applications, I have seen ones that specifically required a driver's license. If they don't (and I worked a job where I really SHOULD have had one, but I managed to get around it), then it probably isn't much of an issue. And if you live in a city, it's even less of an issue due to the wide variety of public transport options.

I would NEVER use the word "disability" as a reason why you don't drive to an employer, period. Just say you don't have a license and leave it there unless they ask. And I do (well, did, I don't so much any more) say I panicked behind the wheel if someone asked why. This didn't really faze anybody.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:56 AM on December 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

If the responsibilities section of the job listing does not include "your own transportation" then it is safe to assume that you don't need to tell them in the interview.

If being able to drive is an important part of the job, they will ask whether or not you can drive during the interview

If the job description (written down) doesn't explicitly state that your job entails some amount of driving, then it's none of their business.

Not true, in my experience. Almost none of the job descriptions (never mind job ads) for positions I've had have mentioned driving, even though driving has been expected and required for all of those positions.

I'd second that - my current job (and no full time job I ever had) mentioned the ability to drive and access to a car in the job description and yet I'd be unable to do my job long term if I didn't have my own transport.

You want to be fairly clear about what your role is and exactly where you are going to be working and how often you may be required to work outside your normal office location/how many deliveries/shopping trips etc you may be expected to make. If these are rare you can easily overcome any travel problems. But if these are a significant part of the role you probably should stay well clear.

My employer requires us to cover a 60+mile radius around our office, with courses, occasional jobs being a lot further away than that. And every year one or two of our new graduates cannot drive. And every year they have a rude awakening when the practicalities of having to present yourself ready to work 60+ miles away from where you live at 9am become reality...and that isn't because we don't tell them at interview what area we cover and that there will be a lot of travelling, we do - it is because they haven't really thought about the implications of not being office based and about how long it can take to travel places in our region relying on public transport.
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:00 PM on December 25, 2009

Anonymous lives in a big city w/ excellent public transport. If an employer has not asked is the applicant drives/has a car/can get to remote sites, then it's unfair to expect it. If you need to pick something up or deliver a package, you can take a taxi. Just say you don't drive. If pressed, say it's personal, which may make people think you've had a DUI conviction, or medical, and if they ask for details, just say you'd it's no big deal and prefer not to discuss it.
posted by theora55 at 7:29 PM on December 25, 2009