People with speech disabilities know how difficult it is to look for a job. Should we really be that worried? I have stuttered since the age of 12 and my speech went from not being able to say a complete sentence to a job at a hotel reception. And I loved it there. But let’s start from the beginning.

I went to university after high school, I was 18 and since university was only on Saturdays (exams on weekdays) I had to find a full time job. My only work experience was assembling office furniture the previous summer. I had a strong stutter.

My self-confidence was zero and I thought I would never get a job. My first interview was (unfortunately) for a furniture company to work in their office and it was a…disaster. I was so afraid to speak up and I didn’t really want to be hired, because I thought I would never be good enough. My whole world revolved around stuttering and I transferred that fear of speaking to every area of ​​my life.

It took me five months to get my first job where I was a “everything girl” at a company that sold computers and I was hiding in one of the meeting rooms all the time. Conceived! I was fired after two weeks. Now I can only smile when I think about it, but back then it was serious. I thought it would never be good enough and my excuse was my speech impediment.

I got another job soon after that lasted over 1 year. I learned new things, met new people and felt much better. Since then I had three more jobs, but I was not more than 1 year in any of them. I do not know why. I was always afraid to ask for a promotion, always the gray mouse and I never had ambitions, because I thought it was not worth it. But everything changed after I arrived in London…

It took me 7 weeks to find a job and the only job I got was in a hotel reception. I was so scared because I had to talk and asked to be transferred to the concierge desk. My new boss interviewed me and told me later that he had really been considering whether to take me on because I stuttered so much. And what happened next? Guess…

I became the best employee he ever had, asked for a promotion and got it, my self-confidence was back. I realized that I should never make excuses for my speech problems and as a TV ad says “I’m worth it”. I deserve to be lucky, to have a good job, promotion, because I’m smart and I’m doing my best.

I just wanted to give you fellow stutterers a brief overview of my professional life and tell you that you should never be afraid to do something because we deserve everything we long for. Our desires can be limited by the fear developed by our speech, but now please close your eyes, imagine what you really want, open them and… go ahead!