Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the good ones left when they realized what was going on and the mediocre ones stayed. I, being Deaf, would have been forced to stay with the mediocre ones because interviewing is difficult for me. I am lucky that I don't need a job now.
As I’ve posted my story below, I also wanted to point out that I was uniquely Deaf, but nonetheless a rockstar programmer then. Interviewing is hard. Notably Google’s digital interviewing where they insist that they call you for an interview. I aced all their backend questions so they kept trying to call me until I insisted that I call them. Then it went silent. Their loss. This approach doesn’t leave us Deafies a wh…
When I was working in companies I just lipread and talked German, and it worked mostly fine except meetings. But a few years ago I realized that lipreading is too hard for me, so I now avoid that. Recently I got interrogated by the police but they put up an additional computer monitor for me to follow the notes. I declined the offer of a Signed Language interpreter because I was not sure whether the interpreter really knows the correct legal terms. The monitor was very helpful. I caught many little misunderstandings this way like I said, he wanted to void the ticket himself, but the minute taker wrote, he wanted to buy the ticket himself.
Anyway, I am lucky that I don't need to work in companies anymore being semi-retired.