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MY PEOPLE!! ! Maybe, I can't believe I've wandered the net all these years and have never realized there was a forum full of people like me. So, just introducing myself, I am confused_sloth, I have Aspergers syndrome and I'm trying to make it in the job market.
In fact that's what led me here, the search has been tough and I was looking for help/advice/an example to learn from. That didn't turn out so well, learning that I'm battling an 85% unemployment rate was a bit discouraging, but then I found this forum and well for the first time in my life I was like "I totally get it, I feel the exact same way." Knowing that I'm not alone in my struggle was a lot more comforting than I expected. So even though I'm kind of late to the party, I've decided to join the forums. Pleased to meet you all.

Hi Confused_Sloth, welcome to WP! I hope you can feel at home here!

Hi CS and welcome to WP. Why don't you give us a short resume and I'm sure someone will have some good job hunting advice.

I felt the same way when I discovered WP recently. You're not as late to party as I am, age-wise. I don't understand the 85% unemployment rate, but it seems to be real.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Nice to meet all of you, let's see, short resume
I graduated from a state college with a 3.23 GPA
I have a double major in an ACS certified Biochemistry program and in Biology.
I have one year of lab experience as a lab assistant in protein biochemistry research labs.
I have Aspergers and ADHD with a lot of problems that stem from that, but I try my best to overcome them, even if I don't always succeed at that.

I sincerely hope that's enough to get a job, that 85% unemployment rate is very scary to think about.

85% is not a true figure.

Many of us here are employed.

Sometimes, like myself, Aspie autistics have to “get in” through alternative means.

This. I was able to get my current job as a government contractor thanks to one of my professors who works for the department that the company I work for has a contract with.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!
I graduated from college during the middle of a deep recession. I applied to 200 companies in person and sent out another 300 resumes. Nothing. Then out of nowhere someone who was being hired mentioned my name. I was brought into an interview and was hired on the spot. Worked for over 4 decades and retired. Words of advice:
* Don't give up! At least not until you break my record of 500 job applications.
* If one area of the country is not hiring, realize other regions may have positions open. In today's world, that extends outside the country.
* Never take a rejection personally. I actually saved all my rejection letter, like a collector. But after I was hired, I threw all these letters in the trash.
* Government positions are good for Aspies.
* Be open to cross fertilization. My education was in physics but I worked my entire career as an engineer. Sometimes fields open up that are so new, they are not even known as career fields until years later and the field matures.
* Use your friends and contacts to help open doors.
* In your career field: internships, co-op positions, temporary positions can open future doors.
* Do your research for interviews. Know more about the company than the recruiter that is conducting the interview. Articulate how your skill set is beneficial to the company. What you can bring to the table.

Also be open to joining the National Guards or Reserves. Being a weekend warrior provides a monthly check that can help pay the bills and also helps open the door to government jobs. I am also told that working as a volunteer in the Peace Corp also can open doors into foreign service positions.

Hi and welcome . Don’t let the statistics put you off. It may not be an easy road, but nothing worthwhile ever is ... all the best. Saw this the other day ...

Thanks for the advice Jimmy M, I'll use it well but I don't know if I can apply all of it, I don't have friends or contacts and I don't particularly like making big changes to my life and moving is a pretty big deal, and a job is a pretty big change in itself. Also, saving rejection letters might be handy if I have to apply for disability. Although I am confused about my status on that point with regards to the government, I was diagnosed when I was a kid, but I worked hard and got out of special education, which is when they cut all my benefits off, no counselors, no social programs, no money. (I've always held a grudge over that, felt like the harder I worked the less help I got and the harder everything else got.) I tried to reapply when I was 16, but I was rejected, despite being diagnosed again. Should I consider myself as disabled under the ADA? I've been answering that I've been disabled on all my job applications, but it'd be pretty weird if the government refuses to consider me as disabled.
And Juliette thanks for the motivational poster, its good to never let your disability hold you back, but I understand my own capabilities, I'm not a smart person under my autism nor am I extremely driven or hard-working, my ambition in life is just to make enough money to sustain myself and my family and then live as happily as I can.

Happy New Year to you, Confused_Sloth!

You do have a degree in biochemistry (wow!). That is a huge job field. Have you thought about using what you have and what you like and how to shape that into a job preference or even into "selling points" in a job application? What can you do good and how that might serve you in the professional world? Maybe I am telling you nothing new ... in this case, just disregard the rest below and have a great start into the new year!

For example:

If you like to know why things are as they are, then this could mean that you might be a good researcher.
Paying attention to detail and not omitting things also is important in research.
If you need a quiet work environment to be productive, this could mean that you might need a single-person lab job and not a group lab setting.
If you are good in detecting patterns, you might be a good analyst.
If you do not like to do the same every day ... research.
If you prefer to do the same every day, stay with procedure ... maybe production in biochemistry.

I really do not know enough about Biochemistry to come up with good ideas. I think you are the expert about it and the expert about you being you

Greetings from the other side of the planet

I have never considered myself disabled and I have lived as close as one can - a fairly successful life. Most individuals have strengths and weakness. In the world of Aspies, we have great strengths and great weaknesses. I use my strength to cover my weakness.

If you have been answering on your job applications that you are disabled
even though the government does not consider you disabled
that my be the crux of your problem.

Well I know what you are trying to say jimmy, but I've never let my disability classify me, I worked my way out of special education, I tried for AP classes and went onto college. I never once went to a school's disability office to get assistance, because I understood that in the real world you don't get accommodation and in reality, all (not most) people have strengths and weaknesses that they have to deal with. ( I refuse to believe there are people with no weaknesses.)

I sought to get disability when I was younger because it would get me Medicaid and it would relieve the burden on my family (we are poor and I hated that since I was no longer considered disabled we have to pay expensive co-pays on my medication(which I need to do well in school) Essentially by working harder I was putting more burden on my family. It did occur to me that I could maybe start working, but then my brother would've lost his disability, because we would then make too much, and I'd hurt my family even more by working harder and handling AP classes was a bit overwhelming for me already a part-time job would likely have been too much for me.)

My point in pointing out my confusion over my status is more about honesty, rather than if I actually consider myself disabled, the crux is my confusion over whether or not the government considers me as having a disability, I have Autism, something that society considers a disability, no matter my belief on whether or not it is a disability. I have not gotten assistance since I was in middle school, so am I lying if I check the box that says disabled or am I lying if I don't check the box. If I am lying if I don't check the box, is it ok to lie and not check the box? That sort of thing is more my concern, Honesty is a very big issue with me and when I can I don't like to lie, but if it is necessary I will reluctantly.

It is fine to say that you don't consider autism to be a disability but rather a strength, I agree, up to a certain point, but not everyone else feels that way. If I am dishonest from their standpoint on my disability while applying for employment and if my autism gets in the way on the job and they find out I have it, I will seem dishonest. I hate being dishonest.

Hi
The same here.
I found this site when I googled how to find a job as an autist.
Except I was never diagnosed. But I have the same issues. I'll get my degree in mechanical engineering soon (hopefully).
In every job ad they are looking for someone with good communicational skills, who is a good team player and has a lot of experience.
Then here I am as a newcomer in the job market with just some internship, and barely any social skills. It seems hopeless to me at this point, and nobody in my family understands why, because everybody around me finds a job easily. So this is starting to be really embarassing.

At least you have the activeness and awareness to start looking for a job before finishing college while juggling life and school. School itself was tough enough for me. A degree in mechanical engineering sounds marketable enough, but my advice would be to even apply for jobs that look for good communicational skills. I've found that the job search process is unnecessarily filled with BS, the company is looking for your ability to BS your way into their company, they don't actually care if you are "a worker who puts in 120%" "Who gets lost in his work." "Loves the company and their vision." "Is so very interested in the job." "Is super friendly and gets along with everyone." they just care that you come across like you are in the interview, even if you aren't like that in the job, they won't fire you unless you do your job bad enough to warrant being fired unless they just don't like you (but that's not something you can control.)

At least that's what I've gotten from hearing stories about employment and job searching from my family.
I'll share this one story that my Aunt shared with me.

"There was this one girl who absolutely aced her interview, the hiring manager was all praises for her saying she was the absolute best candidate for the job. She looked like she knew everything about how to be a travel agent and was given a great position, high pay, the works. The girl didn't know jack s**t, she basically did nothing all day, because she spent most of the day trying to figure out how to do her job, she didn't even know how to issue an airplane ticket for her clients. It took 6 months before she was fired and regretfully let go, yet she got paid all the same.

Moral of the story, at least for me, Truth really doesn't matter, perception does. It doesn't matter if you 100% know its not true, it only matters that it looks like it.

I've met this phenomena as well. During my internships I've met engineers who have been working in the same field for 10 or 20 years and yet they still had really little knowlidge about it like they weren't really interested in the whole thing, or they weren't motivated to educate themselves, but they still have a steady job with a correct income. And this came across during my studies too that sometimes confidence counted more than knowledge. Maybe it has something to do with dunning-kruger effect but some can sell themselves better than others.

The college was tough for me too, mainly because my thesis. It would demand consultation and that's not my strength. So the last year I've experinced the deepest depressive phase so far, what little confidence I had before, now it's completely gone. And there is this thing I don't how typical or strange it is but whenever I send an application I'm more anxious about getting a phone call regarding the interwiev, than receiving a rejection. I'm kinda relieved when I get a rejection in an email.