It took awhile but I may have figured this working thing out

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.......maybe.

Been reading these boards for over a year now but have finally decided to post because I have finally found out some valuable information about finding a job suitable for an aspie (or at least what jobs not to take!).

I just went through a nightmarish experience landing a new job doing phone support for a hot tech item. I had to do a series of psychological tests the company uses to screen candidates. As per usual I could easily skew my answers to what they wanted to hear (still haven't come across a psych test I couldn't fake - even the so called unfakeable ones that use follow up questions down the line to catch inconsistent answers).

Anyways I easily landed the job and scored high on their tests. During training it became very apparent this was not a job for an aspie (well duh customer support is never going to be high up on the list - now I know!). Getting together in small groups for training, plenty of one-on-one meetings with management for quality assurance etc and I simply quit. I dreaded the thought of dealing with customers all day long even if it wasn't face to face and then meeting with management to talk about the facts afterward.

So I have finally learned after many many new jobs and then quickly quitting to be honest on those psych tests. I never would have landed those jobs and gone through all the stress if I was honest.

I have since settled for a relatively stress free job working for a national warehouse club that is renowned for taking care of its workers and paying quite a good wage after a few years. I will hear back from the hiring manager and will start early October so wish me luck!

I guess I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never realize my full career earning potential someone with my intelligence should attain, and I am slowly becoming OK with that. Most of the time I just feel so frustrated that I have every tool in the box to have an absolutely amazing career except for probably the most important tool of them all - no social skills whatsoever. It is such a huge effort just to "act" normal that I quickly become overwhelmed and totally zapped by the end of the day. I have finally figured out if I am going to be truly happy I can't put those expectations on myself anymore nor should I put on an "act" to go for jobs that as an aspie I am just not suited for.

You could move away from the IT rubbish and move more towards engineering. Tech support and IT is easy for an Aspie to fall into but not a good idea because you're helping NTs directly.

I have managed to fake my way through a multitude of psychometric screening tests and landed jobs only to have a complete freakout later on down the line.

You are right that these sorts of test are not a good indicator as anyone with half a brain can easily manipulate answers. I ended up completely out of my depth and petrified on a daily basis working in the Fraud Department Customer Contact Team for a well known American credit card company. Needless to say my trusting nature meant I was far from being a natural at spotting potential fraudsters, although I could spot patterns of fraudulent transactions very easily. That job ended rather badly as talking to people all day long and trying to extract information from them without tipping them off became too much even after extensive training. It was a shame because many of the back office jobs looked a lot of fun.

I am currently working nights building central heating boilers which is way below what I know I am capable of but the work is easy and keeps me quite physically fit. I also get the chance to try out my acting skills on a daily basis. Factory folk are quite accommodating to people with quirks as long as the work gets done. Quite strange but I have never felt more at home with the people I work with currently. I am still looking for a better paying job but I will probably miss being referred to as 'brother' all the time by guys who actually mean it. Having said that, the lack of females in the workplace is getting to me; especially compared to the 10/10 eye candy I was previously working with.

That is the most frustrating thing. Somehow, I have managed to work my way up into a fairly decent job, which I believe I do OK at. I reckon my job is fairly easy, but I procrastinate like hell and end up feeling stressed all the time. If I didn't, I would do a perfectly wonderful job, which would almost certainly be below my earning potential, and that really annoys me..



Perhaps that's why they do the tests, to pick out the candidates with the brains and sense to fake it