best jobs for people with aspergers

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Accountant is what I suggest. Numbers are where it is at for Aspies and stay away from professions involving social skills like teaching and acting and IMHO, yes, being a heart surgeon.(I really didn't look forward to seeing the Aspie heart surgeon on Grey's Anatomy for various reasons.)

Well aren't we all lucky not to have a meanial, dead-end job that we'll never get out of?

But honestly I work at Sam's Club(club 4849), on night crew, and it's probably the only job I'll ever be able to do well. I've co-oped at a vet's office and got canned after two months, luckily nepitism was in my favour, and my step-brother's then gf offered me a position at her party deco shop which never actually turned into a paying job. I worked at winners and was "laid off" after three weeks and I lasted all of a month at a dance studio's call center. All of that didn't leave me with the best confidence for lasting when I hooked my p-t day position there and I still don't think I'll last there until I've been with them for 18 months(over all) come May.

Well, since I am not into IT (I mean programming. That VB is crazy!) I would say either Statistics or Economics or if a person has a love of words and meaning, perhaps linguistics. I'd love to work in Stats. But I'd also like to write my own book.

Another area that is up there with Stats is in education. As long as it is a subject matter that is interesting to the person with AS, I'd say just about anything goes with education. Just as long as it is teaching adults (I'd say adults that are working- full time) at a private college and not a community college, where many students can be a little immature.

When I was at MSJC, I did not like the fact that many students where there just "because" they had nothing else better to do and they would talk in class. I paid for those classes. When I got to University of Redlands (School of Business)-that all stopped and the average age of the student body was about 32. Much more mature. And only one night a week classes.

Sales, on the other hand-would be at the bottom of the list. Why can't people (NT's) understand that sales is not good for those with autism and AS?

I work as an Archivist. I really like it. It is my favorite job I had so far and would recommend it.
I am also a non-practicing lawyer and I used to do policy and regulatory research for nonprofits.

any Aspie friendly medical job? Mortision? I'd rather help living people, but not be anywhere near them

That is a very good list, i think i am going to use that myself.


Anyway, for my votes:

1. IT (Duuh).
2. Teaching.

Why teaching? Well, you rarely have some sort of social... thing you have at an office, and if you teach younger people, some social protocols can be thrown out of the window.

Ofcourse, you have to be able to stand there in front of everyone and be looked upon, but if you can do that and just LOVE telling about your special intrests (mine was programming) you can babble on and on for hours about it - and they PAY you to do so

I've worked in bookstores-love the work, atmosphere, generally likable co-workers...but below management level the pay is barely enough to live on. And every level of the book business (writing, publishing, retail, distribution) is going kaput with the economy, decline in literacy, and the Amazon/B&B juggernaut. Ditto journalism. In the last two years I've seen several ex-co-workers gone from good salaried jobs to part-time starvation wages or unemployment (or self-employment, which sounds great but in reality often combines the worst features of unemployment and unreliable part-time work).

Academia's not much better. The expansion of colleges that started back in the 1950s is now coming to an crashing halt, while the number of PhDs is still expanding exponentially. Colleges are saving money by freezing hiring and farming out para-academic jobs to desperate grad students and post-docs. There will always be bookstores and newspapers and colleges. But they will be smaller, there will be fewer of them, and fewer jobs.

I'm resigned to sticking with the office/professional world, unpleasant as it is for someone with AS. The blue-collar trades are well-paid, overlooked, and likely to be thriving once the current downturn ends. You can't outsource these jobs to China or India. If I was 18 again I'd consider it myself.

I myself, and the vast majority of aspies that I know personally, work in IT. The only exception that jumps immediately to mind is a chef.

Right now I'm unemployed and over 55 with multiple physical birth defects. I have been unable to get an official diagnosis of Asperger's in spite of several attempts to locate someone who is willing to assess an older adult AND accept health insurance. I've been sending out resume's, filling out job applications and......nothing. No responses. Zero, zip, nil, nada, nothing. I have a good education, a background in psychology, but lousy social skills in spite of trying to "fit in". Sooner or later, there's a faux pas and I eventually hear the message: "You're a poor fit! Get out!"

I'm trying to find another job, that is a good fit and pays well. I LOVE solving puzzles and solving mysteries! Rapid multi-tasking and sensory overload has caused me to fail every time. Sooner or later, there is a meltdown. Working in a crime lab is intriguing as long as the social interaction is minimal and I'm allowed to get my job done. Unfortunately, I don't have any background or education in chemistry or forensic sciences and my current finances make it impossible to go back to school.

I'm not sure where my education, skill set and interests would fit in to a good paying job, especially with my physical limitations. I struggle with numbers. Math has always been a weakness since grade school. The only time I EVER got an A in a math course was in geometry where I was taught with a combination of Sign Language and speech. (I wish ALL of my classes were taught this way in grade school!)

I'm just not sure what kind of job would be a good fit. Any ideas?

I have done a few jobs now and found them mostly ok but my job now (software testing) is my favourite. My jobs in chronological order were:

1. Cashier: This was ok given my age and qualifications though I found it very boring. Customers would say the same things mostly and I had stock answers, so that was ok but the job was not intellectually stimulating. I did well at this job though as my till was always balanced, I knew all of the codes for the produce (we had to do tests on this) and I was good at sorting the groceries.

2. Receptionist for Accounting Firm: This job was again not bad as I mainly was in charge of data entry and filing, which I enjoy. Though I did not enjoy if clients had to wait awhile for their appointment as many would talk to me and it was distracting and boring. I also hate being on the telephone so hated ringing people.

3. Assistant Tax Accountant: Within a few months of becoming a receptionist I was promoted to doing simple tax returns. Over four years I worked my way up to doing the work on the the biggest clients at the firm (it was a small firm so mainly trusts or non-listed companies with turnover less than about $5-6mil) I was very good at this job as my job was mainly to spot errors in bookkeeping work as well as adjust accounts. I found I am good at recognising when numbers are out of place and also at organising financial data. You have a list to follow and that makes things easy. I did not get on with my boss though and we yelled at each other a lot and that was the main reason I left as I loved the work a lot. I found meeting clients was fine as I had lists to go through with them and I just had to follow those.

4. For six months during when I was working as an accountant I went overseas to live with my family in Ireland. I worked as a waitress here. This job was horrible as some customers were terrible and it was exhausting to be around people all of the time. I did meet some friendly people though. One thing I was good at was making coffees and sandwiches, as I just followed the recipes and it worked out. I found I had to write orders down though or I could not remember what people told me. The other waitresses could remember it all in their head. I always volunteered to do cleaning and also stack the dishwasher as this got me away from customers. Whilst this bit was not as hard as customers it was boring and I did break a lot of cutlery as I am quite clumsy.

5. Software tester: My partner is a programmer and got me to start testing his work a few years ago as he said given my skills at auditing in accounting I should be able to do the same for software. I got more and more contracts from this and have worked as a tester since 2005, but 2007 part time at a company whilst at university and full time from 2008. This is easily the best job for me as it requires great attention to detail and my job is to play with software all day and try to break it. I do this in my spare time anyway, so it is not like work at all. I think I am good at this job as I find lots of errors. It pays very well too as many people do not seem to be happy to sit at a computer all day and do similar things over and over again. It requires creativity too, in figuring out silly things to do to computers to screw them up, so in that way is intellectually stimulating. My partner and co-workers have said I must project some kind of force field that ruins computers as I always break them, which is lucky as that is what gets me paid!

I studied for a long time at university doing a Commerce/Economics degree and wanted to go into a job that involved economic modeling (as I like that type of maths) but in the end I decided to stay in IT, as it seems to suit me a lot better. Economics is fun to study but not sure if I could work in it as it seems very political and I do not get work-place politics.

Hello, i'm super new here.
I'm not sure if I have Aspergers or not. but I have a very hard time with interruptions. I feel like I enjoy my stream of thought and when someone comes into the picture everything begins to fragment. I can't keep track of what they are saying. Most often it just doesn't make any sense. I become super uncomfortable, and cannot form the words to come out of my mouth properly. -What feels so fluid when i'm alone, becomes entangled and incomprehensible even at the thought of pushing it out through my mouth.. so there is a lot of hesitation. Also, I have the hardest time being around people who aren't facing me directly. I think, for the majority of my life, I got by just by paying attention to their facial gestures. It has become really easy for me to tell when people aren't saying what they are thinking.
..and as an aside, my ears pop with every letter/word except those with m's and n's.. so there's the added anxiety of that.


I've taken these past two years, away from work(at the office)to really look inside myself, to see what I am, and I came out with an intense desire to start a hemp farm, with a place for bees to chill, and a place for mycelium to run. I have so many other reasons that this sort of lifestyle feels right, but one of the main ones, is that if someone is coming to see me, at least I have a fair amount of distance between us to compose myself.

i just really like the idea of being healthy and having dignity in my work, with the added bonus of space around me, sweet music in my ears, and also lots of high.

nature is where it's at for me. everything comes together nicely out there.
it is inside, under fluorescent lights, that I become static.

hard labor. IE mines, construction, oilfield, ironworking. Not lot of social skills needed, just hard physical labor, taking orders, being a grunt. You can stay inside your head, and you get paid good. If you can just keep your head down and work good, you will stay employed, even if you're pretty socially awkward. Outlast all the yahoos and drunks/addicts, and eventually you'll get to the top (or somewhere near it) despite your difficulties.

A good job would be working in a Nursing Home, because most of the patients are mentally disabled and they won't judge you.
Another good job would be a librarian, libraries are nice and quiet.
Graphic Artist is good, since most Aspies are creative.
Photographer can be good unless you work at Walmart and have to take pictures of children/babies, there VERY hard to work with.

An Animal Shelter wouldn't be too good, since the dogs bark LOUD and most Aspies, hate noise!
Also a daycare wouldn't be too good with all the babies crying and children screaming, and they sometimes make stinkies and you also have to have patience, since once and a while you'll get some brats.
Construction worker, Carpenter, Contractor, etc. all deal with loud tools
Plumbers, Sanitation workers, etc. all deal with bad smells.

I've been a ski lift operator for the past 4 winters. If you don't mind working outside in the cold for hours on end (which isn't so bad when you're dressed right), running a chair lift is a nice repetitive job. For most of the day, you just stand there, and as people ski up to the "load here" line, you grab the chair for them and keep it from swinging while they sit down. You have to constantly be on the lookout in a full 180 degree view for anybody making a mistake, so when it's busy, it's more or less impossible to make eye contact anyway.

Eventually you swap off with the person at the top of the lift by taking a nice long ride up the lift to the top where you'll spend the next 3 hours or so sitting by yourself watching people stand up and ski away. If someone has a problem getting off, there's a big red stop button right in front of you which you hit to stop the lift until the person is out of the way and you can ring the buzzer to signal those working at the bottom to start the lift back up.

There's a big 10' diameter bullwheel at both the top and bottom, so when nobody's riding, there's 2 huge spinning wheels to stare at, and there's a shack at both the top and bottom, so when you get cold, you swap off with somebody else and go sit in the nice warm shack.

There's a decent amount of labor that has to be done at both the top and bottom to maintain the loading and unloading ramps, but with some practice, keeping your ramp perfect becomes an art form. Also catching chairs and building up the ramp keeps your body moving, and thus keeps you warm. I was out working in a T-shirt one day last winter when it was -10F out.

That is definately the best job I've ever had, I was working at a small family-owned area in Massachusetts (Nashoba Valley), but I'm thinking about moving on to somewhere in Colorado or something for next winter.

What if you're an immature kid with ADD? It still confuses me that most AS kids in Norway end up on social security while those in other countries get advanced degrees and good jobs. There has to be a really small minority that are at such a high level.

Probably depends on how serious their ASD is. If you have normal or "somewhat good" social skills, the analytical mind and love computers, you may end up at a high end job in the IT business for example.