best jobs for people with aspergers

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I think there are statistics showing that around 80-90% of diagnosed aspies live on government money in all of western Europe.

I'm not bothered about a degree, it doesn't interest me and I have no thirst for academic knowledge.

Eh...I dunno about that. If you have to deal with patients with some serious unpredictable problems that require a lot attention and care to, it might freak you out or stress you in the end. And who knows what kind of icky hygiene stuff you have to physically help them out with.




Reading things like this makes me hate being an American aspie more and more... European aspies are getting spoiled over there!

Yeah, I noticed many american aspies seem to be living a lot more challenging and difficult lives than AS people do here in Europe. It's not a coincidence.

Weird, it seems to me that you are getting more education than us here in Europe.

That actually depends on how much money you're willing to spend for it.

I actually came across this article just a few days ago about this exact thing. It's a list of good and bad jobs for people with Autism and AS.

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Well, I tried to post the link, but apparently I'm too new. But it's from the "Austism Research Institute" website under "For Individuals" and then the first link in the second list "choosing the right job..."

It's actually one of the reasons I'm thinking about getting back into computers because the stress and social conflicts at my front desk receptionist job are really beginning to wear on me.

I wasn't able to work as a teen and young adult in the 70's and 80's. I was then diagnosed with "social phobia". I had a daughter who was born with Down's syndrome, total deafness, autism and epilepsy. She was born in 1980. I had to learn how to make her thrive the she was able. I respected her differences and communicated on her level never expecting her to reach for "normalcy" I used to go to her school to help sometimes and the teachers were amazed at how the severely autistic kids immediately trusted me. I never thought I would loose my daughter to cardiac and respiratory arrest when she was 23. Her nervous system gave out after so many years of uncontrollable seizures. That was in 2003. I then sought to fill the void by working as a developmental therapy technician. I love it because I work around children on the spectrum, so I feel a connection with them and they feel like someone really understands them.

I am not that certain about this - in my experience in working with US-colleagues, there is a supreme intellectual top crème-dela-crème in the US, whilst the "middle ranges" and the lower end of the eduction seems to be much worst than in Europe.

It is hard to tell for Europe as an whole, because different countries have different paradigms within the educational system. In my experience the system in the German and French speaking countries are much more selective than in Scandinavian countries or the UK.

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For an Aspie this normally means that if he finds his niche he can be quite successful on a professional level, if not he fails totally. It is too quickly an Aut-Caesar-Aut-Nihil-Situation - total failure or total success.

An author would be a perfect occupation if they are gifted with that ability. I mean after all, what could be better then writing for a living and not have to deal with any people?

Definitely stay away from jobs that require a lot of social interaction and communication. Since graduating from college in 2007, I had a hard time finding a job because I got my degree in Art and Digital Design. However, I find that working on projects for people without going into too much communication is gold.

I'll toast to that. I just wish there were game testing/designing companies where I live.

I'd love to be a work from home writer/researcher, but it's pretty hard to break in unless you already have expertise in a specialized field. Professional Google Monkey just doesn't cut it for a job title.

Have to agree about security, except mall security. Although, if you're like me and you grew up hated by your classmates, there is a certain soothing familiarity to the universal contempt people have for security guards. The camera rooms at the malls are awesome too, can we say pattern recognition? I can't tell by looking at you whether or not I just put my foot in my mouth most of the time, but if I see you and a group of your pals on camera heading in the door to start a fight, I'll know it.

I think Editor, especially Fiction Editor, would be awesome, but I don't really know how to go about breaking into that field, and until I get some medication, or my Adderall back, and some help getting my life reorganized, I can't even get up the nerve to go get references from friends and former professors, and sure not from former employers, cause none of them will have much good to say about me, except maybe, "Well, she did try, poor dear."

Anthropologist is looking more and more fascinating to me. I can't stand people, and I can't understand them either. Don't some biologists study the animals they most fear? Don't some storm chasers and vulcanologists/earthquake specialists go into these fields to understand their own phobias? Since I'm never going to 'get' people in a normal sense, I think I'd like to understand our species from an evolutionary perspective.

I used to think law, but after reading enough cases, I now know law is too often about who you know, how much money and power your client has vs how much their client has, and all kinds of shady, evil. I wish it was about logic and justice, but it's just not.

I'm not a regular here, but when I found that topic here, I registered because I'm surprised no one mentionned it before:

Animator

For Aspies with artistic skills and a minimum set of social skills, I highly recommend that job. It is work that is...

...solitary. You work within a team, but wether it's a drawing table or a computer, it's usually done alone for extended periods of time.
...requiring a high amount of concentration and ability to focus intensely on something.
...repetitive
...extremely structured. One without an eye for details and high organization simply cannot deal well with animation.
...usually catering to artists, and like the entertainment industry in general, has lots of outcasts and marginal people. Easy to fit in very often.
...rarely has sensory overload (but sometimes crowded studio spaces though)
...requiring you to be a control freak. One gets to play God in a sense (it's a job where control freaks abound).
..appreciates and values a lot people which are independant, autonomous and not requiring too much "social babysitting".

However, animation is a job...

...that is not very stable. Usually project-based, and nowadays lots of traditionnal animation is offshored to Asia. So it means potentially adapting to new workplace and studios more or less often. Once you get few studios that know you, one can cycle through them (and be familiar with each ways of working/people).
...that caters to marginals and outcasts - egos and insecure people abound and will have to be dealt with - Aspies and NT alikes .
...that still requires communication skills and social skills to a certain extent. All jobs I've found in the biz are by references and contacts, so while networking is not really big, one needs to maintain a positive impression with others. And deliver on time.
...that can be tough on self-esteem if your ideas/drawings are not accepted/criticized. People in the business won't spare you, and you're often as good as the last project you worked onto.

*I know that many of those points actually apply to most jobs, but I find it important to underline it in opposition to the "dream aspects" of the job.


So while it is not for everyone, I do find that lots of the requirements for the job are actually "symptoms" of AS.

In addition to 2D and 3D animation, those recommendations apply to many jobs in the visual effects as well. For those interested, try to find a DVD movie with a good making-of extra - it's usually highly hyped and not so in depth, but that's how I found out about the field and what type of work it entails.

Hope it helps!

+Paul Turgeon

I don't think that there is any one job particularly suited for other Aspies--a lot of it has to come down to personal interests and skill sets. Just because we have the same diagnosis doesn't mean there's only one Aspie and the rest is done with mirrors. However, I do believe there are characteristics of any position one of us might enjoy more than others, and a lot of it has to do with the attitudes of our coworkers and supervisors/managers. For me, I have found the best jobs to be ones where I have a lot of down-time between customers, where I can do plenty of independent projects, and where the work culture is diverse and accepting.

As for a particular position, it's definitely engineer for me, though.

I've always loved maths. And when I was a kid in my gifted program, the teacher got lots of appliances and old computer bits donated so that I could take them apart and see how they worked. Now I take apart objects in my mind--both for fun and because it helps me relax (although it does not do much for paying attention in boring lectures). Also, doing it in my mind is cheaper, I can take it anywhere, and my mum doesn't have to fear for the safety of her stand mixer again. In a perfect world, I would have that interface Tony Stark had in Iron Man so that I could see with my eyes what I was doing and not just with my mind.

I've held a few other jobs, but rarely more than a year. I've been fired a few times for reasons pertaining to my social skills and conflicts with coworkers/supervisors. Once I get back into therapy (looking for a sliding-scale clinic first), I want to get some guidance on creating and maintaining professional relationships. I can't afford to keep getting fired for that, especially not once I get my degree and start working professionally.

Recently, I've been getting more and more interested in sound effects for movies, games, music, etc...

Maybe it's when I saw this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZRPHp3UxvA

Man you know what, I myself am an Aspie and I think being reliant on govt. welfare and being a lazy ass is not how people should live life. I myself am an Aspie and I love to take risks in life and challenge is good for the human being, because without dealing with challenges, you won't learn, progress yourself as a human being, boost your self esteem and get exposed to a variety of good new things. Rapid Change is good and doing many things are good. This is ironic to hear from an Aspie because Aspies hate routine changes. Because I love challenge and experiencing cool new things in life very often and i actually dislike the fact that I have too much sameness in my daily routine due to the fact that my folks aren't letting me move out until i complete my Junior College Transfer Credits (Its Something We Have In The USA, meaning if you either didn't have good grades or your family has no money to send you to a 4 Year College, you go to a Junior College, then go to a 4 year after that.) My main point is that taking risks and challenges is good in life and rapid changes in routines are good, because it will help you become a better person. I love taking risks and i want to see change in my life!