Has anybody ever been hired...

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My current career is based on getting a job for my skills rather than my social capabilities. I started as a temp, then when they started giving me random tasks so that they didn't need to end my temp assignment I rose to the challenge again and again... eventually they hired me permanent. This company has internal social skills and diversity training. The diversity training set up an environment where people don't judge you for being different and the social skills training taught me what I needed to know so that now I am one of the more talented leaders in the organization with employees who love the culture that I create. What none of them know, is that I still have no idea how they actually feel about it unless I ask them for feedback. Which is why I am always polling my people to understand how they feel about the department lol...

There are jobs out there that do it. The trick is to find organizations that know how to pay attention to the right things!

I used to be bitter about the fact that I was "coerced" into a university degree for a field which both my parents were active in. Looking back, I can see that they encouraged it because I'd probably be good at my job from the technical side of it.

My current job requires quite a bit of socialisation, but I've found I can deal with it because I follow a lot of home-brewed scripts for it. I don't like chit-chatting nor social drinking, but I say "yes" to it anyway because I know in the long run it will only help me to keep my job, my salary, and thus my lifestyle. It's a trade-off and I can understand some people don't want to compromise on their personality (I don't as well, beyond a certain point) to keep a job, but in the end I just learned to dance the dance and it helps me.

It doesn't hurt to have talents and skills as well. I remember reading a tip somewhere that one key for Asperger success was to be so damn good at your job that your colleagues simply had to overlook your social deficiencies. I worked hard on getting a degree from a top university, which my parents came to support after some initial arguments, and that acts as a kind of quality mark which helps in the job sector.

Social skills are important, but not everything. Technical skills are important too, but not everything. The type of work you do, the style and size of the workplace, and the culture you live in all matter as factors to determine your success.

Aspergers works well in explaining my previous failures, but I don't think it should determine my future. I try to improve myself a little bit every week, and then I place my faith in my superiors to put me in a place where I'm suitable. So far it works fairly well. In fact, I just learnt that I'll be getting a raise from next month. Asperger is only a part of who you are, so try to decide for yourself what kind of life you want to live and do your best to live it.

Oh, and never ever give up.