Five fields an Aspie should NEVER work in
I thought it was interesting how John Elder Robison in Be Different specifically mentioned how he thought being an aspie helped him keep calm when he was involved in a fatal car crash in which he a wreckage and dead bodies.
I kinda agree, I did all these jobs besides sales, was a combat medic in Iraq. It was stressful, but with my intelligence and skills, and thinking outside the box, I did well with it. I have no interest in doing EMT, ect in the civilian world though, too much red tape and litigation.
Evil_Chuck
Velociraptor
Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 494
Location: Lost in my thoughts.
Most of my jobs have been in customer service. Just my bad luck, I guess.But any job where I have to work with people tends to be stressful and unpleasant. When there's a problem, I tend to freeze up and I doubt my competence or ability to handle it. I feel scared and helpless, like a child stuck in the adult world. That's not a good feeling.
Quite frankly, I'm a hair's breadth away from just giving up and going on mental disability.
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RAADS-R SCORE: 163.0
FUNNY DEATH METAL LYRICS OF THE WEEK: 'DEMON'S WIND' BY VADER
Clammy frog descends
Demon's wind, the stars answer your desire
Join the undead, that's the place you'll never leave
You wanna die... but death cannot do us apart...
I don't know that the OP should be attempting to paint such broad brush strokes because not all Aspies are alike. This is really why it is being called Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Some folks might do very well in construction jobs if they have a penchant for doing very accurate, well thought-out work. Not all Aspies suffer from poor motor skills. I am autistic and I can run a chop saw and a band saw very well. I just have to check my measurements three times instead of two ... LOL
I have worked in many many fields. I don't like anything to do with sales or taking money from people; being an aspie makes it hard to get a job of choice as I'm absolutely hopeless at job interviews. At 46 I have only got jobs where they are hiring anybody or everybody and on the job I can prove I'm a good worker (if left alone). I hate construction sites more because they are the last bastion of male chauvinism than anything to do with the work or noise. I prefer metal working to wood as it is more precise. I really liked precast concrete - lets get paid to do meccano, tonka trucks and mud pies!! I was always one of the best on the gantry cranes. Staging was good as it was very precise and attracted weirdo misfits with whom I got along quite well, bit like working with big lego pieces - but the hours were a killer (5am to 6pm and then back on again at midnight or later). Manuel demolition was fun, tools of mass destruction (plus the boss was a surfie, and if the swell was up we would have to go to the beach instead of work)
Probably one of the best jobs for an aspie is driving, don't have to talk to anyone, just spend the day with your thoughts and deliver stuff and getting lost and finding your way again.
Probably the worst job by a long way I've had (and I've had my hands in human sh..) is telemarketing. I would come home from that feeling utterly traumatised, the pressures of not getting any appointments, getting yelled at by people, someone even blew a whistle in the phone at me, the bosses picking on me etc etc.
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"For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears."
(W Scott)
Probably one of the best jobs for an aspie is driving, don't have to talk to anyone, just spend the day with your thoughts and deliver stuff and getting lost and finding your way again.
Probably the worst job by a long way I've had (and I've had my hands in human sh..) is telemarketing. I would come home from that feeling utterly traumatised, the pressures of not getting any appointments, getting yelled at by people, someone even blew a whistle in the phone at me, the bosses picking on me etc etc.
Telemarketing was the worst job I ever had. I actually felt good about getting canned from that one. I smiled as they escorted me to the parking lot. I even took no small satisfaction in that my happiness pissed them off even more.
*sobs loudly* I work in sales and it's HORRIBLE. I mean... mostly because my company is horrible. I actually kinda like when people join my gym and achieve fitness goals. (I've watched a lot of people get healthy and lose weight) but I'm also the kind of person that if someone doesn't want to join the gym I work for. Whoops. Whatever. That's their issue and I can't change their mind. MAYBE if they're procrastinating I can be kind of encouraging, but that's about it.
(Because that's how I function. If I don't want something, I don't want it. You can't play mind games with me to make me want it. It fascinates me the amount of delusion some sales people have that if you hit the right buzzwords people will MAGICALLY buy. WTF is that?)
Oh yeah. I totally forgot to mention one that would be a virtual nightmare for us Aspie folks: A REAL ESTATE AGENT. (cringe)
I mean could you imagine, you're trying to sell a house and you KNOW about certain defects and imperfections but you're required to keep quiet about it, then when the umpteenth viewer looks at the house and notices the defect, you have to play dumb and pretend you didn't know about it. Awkward...
I won't even mention the executive dysfunction of juggling multiple viewing time-slots with constant switches and cancellations especially at the last minute
ASPartOfMe
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Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 35,587
Location: Long Island, New York
Door to door salesperson,cheerleader, inspirational speaker.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
ASPartOfMe
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Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 67
Gender: Male
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Actually would have to disagree about inspirational speaker. I think us Aspies can make great inspirational and motivational speakers.
Speaking itself could we can do because it is scripted.
Inspirational speaking They have the opposite effect of intended on me. They get me depressed, jealous (I rarely get jealous) and confused. My life is 180% oppisite
_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
Being a speaker could work for some aspies. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Andy Kaufman, Dan Akroyd...just a few very successful people on the spectrum (or at least highly suspected of on the spectrum) with careers that involved public speaking who have done quite well. I personally agree that "inspirational" speakers are depressing, but that's just an opinion.
Me, I'm a security guard. I had a job before this, at event security, and that was a living hell. Constantly working at loud events, random hours, no consistency...no thank you.
Now I'm at a fairly high-scale building downtown. For about half an hour I'm posted at a desk, where I need to direct people and answer questions. This can get fairly exhausting, but the interactions aren't often and are usually quite brief; for the most part I'm able to browse on the computer and don't get interrupted too often. Then I patrol around the building and on the various floors. Again, this usually leads to having to interact with some people, but it's usually pretty brief. Between the stairwells and stopping in the restroom, it's incredibly easy to get some alone time if I need it. The toughest part of my job is having to move along homeless people. For the most part, so long as you're polite they respond well enough. Occasionally I have someone want to fight, but then I call "Portland Patrol", which is a branch about halfway between a security guard and a cop. The second I make that call, they leave. There always is the risk of a genuine emergency, but they're incredibly rare and we have very clear, strict procedures in that event. Best part is I work the exact same schedule every week, so it's easy for me to plan around work. Overall it's about as easy of a job as you can hope for in this field, and it beats the hell out of fast-food/retail.
My point being, while I overall agree that Emergency Services isn't a good fit for people on the spectrum, there are always exceptions. Best not to paint in broad strokes.
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Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. --George Carlin
I actually like sales because I believe I'm unemotional about it. If you buy from me, great. If not, have a good day. I have to delete my social inhibitions almost everyday, but it has helped my confidence greatly. My difficulty is a manager/company not giving me enough time to succeed. The aspie in me wants to lay the foundation, till the soil, and see what will grow by trying different things. In my most recent sales job, after many false starts, I found a marketing method that worked really well and the sales started coming. Yet by that time, the manager was done with me. If they would hang on just a little bit longer, I've seen the sales coming. I have former clients even now that want to know where I'll land next so the can move their accounts.
Strangely, I like being in front of a crowd and speaking or teaching about something. Even impromptu speaking, if I know I'll have the audience's attention. Someone told me once this trait proves I'm not an aspie. I have a diagnosis that would disagree.
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