12 Oct 2011, 1:42 pm
Im a restaurant supervisor in a large retailer 
.
12 Oct 2011, 7:45 pm
Catamount wrote:
Overall, however, it's been great profession for me and Tony Attwood even writes that jobs in the legal profession are often good fits for Aspies. This has been my experience in life.
I've always thought that way as far as Aspies becoming lawyers; it was one of my preferred career choices even before diagnosis (but here I am, working in a lab/IT environment, and have no complaints
) I think the main hurdle in the case of a lawyer would be to speak w/o sounding monotone, to sound convincing, which a speech therapist could help with (I got speech therapy about 10 years ago to correct my Aspie speech oddities, seems to have worked wonders). Having a penchant for logical, reasoned arguments w/o getting emotionally attached is what you need to be a lawyer, plus a great memory and ability to absorb convoluted text and provisions definitely helps. You don't need motor skills, or intuition in sudden, unplanned situations like you would for a cop (and kudos to you for being a great cop, it is an inspiration to many of us on the spectrum!)
Of course the stereotype of lawyers is that they're dishonest and sleazy, I don't generally agree with that - and an Aspie could still succeed in the field in spite of other lawyers reeling in business by fibbing - it wouldn't be as much of a barrier as say being a used car salesman where you have to be completely dishonest to succeed.
13 Oct 2011, 2:50 am
daspie wrote:
Such posts are what make this site going on amidst quit a lot of nonsense. I would like to add few more jobs and also those jobs which are aspie friendly.
ASPIE UNFRIENDLY
CASHIER/WAITER: Requires good short term memory, executive function and motor skills (in the case of a waiter).
SURGEON: This would require fine motor skills, instead an aspie should become physician, general or specialized.
EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES: I left a PhD program about three years ago because I was told, and rightly so, that I was theoretical minded. We care about each and every detail which an experimentalist must ignore to take the initiative, we would then spend time reading about such detail and thus will not be able to give time to experiments. Also we would also be clumsy due to lack of motor skills. Other factor is lack of the ability to do multitasking and planning so that there is no down time as it requires common sense which we do not have.
ASPIE FRIENDLY:
TEACHER: I believe most aspies should become teacher barring those who are average I.Q. because while NTs with average I.Q. can and do become teachers and even become "researchers" because of their faking ability, we aspies have to be of at least slightly above intelligence to have such jobs. And I guess this rule applies even in other fields, it is often seen that an aspie because of lack of social skills doing a job whose requirement is far below his/her qualification. Highly intelligent aspies can, and they do, become theoretical scientists/researcher.
A very good reason to become a teacher is that in free time you can go to the library and do not need to socialize and also you need not figure out complex social relationship among people like you will have to in other jobs to keep the job. The point is that being an outcast would be much easily ignored in a school, college and university. Therefore I believe that aspies should receive an affirmative action for teaching jobs.
LIBRARIAN: This is also aspie friendly as it requires arranging books according to a rule, issuing them to readers according to rule. So it does not require people skills.
ASPIE UNFRIENDLY
CASHIER/WAITER: Requires good short term memory, executive function and motor skills (in the case of a waiter).
SURGEON: This would require fine motor skills, instead an aspie should become physician, general or specialized.
EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES: I left a PhD program about three years ago because I was told, and rightly so, that I was theoretical minded. We care about each and every detail which an experimentalist must ignore to take the initiative, we would then spend time reading about such detail and thus will not be able to give time to experiments. Also we would also be clumsy due to lack of motor skills. Other factor is lack of the ability to do multitasking and planning so that there is no down time as it requires common sense which we do not have.
ASPIE FRIENDLY:
TEACHER: I believe most aspies should become teacher barring those who are average I.Q. because while NTs with average I.Q. can and do become teachers and even become "researchers" because of their faking ability, we aspies have to be of at least slightly above intelligence to have such jobs. And I guess this rule applies even in other fields, it is often seen that an aspie because of lack of social skills doing a job whose requirement is far below his/her qualification. Highly intelligent aspies can, and they do, become theoretical scientists/researcher.
A very good reason to become a teacher is that in free time you can go to the library and do not need to socialize and also you need not figure out complex social relationship among people like you will have to in other jobs to keep the job. The point is that being an outcast would be much easily ignored in a school, college and university. Therefore I believe that aspies should receive an affirmative action for teaching jobs.
LIBRARIAN: This is also aspie friendly as it requires arranging books according to a rule, issuing them to readers according to rule. So it does not require people skills.
For some unknown reason, Aspies seem to be drawn like magnets to social situation jobs. I don't know why. It's a mystery to me.
I am a college graduate with two BAs. My first one is in Communications and Drama (double major). My second one is in English Education.
Although I excelled in these areas *book-wise,* I could not actually *function* in them in the "real" world. I have always lived in rural areas, so my opportunities in Communications and Drama were very limited. My parents pushed me to be a public school teacher, even when I told them I didn't like it. (They said it was a good profession for a woman. [It is, just not for *me*.]) I tried to teach, but I could not handle all the different personalities and demands of 25+ students at a time. My old-fashioned values also didn't seem to work in the modern-day schools either. I never felt accepted by the other faculty. So...I say that maybe teaching (unless it's at the college level) would NOT be a good profession for an Aspie.
13 Oct 2011, 1:17 pm
13 Oct 2011, 5:40 pm
14 Oct 2011, 9:58 am
Jayo wrote:
Catamount wrote:
Overall, however, it's been great profession for me and Tony Attwood even writes that jobs in the legal profession are often good fits for Aspies. This has been my experience in life.
I've always thought that way as far as Aspies becoming lawyers; it was one of my preferred career choices even before diagnosis (but here I am, working in a lab/IT environment, and have no complaints
) I think the main hurdle in the case of a lawyer would be to speak w/o sounding monotone, to sound convincing, which a speech therapist could help with (I got speech therapy about 10 years ago to correct my Aspie speech oddities, seems to have worked wonders). Having a penchant for logical, reasoned arguments w/o getting emotionally attached is what you need to be a lawyer, plus a great memory and ability to absorb convoluted text and provisions definitely helps. You don't need motor skills, or intuition in sudden, unplanned situations like you would for a cop (and kudos to you for being a great cop, it is an inspiration to many of us on the spectrum!) Of course the stereotype of lawyers is that they're dishonest and sleazy, I don't generally agree with that - and an Aspie could still succeed in the field in spite of other lawyers reeling in business by fibbing - it wouldn't be as much of a barrier as say being a used car salesman where you have to be completely dishonest to succeed.
Lawyers can perhaps be defined in two categories, one civil and other criminal. I think aspies can become good civil lawyers fighting issues which require logical thinking like environmental issues etc but I disagree that aspies could be good criminal lawyers, it requires mind-reading to think the way criminal did, to understand the motive. We simply lack these skills.
14 Oct 2011, 10:21 am
14 Oct 2011, 11:42 am
14 Oct 2011, 11:55 pm
15 Oct 2011, 12:00 am
daspie wrote:
Jayo wrote:
Catamount wrote:
Overall, however, it's been great profession for me and Tony Attwood even writes that jobs in the legal profession are often good fits for Aspies. This has been my experience in life.
I've always thought that way as far as Aspies becoming lawyers; it was one of my preferred career choices even before diagnosis (but here I am, working in a lab/IT environment, and have no complaints
) I think the main hurdle in the case of a lawyer would be to speak w/o sounding monotone, to sound convincing, which a speech therapist could help with (I got speech therapy about 10 years ago to correct my Aspie speech oddities, seems to have worked wonders). Having a penchant for logical, reasoned arguments w/o getting emotionally attached is what you need to be a lawyer, plus a great memory and ability to absorb convoluted text and provisions definitely helps. You don't need motor skills, or intuition in sudden, unplanned situations like you would for a cop (and kudos to you for being a great cop, it is an inspiration to many of us on the spectrum!) Of course the stereotype of lawyers is that they're dishonest and sleazy, I don't generally agree with that - and an Aspie could still succeed in the field in spite of other lawyers reeling in business by fibbing - it wouldn't be as much of a barrier as say being a used car salesman where you have to be completely dishonest to succeed.
Lawyers can perhaps be defined in two categories, one civil and other criminal. I think aspies can become good civil lawyers fighting issues which require logical thinking like environmental issues etc but I disagree that aspies could be good criminal lawyers, it requires mind-reading to think the way criminal did, to understand the motive. We simply lack these skills.
My second choice (after computer programmer) would have been lawyer. I tend to develop very strong opinions on the right or wrongness of a position so I believe I could defend a position (criminal or civil) with a zeal that many overworked lawyers could not. If I lost...that would be another story. The meltdown would probably require several weeks of recuperation. I also would not likely be able to muster the willpower to defend a person/position I personally disagreed with.
15 Oct 2011, 11:26 pm
NobodysHome wrote:
For some unknown reason, Aspies seem to be drawn like magnets to social situation jobs. I don't know why. It's a mystery to me.
Moths to a flame? I was attracted to teaching because of the social interaction, which was "safer" than other forms - the intellectual variant. It helped to quell the pangs of loneliness that I typical feel due to my social failures.NobodysHome wrote:
I tried to teach, but I could not handle all the different personalities and demands of 25+ students at a time. My old-fashioned values also didn't seem to work in the modern-day schools either. I never felt accepted by the other faculty. So...I say that maybe teaching (unless it's at the college level) would NOT be a good profession for an Aspie.
I stuck it out for a single term at the high school level, and 4 years of college (math) instruction. Perhaps I would've had better luck in a well-organized department with high standards (or better training), but in the end, the stress from the social interaction with unmotivated students outweighed whatever good I felt I was doing, and I switched to engineering.
15 Oct 2011, 11:44 pm
E8 wrote:
NobodysHome wrote:
For some unknown reason, Aspies seem to be drawn like magnets to social situation jobs. I don't know why. It's a mystery to me.
Moths to a flame? I was attracted to teaching because of the social interaction, which was "safer" than other forms - the intellectual variant. It helped to quell the pangs of loneliness that I typical feel due to my social failures.NobodysHome wrote:
I tried to teach, but I could not handle all the different personalities and demands of 25+ students at a time. My old-fashioned values also didn't seem to work in the modern-day schools either. I never felt accepted by the other faculty. So...I say that maybe teaching (unless it's at the college level) would NOT be a good profession for an Aspie.
I stuck it out for a single term at the high school level, and 4 years of college (math) instruction. Perhaps I would've had better luck in a well-organized department with high standards (or better training), but in the end, the stress from the social interaction with unmotivated students outweighed whatever good I felt I was doing, and I switched to engineering.Your experience sounds much like mine. I was a high school English teacher and then later tried work as a teacher's assistant in grade school, but I couldn't cope with either. I've decided to train for a totally different career path...something that I may be better able to handle.
16 Oct 2011, 3:16 am
Lovinlife2 wrote:
I agree with the job list. However I am really trying to clarify the theory that aspies don't empathise. I have all the other so called aspie traits but I over empathise with others. I have done enormous amounts of training and can read social ques now if looking for them but have always struggled with a sense of feelikng what others feel even when I don't want to..... is this true for other aspies? I became a counsellor eventually as I learnt lots of skills etc. and have moved away from counselling again. I am three times as qualified as the person that just got awarded the job I am temping in!! !!
Grr
Grr
Firstly, daspie I love your list. So true. I've always thought I'd be a good teacher.
Lovinlife2, I totally sympathize with that. I've noticed there seems to be a couple of different kinds of aspies - I've seen some who have no emotion and/or doesn't show emotion and those that are "overly" emotional. Or whatnot. Anyway I'm one of the latter, I have alot of emotions and I feel alot. (and cry really easily) Some people don't even believe I have aspergers' but the fact is the spectrum is so wide, there are so many variants
Counseling sounds like a great job for you. Counseling and teaching - both great ones.
16 Oct 2011, 12:44 pm
16 Oct 2011, 6:32 pm
jojobean
Veteran
Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk
17 Oct 2011, 11:23 pm
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