Suggested/Not suggested Jobs for Aspergers.
Well, I don't believe in those kind of lists and listings of good and bad jobs, because my job has been good and bad at the same time.
I am architect and 3d Visualiser and I did the full range, meaning I worked alone, I worked in small companies and I worked in 100+ offices.
My experience is, that small companies are the best working environment for me for the following reasons: They are not "corporate", which can be annoying because of many rules to follow. The social stuff is very limited and manageable, because if you have a shared lunch or a meeting, you sit there with 5 people and not 120. I have a lot of responsability and nobody cares how I do my work as long as I do it. That works perfect for me. The point I am trying to make is, that the work environment plays the most important role for me and the job choice should be according to an individual interest. Besides engineers and architects are not the most sociable people anyway, so the level of expectation in social skills is relatively low. You only have to thoroughly understand what a client wants, that is the most challenging part for my taste. I found, that I cannot work in large offices, because of social stuff, noise levels and those not understandable social rules and networking. I always quit in those companies.
My job is to spend my days and sometimes nights in front of applications like AutoCad, MicroStation, 3ds Studio Max, Photoshop and design whatever is possible for those who might be interested in becoming an architect.
I used to work at McDonald's. As an aspie with a low BS tolerance, it was torturous. Working with a bunch of bratty 16 year olds whining about having to work for an Ipod made me want to slam their faces into the deep fryer. I have to pay for college textbooks and living expenses all right? I clearly needed this job more than them and they act like they were above working. I was let go this past May because I was only available for winter and summer break. The college I'm attending was 1 hour and 30 minutes away from work. I'm not driving that every day for minimum wage. D:
As angry and bitter as I must sound, I truly am happy to be unemployed this summer. It gives me time for family, friends and plenty of me time, which I was lacking.
You wouldn't believe what I do as an aspie. I work the front door of one of the top night clubs in the city of San Francisco, CA. I'm still not sure what I think about it. I'm pretty much living the NT dream. I work at a night club, get paid off the books, get free drinks, and since its gay (and i'm gay) i can pretty much get laid whenever I want to (if I choose to which I usually don't since I value more serious relationships but for an NT male, it could be a dream), we play the newest club music/beats and every night I work there we get people coming in from cities all over the world and I get invited to after parties at hotel rooms or apartments throughout the city. The only question is whether I actually want all of this......and I go back and forth on the idea all the time. I can get to convince myself I'm social for a night or two and that I have all these networks/connections, but sooner or later the reality is going to set in. I am a social aspie but an aspie none the less.
One job that I didn't think would be good for me but actually turned out ok was handing out free papers in the subway.
You see hundreds of people every day but in the end they just walk past you for 5 seconds and don't pay much attention to you. Even if I did I mistake it didn't matter because they would soon forget me. I could practise eye-contact, how to say hi and smile to people and in the end It wore down a lot of my social anxiousness.
- So a good job for practise but not something I would recommend for the long term though (especially not if you have sensory issues).
Another job that I thought would be really good for me but turned out to be pretty bad was working as a postman.
I thought it would be great because I could just walk around on my own delivering post without having to talk to anyone. To an extent that was true but what wore me down was sorting out the post in the morning with co-workers and then obsessively double-checking the names on the mail so they didn't end up in the wrong mailbox/door when delivering.
The extra time doing this would add up in the end and to compensate I had to really stress out when sorting out the mail in the morning and then run up and down stairs instead of just taking it easy delivering the mail.
passionatebach
Velociraptor
Joined: 8 Nov 2009
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 447
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
I disagree with this. I worked as a delivery driver with the local newspaper for 2 years. Absolutely loved driving around the city and some of the smaller towns to take newspapers to customers, carriers and businesses that sold the paper.
For some odd reason as well, I have also found more tolerance in the blue collar and union types, but it has really depended upon the workplace.
For Aspies that are mechanically inclined, I think that working in industrial maintence would be a great job. I have a friend that has moderate AS and he oversees that the mechanicals and maintence work properly in a multi million dollar plant.
I really struggle with my job. I'm an engineer but I work at a consulting firm. I like the technical part of the work, but there are several drawbacks. I can hardly ever have a routine and this really causes me stress. I'll plan to spend the day working on a certain project and then other people in the office keep sidetracking me with stuff they need done urgently. Or I'll plan to spend the day working on a certain project and a client will call (I don't like speaking to clients). They usually also need something done urgently and since I didn't plan to work on their project I get overwhelmed and panicked because I'll get behind on what I planned to work on originally. None of my bosses understand my difficulties with communication and how tough it is for me to deal with clients - I've asked them if it's possible to keep my role technical and I have a coworker friend who is willing to handle the client communication stuff, but they're not into it - they think I'm just being lazy. Since I hate talking to clients I procrastinate on getting in touch with them when I'm supposed to and it gets me into trouble sometimes. But I'm really good at the technical work that I am responsible for so they tolerate it, but keep urging me to shape up with the communication stuff. Having to deal with too many clients and coworkers and constantly change plans causes depression for me, but they don't seem to care as long as jobs get done. The problem I have with this job is everything is always urgent and everyone who is asking you to do something thinks that their project is the most important.
tomboy4good
Veteran
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,379
Location: Irritating people everywhere
My current job is customer service/receptionist/product receiver, etc. Although I've somehow managed to survive for more than 5 years in this position, I am burning out. I work 9 hours a day, no lunch, no breaks. My boss harasses me on a daily basis (he thinks I don't work hard enough). Difficult to tolerate when the snot nosed kid at the desk across from me views porn on his computer, rarely answers his phone, & is just flat out lazy & getting paid more than me to do nothing. Customers constantly call complaining about our product (it's great unless it's being abused), our service dept (yeah I know they don't answer the phone, & I'm not allowed to say anything),so I have customers constantly yammering about their problems day after day after day. It sucks! Some days are so bad I just want to hide in a dark corner & cry.
I've also worked in a deli, as a cashier, night stocker at wally world, for my parents & their antique business (cheap labor, obligated to assist in whatever capacity was needed due to the fact that I was their kid...hated every minute of it-it's my dad's special interest, not mine!). I have yet to find the perfect job. I'd like something quiet, little chaos, no screaming customers/kids, no dealing with money, etc. I'm not sure it exists. I'd love to do photography, but so far, I haven't been able to find success yet. That would be my dream job....to pursue my hobby & get paid for it. But really anything where I don't have to deal with intense stress.
_________________
If I do something right, no one remembers. If I do something
wrong, no one forgets.
Aspie Score: 173/200, NT score 31/200: very likely an Aspie
5/18/11: New Aspie test: 72/72
DX: Anxiety plus ADHD/Aspergers: inconclusive
Ashellin
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 27
Location: Lost... Oh wait, Scotland
I hear you on the Wal-Mart avoidance. I work for Tesco (UK equivalent) and it is soul-destroying awfulness. The only saving grace in my job is that I do stock records so there is very little interaction with customers other than the usual "where's this?" sort of encounters that have nice easy set answers.
iamnotaparakeet
Veteran
Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 25,091
Location: 0.5 Galactic radius
I hear you on the Wal-Mart avoidance. I work for Tesco (UK equivalent) and it is soul-destroying awfulness. The only saving grace in my job is that I do stock records so there is very little interaction with customers other than the usual "where's this?" sort of encounters that have nice easy set answers.
In terms of customer interaction I used to work at a McDonald's inside Wal-Mart before I was hired by Wal-Mart, and customers, seeing that I was wearing black pants, dress-sneakers, and a uniform, thought I worked for Wal-Mart and they'd constantly ask me where things were, even when I was bringing trash cans to the grocery side compactor or grease to the grease tank. "Where's the toilet paper?", they'd say. I'd just bring them to where the toilet paper was, but I felt like saying, "It's in the aisle with the sign hanging over the front of it which says 'toilet paper'..." but if I did that, then the customers would probably just report me to the Wal-Fart management for not being friendly or some other nonsense like that.
You still have to interact with the management and coworkers to some degree, and they are usually about as backstabbing a bunch as any pirates have ever been portrayed as being. If you say anything around any of them, count on it being heard by all. Anything that can be contorted to be used against you so that they get more hours, guess what, it shall be.
While working my way through college?
-- Mower operator for the city parks department worked pretty good except when I had to interface with some of the other employees.
--Orderly in the hospital on a bone and joint (orthopedics unit) worked very well. I had lower level patient care responsibilities, taking temps, making beds, giving bed baths, etc.. Patients were rarely sick, mostly just busted up. Patients were bored out of their skulls and were happy to get any contact with the staff, so it did not matter if I was quirky, I was friendly and efficient and they liked that.
After graduation with BS degree
-- Teaching jr. high and high school students, Most absolute disaster job in my entire life. Teen years are a highly sensitive years for personal communication. I sucked at it. Aspies should avoid it like the plague.
After graduation with MSME degree (Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering).
Mechanical Engineer. Absolutely a wonderful job for any Aspie who has "the knack" in a particular engineering field and a good IQ (see at http://www.dilbert.com ). I worked in the nuclear power division of a major corporation. Then the nuclear industry went belly up so I had to find something else.
After graduation with PhD degree
-- College Professor. Fantastic job for me because being a little eccentric is a good thing in a prof. The relationship between the prof and the students is formalized and fully spelled out. The prof has the power of the grade book so does not have to take any crap and the students know it. In engineering the students are motivated and focused on their education. Probably every 3rd to 6th student is at least moderately aspie. Students really like it when they know that you are really interested in the material.
Unfortunately, this job has now been ruined in the U.S. because all the universities want to hire is someone who can bring in research grants, and that is only done well by having superb people skills and being able to lie effectively to the bureaucrats that have the money. The university does not want you to teach, they want you whoring after research grants to fund the bureaucrats in the administration. They will send unqualified graduate student teaching asistants to teach your classes. You have to be a manager of a bunch of these as well as grad students doing research on your grants. This is a managerial job (sucks sucks sucks). However in small private schools this may not be always true, but then again they don't pay too much.
_________________
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer
i've had some good jobs, and some pretty crappy ones.
one of my first jobs was working at burger king. i don't know WHY i stayed there for 3 years. the noise and constant overstimulation really got to me. the saving grace was that i was moved to be a closer (because no one wanted to do it, but hey, i'm a night-owl) and that meant less customers. most of the time i stuck my coworker on the boards making the food while i did all the cleaning tasks like changing the oil in the fryers.
a bad choice for a job would be a convenience store/gas station. it was constantly busy, and if i got overloaded, i'd make mistakes. people get miffed when you make mistakes with money. i actually was glad to get fired from that job.
one pretty good job was working for the newspaper as a driver. i'd go in at midnight and drive around town dropping bundles of papers off to stores and paperboys' houses. it was quiet, you could listen to music, no one was on the streets in your way (and i often drove like a bat out of hell). the routine was nice - there was a distinct pattern to driving the route. typically, the police only pulled me over if they wanted a free paper (i was doing 80 in a 30 one night when they stopped me for one), and the only real issues with human interaction was when the press would break down and you get the kids' papers to them late.
after a while i did tech support. i love solving problems, and the calls were typically mercifully short. however i completely burned out when 3 other techs (of the FOUR of us..heh) suddenly left the company leaving me on my own. i not only had to fix all the problems, but in between calls i had to try and train the new techs.
my job as a programmer - the last one - was probably the best. just me and a computer and a stack of CD's. i was eventually laid off with 1500 other people due to government contracts being cancelled. however, not all jobs are without a downside. my manager tended to micro-manage me. being bothered. every hour to "see how things are going" breaks my train of thought, and it takes me a while to settle back in. he also didn't grasp my need for structure. giving me a project and saying "just get it done whenever" then being angry that i didn't finish it in two weeks when there were projects with more solidly defined deadlines just didn't sit well with me. he'd constantly give me bad reviews. and by the way "you need to focus more" is NOT helpful advice to someone with AS. yeah, no kidding.
_________________
eye contact is overrated.
i'm not jesus, i will not forgive.
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