Finding and Keeping jobs - Tips and Advice

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Wow. So you're just coming up on 18?

Well, I'm not sure where you've been applying or for what, but I can tell you that at your age a lot of people will see you as under qualified no matter what.

I'm surprised a Krogers turned you down, but they are a union shop (IIRC) so they are careful who they hire. From personal experience, I'd keep trying at other grocery stores. They do hire anyone who is willing to show up when scheduled and do their job without having to be watched all the time. It's at least a way to get started.

Sadly, at your age, unless you have some remarkable skill or talent, nobody will consider your "skills" to be anything remarkable because you haven't had a chance to do much that demonstrates them. So, you may have them but nobody really notices them. This will change quickly once you can start working.

If you have confidence in yourself and know what you are good at, keep trying, even at the same places that once turned you down, and politely assert yourself that you want to work, have ____, ____ and ____ skills and qualities to offer, and if they have no openings, if they could refer you to someone willing to hire someone who wants to work. I can't believe that wouldn't open a door with someone you meet sooner or later. Most young people are looked over because they don't want to work when they are hired.

if I do not find a job soon, i will be dressing in really raggedy up cloths and stand near a highway intersection and panhandle like a homeless person....

I was fired today. I have no one to tell, so I'm sharing here.

Just a piece of legal advice:

If you do not have a diagnosis, do not go around and tell a potential employer that "i think i may have it".

Doing so could make the company close not hire you, and they can do so since "i think" is not a valid diagnosis, and not much to form a legal discrimination case upon.

And...even if they suspect you to have AS or HFA or something similar, they are not legally allowed to ask if you have something like that - not even if they have it themselves and want to "make a new WP-friend". This applies to (at least) Sweden and Usa, the latter i found out by reading a document by an US interviewer writing about his work experiences.

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And some useful links to some of my posts where i say some useful things:

Writing a CV, Interviews and getting help:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/posts20842-start75.html

Creating your own experpences:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt95133.html

Tips about the job-ad and why you should examine the employer
http://www.wrongplanet.net/posts95133-start15.html

In the first thread 06xrs made a post which made me come up with something:

It's possible I don't have much self confidence, so thinking "I can't prove I will perform bad at work because I can't know" could help to think in a more positive way.

i seem to have no problem getting jobs. i am very well qualifies in my specialist subject and talented at my profession.

it is keeping the job that is the problem. for example i have had my current job for 1 year. i am already facing disciplinary procedures..but for what? i have no idea and neither do they. regarding my actual duties i perform excellently. I was in my first disciplinary watched carefully by top staff and they reported I was good - outstanding.

So if it is not my duty - what I am actually employed for what is the problem...

well it is simply acting with my colleagues in a professional and agreeable way.

I have no way of dressing up what I say so it just comes out, regardless of whether another member of staff or the boss boss - i still speak the same. I don't have the ability to differentiate or be tactile apparently. I go around telling people how it is - and because of their lack of competency they complain about me instead of addressing their downfalls

this leads to weird disciplinary. i have a high level of praise and external acknowledgment of my talents and thank you from people who matter - i am good at my job - but i am still in front of the main boss on monday

and it is not a one off - it is a lifetime pattern. top of my class at school but expelled. liked by all but excluded from peer friendship groups because i don't get my peers. scholarships but disciplinary hearing, it has to stop. i would like to hear from anyone with similar probs.

Hi Kosta, welcome to WP.

That sounds very much like me. I can't take this anymore, so I'm trying to get social benefits and quit working.

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[quote]RTF MAJORS/MINORS - THIS IS WORTH SAVING FOR FUTURE JOB SEARCHES


Here's another word that makes or breaks a job: "Please", as in "Please mail my check". I actually said this last week when fired for being three minutes late to work after my bus never showed up on time. Rather than yell and swear at the person who fired you, a 'please' has possibly gotten them to see how valuable a worker I am. Not to mention that I always show up at least 10-15 minutes early, except one time on this day when bus was late. BTW: I give career seminars with real-world advice on how asperger people can maintain employment. PM for details.

I seem to have the opposite problem from most of the other posters. I have a hard time getting a job but can easily keep them. The only jobs I've had a hard time keeping are the ones I liked.

I was diagnosed as a high functioning autistic, not an aspie. Maybe there is a big difference because I don't have a lot of the problems other people here have. I am very good at school, and getting degrees, but ending up in low paying jobs that don't require a degree.

Having worked in retail for over ten years I am really surprised at some of the experiences people have described here. The biggest problem in retail is keeping people. Most places I have worked you have to literally work hard to get fired. If you show up on time, do good work, that is almost all that is required. Getting along with people helps, but I have never seen quiet people as being a problem.

It can be hard to get an initial job and break in. I did yard work for a small construction company, the guy was a friend of my Mom's. He had someone who owed him one, who took me then then gave me a hard time. I took everything he threw at me without complaining, and left when I chose to leave.

That gave me enough experience that I could get work later after my career choice failed.

You can volunteer for nonprofits, to get experience. You can go to fast food or grocery stores and be willing to take undesirable jobs. You have a better chance with odd shifts, like an AM shift. After you get a hideous job under your belt you can move on to better jobs. You have to be willing to work, and willing to take work that is beneath you.

I always get along with everyone. I must not be as Aspie. I have to make an effort not to talk above people heads but that's about it. Everyone likes me, I'm none as a quiet one and a witty person. I even make a few friends.

Supervisors say they can tell me what to do, and I'll do it, and they don't have to keep checking on me. The problem is I'm so good get pigeon holed. I lack the social skills to seek promotion and my oddness might make me not be seen as worthy.

I have such good standing at the store where I work that I think I could move up if I chose that option. I'll see what happens with the state agency I will meet with soon. I really have been laboring under a handicap. Even though I entered some volatile type jobs; Journalism, commercial photography, it seems my oddness was definitely a factor as to why things didn't work out.

I didn't nean to go on so long and I;m not sure what I started out to say, but one last bit of advice. Attitude is important. When you go to apply for a job have a good attitude, and be persistent.

There are a few tips in this thread. Maybe about half the posts? A lot of people posted here to complain about their situation. My tip for them is read more carefully, follow instructions and respond in the appropriate context. We aspies often suck at looking at the context or big picture. It's something I am starting to work on and practise doing, as it's a weak point for me, too. You'll drive a potential employer nuts if you don't do this, and they will get rid of you, I suspect. I've had several work conflicts that could have been avoided with that orientation.

My tip is this: know yourself and be able to present your strengths, but also address your weaknesses where possible. A great resource I have found for organizing and elucidating this process of self analysis and development is a book called "Asperger syndrome employment workbook," by Roger N. Meyer. It came up in a google search and I've used the readable selections. I think I'll order myself a copy of it. Goes into the kind of detail that my career exploration course doesn't because the course is designed for NT people just like most of the world. Another good one is How to Find Work That Works for People with Asperger Syndrome, by Gail Hawkins, which I am also tempted to get.

I hear and share your frustrations everyone. For me personally it has got to the point where I have motivational issues just to apply over and over again trying to find anyone who will pay me.

I read some books in college and the book is called "Good to Great". Basically someone studies companies that grow and they figure out what it takes and why they are successful long term.

Basically you have to love work, money, and your skills and kiss butt and be absolutely thrilled about work. Self help books focus on these qualities as well. These are the successful employees companies want and those that HR screens for.

One book I have is titled "Stop whining and go get a life". Basically if you do not love your job you wont keep it.

What does this have to do with aspergers and keeping a job? If you love your job and what you do you will not badmouth procedures, employees, or your job. I have been fired before and feel your pain and here are my steps:

1. If something is wrong never ever say anything about it unless in clear privacy in your bosses office. I got fired before for hating the way my previous employer did things. Since he felt I was badmouthing him he fired me and figured I didn't love my job. He is correct because I complained. Whining is complaining.
2. Never ask people out at work. If you are socially awkward this can be viewed as sexual harrasment.
3. Love what you do.
4. If a procedure is messed up its your bosses problem. You wont be fired. He or she will if you confront them privately and nothing happens.
5. The customer/boss is always right. We are literal but work is not. You need to kiss up sometimes and yes people are wrong.
6. If politics and small talk go around work do not comment or get involved.
7. Learn to love not being unemployed or hating the capitalist system.
8. If you hate work after a few years and nothing listed above works go get another job. Remember not to quit because we are in a recession but look while you have a job.

Follow these things and you will secure a job and keep it. At least it worked for me. For those who say they want to live off social security I have to say it wont be around forever and it wont pay for a median $400,000 home.

NT's have it tough too and its called work for a reason. It may not what everyone wants to hear but roughing yourself up is important because your parents wont live forever and the world is a cruel place. Compete in it and be part of it and not fight it. If people did not work so hard for us we would not eat or have anything. Dont we owe the world the same by working?