Job Success Stories / Jobs You Love(d)

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Ok, there are plenty of threads about not being sure what to do for a living or not being sure that Aspies can have a career that makes decent amounts of money. However, I am a US Air Force Veteran separated for medical reasons that had nothing to do with being an Aspie, and am in school to pursue another career now that I am not in the service.


I want to hear your stories of what jobs you've loved, what ones you excelled at, and what things you did or adapted in your own behavior to be better at such a job (if you needed to adapt at all).


My Story is this:

First, I was not diagnosed as an Aspie until I was Active Duty Military and my therapist made sure not to write it down on the records because you can't be Active Duty Military and have Asperger's on record.

The military environment was great for me, lots of structure, geared-in politeness structures, respect for rank not the person, and expected response patterns depending on who you were and what your job was. If you are already diagnosed, you can still be hired for civilian intelligence positions and other civilian military support jobs that have the same kind of structure and expectations which may be a way to go if you have a special interest or aptitude that works with government needs.

I worked as a Biomedical Equipment Technician while in the Air Force. It may sound complicated but it is electronic and mechanical troubleshooting for medical equipment. You do have to be able to learn about lots of different equipment types, but the basic information is all the same. Plus, you pretty much are required to use the technical literature every time you do even a simple once-over check to validate function so if you are having a bad day regarding forgetfulness you've got the checklist right there. I loved the job. It pays decent in the civilian world, particularly if you are willing to travel and cover multiple hospitals. I have kids so I don't want to travel so I am training now to work in psychology.

Oh I'm sure many Aspies are skeptical about someone who is AS pursuing a degree in counseling and psychology, but its my special interest. I've studied what NTs are like since I discovered there was a subject that endeavors to explain why people do the odd things they do. So at 25 I've now been studying psychology and the associated subject of sociology for seventeen years. I know the DSM inside and out and have friends who are professional psychologists who call me at the end of the day with their complex cases to have me run through the files in my head to see if I come up with a potentially different diagnosis or cause for certain things so they can be more accurate or look at the situation in a different way.

I don't think I'd be able to deal with counseling adults because I hate people too much in general and think most of them are too whiny about problems that they can fix themselves, but I think working with kids could be nice because I like kids and they already have a different view on the world and aren't stuck into a particular worldview yet. I've got two of my own kids: one has AS tendencies and Sensory Processing issues at age two and the other is only six months old.

I'm going to school full-time right now while I stay at home with my kids (online schooling is such a blessing because I can excel at it and never have to deal with the normal social issues of regular school!! !). I should be finishing my Bachelor's Degree in Sociology next Spring and am starting my Graduate work in Developmental Psych the following fall.

So, what things have you found that you can do? What jobs have you loved as an Aspie? I'm tired of only hearing the bad things about being an Aspie on the job boards.

Pizza delivery was great, also socially, all the other things I've done, including the current one, sucked big time. The thought of coming back to the good one is always on my mind, there are strong forces against, that's why I'm still here, when I'll be really fed up I think I'll go back to where I belonged.

Interesting story. I'm glad you enjoyed your time in the air force. I would have thought being in the forces would be a strain for aspies, with some of the social rough-and-tumble of military men. I've never been in the forces (visual impairment) but I did work with a load of ex-marines (in the UK) who had been invalided out for medical reasons. Their brand of social interaction was very rough, they didn't know what to make of me, except mincemeat. Good people, just boisterous and enjoying life.

As for a job I've enjoyed. With my visual impairment, my choice of jobs has been very limited, really just to office work. I think I've enjoyed places I've worked at more than the jobs. The jobs have been much of a muchness, low-level admin with the inevitable customer service thrown in, but I've worked with some great people at great places, all in the public secotr.

Now living in CA, moved here just as the recession started so am one of the 11% or so out of work. I hope something comes along soon.

Oddly enough, in regards to the rougher "military men" I usually have found my niche in guys who are in either electronics fields or intelligence fields in the military. Many of the people in intelligence fields seem to have strong Aspie tendencies or are undiagnosed Aspies. Actually, I have had a good number of friends with military guys, usually those who work in such fields. We don't engage the usual boisterous crowd that often, but most of the time you can find ways to make your private life private if you work at just being the resourceful one that does favors for everyone *you just have to make each person think that they are the only one you do favors for, or that this favor would be something that you would ONLY do for them!*

I found that many of the rougher guys did resent me because I managed to "work the system" mainly by having the hardest screws in the bunch (and most of them being high ranking) like me because I managed to make them feel like I was doing special favors for each and every one of them.