I can't find a job I want to do, or am able to do!!

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I just joined this forum and explained my story in the introduction thread, if anyone wants to get more familiar with that before reading this! I wanted to ask specifically about work though since that's the area of my life I need the most help in as soon as possible.

I'm 39, and still don't have a "career". I've floated through various jobs that any simple minded person could do, but all of them involved either having to talk on the phone or deal directly with people (big no no's for me!) or they weren't right for me in some other way.

I can't talk on the phone, I can't deal with customers, I can't get up early in the mornings (or even before noon, actually), I never went to college, I am completely useless when it comes to doing anything regarding math or numbers or money, and I am pretty small and weak so I can't do any heavy lifting or strenuous hard work. Where does this leave me!? If any of you have the same problems, what jobs do you have?

I am currently working at a thrift store but I can't stand it and every day I want to walk out, being around customers is destroying me I can just feel it. All I want to do is run away and hide. I'm living with my mom right now because I can't afford rent and I have been looking for a better paying job for 4 years now (since I was laid off from a good paying factory job). That factory was not like other factories, literally anyone could work there, mentally ill people, people who could barely lift their arms, so it was an easy job but I got laid off so, since then i've bounced around taking whatever I could get and whatever I could do, but then I realized just how debilitating my problem is (I haven't been diagnosed but am almost positive I have autism to some degree).

I am now completely afraid that I'll never be able to work again and not be constantly living in a state of anxiety. Career counselors don't know how to deal with people with issues like these so I wanted to ask people who are like me. So what does everyone here do for a job (if you're not still in school, that is!), and does anyone have any advice for how I can find something that fits me? Thanks in advance!

Something has got to pay the rent, a poor job is better than none. I'm 20, work casual and have full time study (35 hour weeks). I got the job after almost 3 years of being being unemployed (employers don't like to hire full time uni students) , the job I had before the store closed down. I worked at my current job as a intern first and after that they hired me. It's all about networking and having contacts. Where are your contacts?

You have to learn how to speak on the phone and have a basic understanding of maths sadly if you want a nice job. If you can't find a job right now try volunteering, you might find something you are interested in and it looks good on your CV

Well that's one of the main problems, I don't make or keep contacts very well. Almost every interaction with employers or coworkers is awkward and almost right away it becomes "established" that we are not on the same wavelength. But in the jobs I've had, they don't have the type that people network through. They've been minimum wage/part time jobs, that people take just temporarily. I've worked in fast food, factory work, cleaning, and retail. I hated them all for different reasons and I don't even want to go back to any of them (or stay in retail where I am now).



I did volunteer once, but like almost everything else, I had too many awkward moments and felt stupid so I made up an excuse for why I couldn't keep doing it. But learning to be able to talk on the phone, I don't know how I can ever do that, it's like I have this built in inability to speak correctly and be confident enough to know what to say. It's like my mind shuts down and I physically and mentally can't do it. I even avoid talking to my family and friends on the phone. I just hate talking. I need a job where I don't have to talk.

@AstraeaLunaAvani:

Things you can not do:

... talk on the phone
... deal with customers
... get up before noon
... arithmetic
... make change (?)
... afford rent on your own

Things you can do:

... factory work (please provide details)

You said you have no college degree. Do you have an Associate's Degree? They're usually conferred by trade schools and junior colleges. Do you have a high school diploma? If not, can you get a G.E.D.?

Are there any other factories or refineries in the area? How about warehouse facilities?

Some entertainment venues close during the day for cleaning, maintenance, repairs, and re-decorating. Rental halls do this too. During those times, there are no customers around - only other staff members.

Without knowing your strengths, it is difficult to give you any meaningful advice. What can you do?

Well, like I said, it wasn't like other factories, so I can't just go and get another job in another factory because this one was so different. ANYONE could walk off the street and work there, even people who had physical disabilities. But now when I search for factory jobs, they all require you to lift like 70 pounds, and you have to know how to weld, sauter, operate complex machinery, drive a forklift, read blueprints...it all sounds like stuff only men can do, and smart men, at that! What I did at my factory job was simple jobs like sit in a chair and bend fasteners and stick them into a folder, or stand at the end of a conveyor belt and grab papers coming off it and put them into a box. I have never seen any jobs like this anywhere.



I only have a high school diploma, no degrees of any kind. I got bad grades in school, the only thing I was good at was English and typing. I thought I wanted to work in an office but nowadays they don't just have jobs where you can sit and type. In order to work in an office you need to have good communication skills, answer phones, & know a bunch of computer programs. They're also all daytime hours.



I can't do anything real good, I guess I was a good worker at the factory but that was easy stuff and I won't find that again. I tried cleaning but I hate cleaning and I couldn't handle getting up that early (9 am). I tried working at a teenage shelter where I cooked, cleaned, did laundry, light data entry and paperwork, but that job was the worst because I had to answer the phones and deal with kids coming in, and I am not trained in how to deal with troubled teenagers, I am not a people person, so I was scared to death working there and had panic attacks and almost walked out a few times. I tried retail which I'm in now but I have the same problem, it's only tolerable because I'm not the only one there and because I can avoid customers to some degree. I worked in fast food too but that doesn't pay enough and I get easily stressed and overwhelmed in a fast paced environment.

It's so hard to find something I'm good at when everything I've tried has been a failure. In my free time, I sit on the internet most of the time so I'm really good at typing but there are no jobs where you JUST type. And even if I did find one, I don't think I could handle doing it all day long for 8 hours, and then come home and do it here too.

I have interests & hobbies, but you can't make a full time living from doing them. Like I love listening to music (but can't read sheet music so I've never been good at playing any instruments). I love taking pictures but you can't make a living doing that. I love cooking but can't afford expensive culinary school and I also don't want to work in a resteraunt, it's too fast paced and stressful and I need a calm relaxing environment to work in. I'm also a total klutz in the kitchen and if anyone saw me cooking they would never hire me. I set a lid on hot burner once and started a fire. I love reading but you can't make a living doing that. I love going to concerts but I don't want to work at one, then I can't enjoy it. Another problem I have is that if I do something I love for a job, it will take all the fun out of it. I don't like being forced to do something. I just want to do what I want. I know this attitude sounds childish, but I can't help how I feel.

I've also had this problem of not being able to make decisions easily, (or sometimes not at all!), I feel limited and see all kinds of problems with any option, and I over analyze and think and obsess and think some more and end up more upset because I don't know what to do!

The reality is that most jobs require some form of social contact. Can you think off the top of your head where there isn't a job where you don't communicate at all? If you can, go for that job

If there are any electronics and/or electronics manufacturing companies around you might check out electronics assembly/construction.

I had jobs with small electronics companies where I had zero to 4 coworkers, and even then the work was still pretty solitary. OTOH, when I did the same sort of work at a large company the usual bad social crap started happening at lunch and breaks (including my boss getting on my case about not eating lunch with the other employees after the crap started). So, I'd recommend a small company.

I have had a typing-only job before--it's called "transcription". There are probably a lot of places to find work-from-home transcription jobs, but the place I picked up my assignments was from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Mostly I worked transcribing podcasts, although I know the category of medical transcriptionist is a full-time job for folks that specialize in it.

I've only seen one job that was for assembly where you are just sitting and putting small parts together, it wasn't electronics but it was medical and they said you had to have clean room experience, which I don't.

Thought about doing transcriptionist work but a few things kept me from that; although I am good at typing because I do it so much, I would rather not do it for a job because then I will be doing it literally all day long, every day. And also I wasn't motivated at all to go to school to learn how to be a transcriptionist...just thinking about it made me dread it and I know I would have no interest in the subject matter (I despise the medical industry AND the judicial system so I wouldn't want to work in either area anyway).

I just think I am the only person alive that there isn't a perfect job for, and I'm a perfectionist and stubborn, a bad combination!