Anyone on the spectrum here land a nice job?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm diganosed with PDD and asperger's and I'm on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum. I successfully completed a bachelors degree 4 years ago, I can drive and have my own car, and I'm able to perform well without too much accomodations. However, the ASD I believe has been a big barrier for me in trying to successfully obtain a good job. Since college, I've mostly been working in temp agencies manufacturing, something I probably could've got without a high school education. I want to get out of that line of work ASAP. Right now I'm really starting to regret college. The debt and investment just hasn't paid off and it feels like I'm just taking money and burning it in a bonfire.

I had help through my state's (Ohio) Vocational Rehabilitation program, but in my second year of college, they started becoming more and more worthless. First they stopped paying for my books, then by the third year they were giving me no money at all to help with tuition. And they failed to help me find a job. I just reapplied with them since I heard their service has improved a little, but I'm not sure if I should hold my breath.

My skillset is in digital arts, such as web design, photoshop, animations, and game design. Feel free to view my website

So my questions for you viewers here are, how did you get over the barrier? Did you get any special services to help you? Were you upfront with the potential employers about being diagnosed with an ASD?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. It's just absolute hell living with Autism

All of the "normal" jobs I've had sucked. The only one I kinda liked was when I was an engineer in a recording studio. I actually co-owned the studio so it's not like there was a paycheck. I had to record a lot of rap/hip-hop which tested the limits of my sanity, but it paid the rent.

Here's a question I have....

Do Aspies ever get good jobs that AREN'T in computer science or engineering? I have no aptitude nor interest in those subjects.

OP, your website doesn't have images yet. It states that visitors should go look on your standard site... But doesn't say where that is

It's hard to say if Asperger's is an issue or not, a lot of people these days are getting out of school and having trouble finding work. But having Asperger's certainly can make it harder.

But to answer your question, I was able to find a solid position in accounting after finishing school in 2008....unfortunately various issues [some ASD related, some not] led to them firing me after a year. I've only now found a part-time position, after nearly 3 years out of work. But I really believe I can find another position once I get some experience built up. I will say probably the main reason I have this position is because I'm American Indian and they operate under Indian Preference for hiring. They also want to pay a Bookkeeper salary for Accountant-level responsibilities, but I have to take what I can get, and right now, this is what I can get.

I've never disclosed anything about Asperger's. I figure that would make it even harder on me as far as finding work.


I'd say I am fairly "high functioning," whatever that means....but I admit I have often struggled to find work over the years. The most career success I've had was in a position with the Post Office, which I held nearly seven years. I think much of that was being in the right place at the right time, and also because they did not interview people, they only looked at people's test scores. These days I'm looking for some kind of accounting-related position with some kind of governmental organization, because I think that's the only way I can stay employed long term, but it is tough to get in.

Well when I lived in Alberta I worked in the daycare field. The daycare field isn't exactly what you would call a glamorous or amazing job but the place where I worked paid me $30.00 an hour, I lived right beside my job with two other girls so we had tons of money and could just roll out of bed and go to work and even come home for lunch. I was allowed taking vacations whenever I wanted to and my boss was super nice. I also had my own classroom. I kind of had a meltdown when they transferred me to a different, bigger classroom where I had to work with other people because they were changing the age groups around. I couldn't stand working with the new people and I eventually quit. I miss the job when I had my own classroom though. Oh yeah, the ECE certification in Ontario is even higher in Alberta. You can either qualify as a Level 1-Assistant, Level 2-ECE or Level 3-Early Childhood Development Supervisor and I qualified for a level 3 so I was one of the highest paid employees there.

Self-diagnosed, working on an official diagnosis for Asperger’s, but yes I have a great job love it, probably not the one I "should" have picked, I am an instructor (teacher) teaching Mechanical Engineering Technology to college students. It’s the sole reason for the official diagnosis, I could not understand why I was feeling run down and having issues with needed to be "on" all the time, or why at the end of a bad semester I was so burnt and appeared strung-out. That and it almost cost me my marriage. But not that I know what is going on, and understand that sometime I need that emotional alone time, to decompress and not be "on” it should be better. Sorry ranting here only just found this site about a week ago and only started to figure the diagnosis out 3 weeks ago. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

My job is ok. i am a dishwasher. is simple and make almost 12 an hour.. aint to bad for just outa high school.

I'm not sure what you define as "good".

I have stable long term employment which is full time but I can always switch to part time if I want or need to. My employers do not know I have AS, and I do not think it would be beneficial to inform them that I do as the understanding of ASD in general in my workplace is very poor.

I make a fair amount of money (more than is expected for my age) and over half of it goes straight into my savings account since I'm saving up to go back to college again. I enjoy my work mostly, as my main role is to put programs together that will benefit our clients, although I spend about 40% of my time there working one on one or with groups of the clients also, since that is in the job description and it's also a good way to see what they want or need in those programs.

I'd say very mediocre - 'okay' is that it pays between 30 and 40k a year, downside is we pretty much sit on our thumbs all day, are all getting failing marks in my office based on factors quite literally beyond our control, and while most days the supervisors say nothing to us, at random, throw something at us that's demanding of an instant shift to hypervigilance. There's no track for promotion, no real way to make it happen, and while we have the opportunity for bonus its really just hypothetical.

Probably the only upside - we work with incredibly nice people, I can't think of anyone I've met to date in the company who made me worry in that regard, downside: they simply don't have work for us, which makes me feel like an abject loser in my private life (add to that living at home mostly via that ongoing sense of no job stability), makes me feel like I'm on the edge of getting either laid off of fired, etc. etc.. Trust me, I get that there are people all around the country who'd count me incredibly lucky to have a job at all - the current market is a big factor in me not looking; I just wish that the 'hit the ground running' paranoia and the proofs of that paranoia's validity were something I could find a way to bypass.

I guess this is basically what I meant to say:

Thread

I landed the perfect job for me, since the employer wanted everything to go super fast they forego the interview and, according to a written test I had done a couple of months before, I was the highest scoring that had answered 'Yes' to the question 'Do you want to work at [that company]?' that was posed a couple of weeks earlier. Mind you, that was over 15 years ago, and I only got my diagnose 7 years ago.

Now, everything's different, but that's in another thread.