An Employment Puzzle

Post Reply New Topic

Just curious, can you think of any employment/education ideas for someone who has a Psychology BA degree, no research experience, and has the following characteristics:
- Social difficulties, so not wanting to work with people or have any job that requires interpersonal skills
- Is very slow at data entry (slow typing speed)
- Has difficulty with writing complex essays/literature reviews (challenges structuring the piece, too much detail, writing too convoluted)
- Has almost no work experience in areas he/she is good at or jobs that he/she is satisfied with
- Has no second language knowledge
- Is very good at specific language skills and verbal tasks, but has spatial challenges (NVLD)
- Is very good at memorizing verbal/logical/language-based facts
- Has a very good diction and pronunciation of words, as well as a very pleasant voice
- Is not too good with computers or technology (i.e. no programming/engineering skills)

The only thing I can think of that fits well is phone market research or perhaps telemarketing, which can be very stressful if you don't make enough sales and have to switch jobs all the time. What do you guys think?

Teaching English as a second language? Tutoring people in literacy skills?

edit: Nevermind...tutoring requires interpersonal skills -sorry!

That does require working with people and developing a rapport with people, though, but teaching a large group might not be so bad. It might require good organizational skills, though.

Yeah, I wasn't thinking so much about the social interaction involved ... sorry 'bout that.

Teaching does usually require some organizational skills -- even if only to plan out lessons.

Hmm, aside from a purely editing job (which is hard to find), this is kind of difficult. A market research job actually doesn't work well because of its late hours. Teaching might work, but it's highly stressful and the organizational part is tough.

Statistician?

Go to http://www.onetonline.org/

Near the bottom of the page is the Advanced Search. You can choose Work Values, click Independence (i.e. not much interacting with supervisors) and see a list of jobs. You can choose the Work Context category, and look at the jobs that are not in the Interpersonal Relationships subcategory. Basically, just go through the categories, choose the options you want, see the jobs that pop up, and narrow it down.

You can also search for a particular job you are interested in at the top of the homepage and look at the Work Activities, Abilities, etc. sections to see if it matches your skills and the job duties you prefer not to do.

That was another thing I thought of. It's probably feasible if this person can do a Master's in statistics. Apparently, there is some conference attending and networking involved in doing this kind of Master's degree (actually, in any Master's degree, I would think!). I think she can do it if she learns some skills and learns to be less self-conscious and less anxious about how others perceive her, but maybe that's just me, since I go to conferences all the time.

Thanks, that's a really useful site! Clinical data manager might work but knowledge of programming is listed, which might be a learnable skill. I couldn't find a way to not show any jobs that require a specific skill.

Here's a list of probably the most non-social jobs possible: http://www.onetonline.org/skills/result ... B.3.m&g=Go

~~~~~~~

This is difficult to figure out... Learning some new skills and improving existing ones, as well as improving self-esteem, would probably be the only way out of this. There is a time constraint because the person at hand is several years older than me and needs to find a way to sustain herself in case something happens to her only parent. I'll refer her to this thread later and if anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks for your responses!

Answering service operator? Helpline operator?

Security guard? Night watch person/commissionaire?

So many more doors would open with typing practice. There are a lot of free typing programs online available for practicing.

That is a night job that messes up your circadian rhythms and sleeping during the day is not very appropriate for someone who still lives with her single parent and depends on her parent a lot (who tends to go to bed early). I would think you also have to be reasonably large in body mass in order to do this kind of job, and preferably male.

I agree about the typing. However, if you inherently have coordination problems, there are probably limits to how much you can train yourself to type faster. For instance, I know I can't type faster than I do now, with my current typing speed being about 45 wpm.

I agree. Just trying to think of a few ideas. And fair enough about the typing... I know that I create truly awful work schedules due to my visual spatial issues, and if I get arthritis the way some of my family has, typing would get harder. Would landscaping or outdoor work work? I realize that it is hard and seasonal, but it might be a starting point. Or, with some training, something in the trades?

One thing I do have to say is that you're a good friend or family member to be reaching out like this.