Jobs that ARE for autistic people

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26 Jan 2013, 9:02 am

It goes against stereotypes, but I think a psychologist - especially research psychologist - would be a good career for an autistic person.

See, many people think psychologists need good people skills, but they don't. What they really need is the ability to let go of their intuition and consciously analyze people's behavior. In essence, you need to act like the 'anthropologist from Mars'. People's intuition about themselves and others is right often enough to make it advantageous, but not nearly often enough to depend on it for science.

Ganondox
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26 Jan 2013, 9:26 am

psychegots wrote:

Doctor! You need the ability to learn and remember a really big curriculum and to treat really sick and/or dying people without your emotions/empathy getting in the way of your objectivity.

Because autistic people like emotions/empathy..... :roll:

.....though I think there is a trait that autistic people have that might make them be able to be more objective in such a situation and thus be better at it, but it's not a lack of emotions or empathy.

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Rascal77s
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26 Jan 2013, 2:23 pm

Anything working with animals.

psychegots
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26 Jan 2013, 2:31 pm

Ganondox wrote:

psychegots wrote:

Doctor! You need the ability to learn and remember a really big curriculum and to treat really sick and/or dying people without your emotions/empathy getting in the way of your objectivity.

Because autistic people like emotions/empathy..... :roll:

That's what I meant. You could call it a cognitive style dominated by logic and not emotions I suppose, but I do not think it's wrong to say empathy. Most people think of highly emotional/compassionate people as empathic, and controlled "cold" people as lacking in empathy, even though it is not the correct textbook definition.

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26 Jan 2013, 5:46 pm

Any job that gives an individual the ability to capitalize on and exploit their abilities is a job for an autistic person. Be it programming, running a CNC lathe, investigating crime scenes, being an intelligence analyst, soldier, etc., any job can be an autist's job.

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26 Jan 2013, 5:57 pm

I agree, an "autistic" job is the job that suits each autistic person best. For example, I like translation, and also my biggest dream is to become a famous singer, which isn't at all what you would consider a typical job for an autistic person.

And I don't see teacher as a job designed for autistic people either. You need to have people skills, confidence and know how to deal with groups of people of different ages.

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26 Jan 2013, 6:09 pm

Ettina wrote:

Have to be careful there. You are correct re: research psychologist. However profesional psychologists need some empathy with their clients (called accurate empathy) in order to properly develop a rapport prior to therapy. I believe this can be trained even in autistic/aspie people.

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26 Jan 2013, 7:30 pm

I would be happy making wooden drum sticks all day long.

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26 Jan 2013, 7:44 pm

i want to be a game designer. For me thats the ultimate autism/aspie friendly job.

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seaturtleisland
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26 Jan 2013, 8:13 pm

Callista wrote:

Sports announcer, really? That requires a lot of public speaking skill. Can be learned of course.
Let's see...

Any job that involves your special interest.

Jobs requiring focusing on small details: Some factory jobs; repair work; proofreading/editing; custodial work; laboratory work.

Jobs involving repetitive tasks and routines which are the same every time: Mail carrier, assembly line worker.

Jobs involving organization and arrangement of ideas and objects: Librarian, accountant, graphic designer, statistician.

Jobs requiring minimal human contact, or which involve working with animals rather than humans.

Night shift work.

I disagree with you on the point of public speaking skills. Public speaking is different from conversing. I know Aspies often have trouble with conversation but I don't think public speaking has much to do with AS on its own.

I agree with every other suggestion. A person with Asperger's may not have all the symptoms so it really depends on the individual.

I have a friend from highschool with Asperger's who would definitely prefer a repetitive routine job but I would hate it.

I can't stick to a routine for that long without getting sick of it.

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26 Jan 2013, 11:15 pm

Motion Picture projectionist. My job for decades. No NT wants the job because it involves odd hours, no breaks and the person is pretty much stuck in the projection room all alone with ten or more projectors to tend. For me it was the perfect job. I could go downstairs to the concession stand and comp a coffee or coke and talk to the other workers for a bit but didn't have to see them in the course of the days work. I read a lot of books and of course watched a lot of movies. Even had a computor in one theater and that was back when computers were pretty big. Sadly, that job is just about extinct. In a few years just about all movies will be digital and they won't need a projectionist to switch on a glorified television monitor.

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27 Jan 2013, 12:02 am

ASTROBOY wrote:

I was offered a job as a projectionist in the mid 1970s but turned it down. It would have been a second job when the first was adequate for my needs and it would have involved more driving back and forth than I wanted to do.

I would have been the projectionist at two theaters across the street from each other. One showed first run family movies while the other showed adult movies in Spanish. The family movies theater had the standard projectors where you had to change reels every 20 minutes or so. The other had some kind of setup where you would splice the movies together and run them pretty much unattended except to start and stop the movies and to rewind the movies while another was showing.

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30 Jan 2013, 11:28 am

I don't think people should limit themselves but here are a few from my industry:

Gemologist
Gem/Diamond cutter
Jeweller
Diamond & Gem Setter

I have to say though, lots of people in the jewellery and gem industries are batsh!t crazy though so working for some of them is not good.

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30 Jan 2013, 11:58 am

equestriatola wrote:

Basically, this is the inverse of stevenjacksonftw7's thread.
------
1. Writer; I mean, being that I am a right-brained sort of person, this is something I excel at.
2. Teacher: Even with the recent tragedies, it seems less demanding than other jobs for such like us.
3. Sports announcer.

Law, there are many socially awkward lawyers. And being stilted/formal is almost expected in some jobs. Caveat: the legal market is very tight right now, so unless you can go to school for free, I wouldn't recommend it because the big firm jobs that many students use to pay off their loans put a lot of emphasis on social skills, and they prefer someone who is informal and conversational over someone who is stilted and formal (basically, the opposite of a lot of legal jobs). But public sector jobs and plaintiffs' firms are often good places for aspies.

You spend a lot of time by yourself researching and writing.

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30 Jan 2013, 12:13 pm

being a teacher means interacting with children, who are young people. sport announcer - many aspies are shy and some suffer from social phobias.. i dont know...
how about a computer programmer, a scientest, a dogs trainer (we love animals), a vet, a medical researcher.
a writer, yes. many aspies are writers and many wp members have written a book or two.

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