Employment for autistics. Then and now.

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I suppose the higher amount of self-employment in the past would have allowed more people with Autism to work with their families. I've found people with Autism can often do this, even the more impaired. Social service help isn't as good as familiar help IMO. I did some work with my parents for a bit, balancing books, office work and automotive stuff mostly, and I could handle it far better because there was that routine and comfort (which are important things when it comes to Autism after all).

I'm 40 and I've had jobs on and off since I was 17. I am male and undiagnosed.

My metaphor for my experience with employment is that I looked up at the bottom rung of the career ladder and somebody yelled down,

"HEY! What makes you think you're worthy of looking at the bottom rung of our beautiful ladder! Don't you even think about trying to grab on!"

And after many tries, I finally managed to grab on and cling to that bottom rung. But the entire time, somebody has been grinding their heel into my fingers, trying to get me off.

I'm not sure about autistic people specifically, but I think entry-level jobs used to be easier to get in general. When we first moved to California, my mother went into a store to use the restroom and came out with a job. Decades later, my mother had a job interview and was insulted that they didn't hire her on the spot. I told her that in my experience, they never do nowadays. Another time, an elderly man told me about when he had moved to Los Angeles from England and "pounded the pavement" until he found a job. By the end of the day, somebody had hired him and offered him a ride home.

During my long periods of unemployment, some people believed that getting a job still worked that way and held it against me. If I couldn't get one, it must mean I was doing something wrong. One family friend insisted I get a paper application and hand it in to the hiring manager. I told him that this store only had online applications -- the paper application literally didn't exist. I couldn't make him understand this. "This is why you don't have a job," he said angrily.

Regarding keeping a job, duties creep (a.k.a. job creep or role creep) is an issue that I think has gotten worse over the years. I have worked my current job for 13 years and what I do now would have been the jobs of like 7 different people when I started. Also, my hours have been slashed in half and I'm expected to do the same amount of work in that time for half the money.

I wonder might any of you please have suggestions how to make submitting job applications and interviews easier for people on the spectrum and other neurodiverse people (e.g. with ADHD, dyslexia, etc.)?

I've volunteered at my workplace to help advise the HR department on these things, to help improve equality and diversity in the workplace.

I have a son who is diagnosed on the spectrum and think I might be on or near the spectrum, but know the spectrum is very diverse so it would be very useful to hear different viewpoints and advice.

I'd be very grateful for any thoughts you have.

I got most of my jobs by having rare, in-demand skills. Some offers were very surprising, as I was not formally qualified.

^^ You can go to interviews with no hopes of getting a job just to get more familiar with the interview processes. Once that gets reasonably easy and you are not getting consistently rejected over any single factor, you can start trying to get the job. However, if you don't, don't be discouraged. You are more like someone who has been given a key to a locker, but has to try a whole row of them to see which one it fits.

If I were a person hiring someone, I would emphasize skills, too.

I’ve seen too many socially-proficient people become slow, inaccurate employees. I, not socially-proficient, had to make up for their shortfalls.

I believe that as long as a person isn’t actively unpleasant, sort of quiet and awkward, yet good at the required skills, that I would hire that person over a supposed “team-player.”

A person does have to seek to get along with fellow employees, though, and not seek to rock the boat at every opportunity.

I don't know about "Classic" Autism, I suppose the severity of the symptoms would be a big factor. But "Asperger's" wasn't in the DSM until 1994 so folk like me as old as me were just "odd" which may have made employment opportunities more dependent solely on skills...no labels and no suspicions of labels to get in the way.

A good way to show skills when job hunting is to have relevant work experience on your resume.

Without work experience the best bet would likely be professional certifications or certification of appropriate schooling. (Or connections.)

^^ I find this for 2021, not an official site... https://www.elemy.com/studio/autism-resources/military/

Simiarly to how this article ends... I fostered a child and it went very well --- for both of us. I didn't know I had ASD. I wonder that if I had known and disclosed that they would not have "let" me and that child and I would have missed out on a highly mutually beneficial relationship. Sigh.

I hope the Cyber Command likes high functioning Autistics. We'd be the best group of folk they could chase!

(I was in computers...but back during the Carter administration.)