"Jobs For People Who Don't Like People"

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Yahoo is always trying to give me career advice....

http://education.yahoo.net/articles/job ... ?kid=1ATWU

Accountant
Computer Programmer
Writer
Forensic Science Technician
Budget Analyst
Medical Transcriptionist
Actuary

Accountant - boring
Computer Programmer - boring
Writer - maybe, but I lack the discipline
Forensic Science Technician - could be interesting
Budget Analyst - boring
Medical Transcriptionist - REALLY boring, plus my typing skill suck
Actuary - boring


Other than writing and forensics, each of these seem to lack any real creativity or interesting problem solving. Are aspies typically content in such jobs?

Actually, yes -- I think so. I often have the opportunity to do creative and interesting stuff in my job; and I'm never as happy and comfortable as when I'm assigned a huge proofreading project.

I find that interesting. I feel a constant need for new information, especially anything connected to my interests. In fact I've concluded my SPECIAL interest is information in general. I can't escape the compulsion to acquire new information and connect it to all the other things I've 'collected' in my head. I have this singular obsession with connecting the dots. Like this little gem -

How are blood diamonds and fractals related?

Blood diamonds are part of the illicit trade in mineral resources in the Congo
Part of this trade is in precious metals used in electronics
Electronics include cell phones
Cell phone antennae are made in a fractal pattern.

Only four data points separate blood diamonds and fractals. There may be other pathways that could reduce the number of hops.

You get the idea.

Special interests are usually about things. I collect ideas. Is that really weird?

Academia. I'm in research science myself and since learning about AS have come to the conclusion there are quite a lot of people with AS around here who probably have no idea that there's a name for it.

Those with AS symptoms around here are also the ones who are generally best at doing their job. They have no problem reading papers all day and evening and doing experiments all weekend. It's basically a perfect match.

Definitely not weird. Special interests very often involve a component of collectability. All of mine always have.

The best job I had was working in the royalties department for a talent agency. They had a huge spreadsheet full of payments they were having trouble allocating and my job was to sort through it and try and tally up payments with jobs and clients. It was basically just problem solving through discovering systems of patterns and I loved it.

I also got to sort through the book royalty statements when they came in, which meant going through boxes and boxes of papers sorting them into piles and then processing them onto the system, which could get pretty complicated. The people at that job were really cool too, very friendly and laid-back and let you just get on with stuff.

That sounds interesting but I don't know if I could do it. I have terrible difficulty with anything that requires sequential processing. I get quickly flummoxed when a task requires that I hold too many steps in short term/working memory. It's like my L1 cache is too small for my CPU and there is a bus width mismatch between my memory, CPU and I/O systems

It's ok, I'm terrible at computers (I have to admit I have no idea what the last part of your post was about ) but I got to grips with the system they were using relatively quickly. Are you good at picking out patterns? Because that was really what the job needed and why I enjoyed it so much. From your posts on this thread though it sounds like you'd be really good as a researcher (if you're not one already).

I have a job as a dustman cleaning litter off of parking lots. It's the best job I've ever had.

I always figured customer service would be great job for someone who doesn't like other people, some of the rudest people i've encountered work there, theres no prerequisite to be nice just accurate.

One of those really high end shops would be even better, no worries that you'll come off as superior.

I agree with Combo that there are a lot of Aspie-ish people in Academia and as long as your interests match your field so you don't mind working all the time and your social skills are up to par it could be an ideal career. It also provides a fair level of autonomy, but can be stressful.

Personally though, I am a grad student and am thinking of leaving academia because the necessary social networking, minimal as it is, is a continual source of anxiety for me. My interests are also too broad and I have trouble focusing solely on my research topics.

As such I think I would prefer a 'safe', low-stress 8 to 5 job that would let me pursue what ever random interest I've picked up in my spare time and am thinking of getting a job as a zoo keeper. So I understand RainingRoses' preference for a proofreading project, though her preferences may be for different reasons. I do worry about getting bored, though.

I work as a programmer. But building programs is not my most important part of the job. My job is to make technical designs for existing and new programs, finding solutions to certain questions by the client.

Another favourite of mine is solving incidents. Having a malfunction and finding the problem. Then think of a way to solve it.

With my aspie way of thinking I can make some quantum leaps and solve the problems in a unexpected way.

But maybe for most people my job is boring, but I like it.

I would love to be a computer programmer or work in forensics (Forensic Files is one of my favorite televisions shows).

I've been told I have a gift for writing, but it's crap money. I've never had the inclination to keep learning a programming language, I get bored too quickly. I'm crap at maths so any job which requires numbers isn't for me.

What I do at the moment is run a bunch of websites and make money from ads, and I sell cases and MP3 players. In the future I'm going to be the next Aspie success story with billions of dollars

Actually, if you could figure out a way for visual artists to make money in a world where digital reproduction pushes the value of their images to near zero then you could make a fortune.