If Asperger's or HFA and employed, what are you doing?

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This is a question for those of you with Asperger's or HFA only (because I have one of these, and I need info that's most relevant to me)....

I set up a poll the other day to find out what percentage of people w/ Asperger's or HFA are supporting themselves, or are supported by family, or are on disability, etc.

So far, 35% say they are supporting themselves, which is rather surprising, since elsewhere I've read that people with Asperger's or HFA have a 80-90% unemployment rate. Admittedly, the sample is small and unscientific, so maybe that's the problem.

So now I'm really curious - of those of you who are supporting yourselves 100% by working, what are you doing?

Please tell me what kind of work you do, how much you make doing it, how you got the job, how secure you feel in that job, how happy you are doing it, how you decided on that kind of work, how long you've been doing this kind of work, etc.

The more detailed your answer, the better, because I'm having a very, VERY difficult time figuring out what I can do to support myself, and need all the help (or ideas, info, etc.) I can get.

Thank you very much.

Last edited by ThomasL on 10 Jul 2012, 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

I work doing inventory/receiving work and it fits me perfectly! I get to meet almost everyone (200+ co-workers) yet at the same time work alone most of the time. I think the only reason I got the job was because I was interviewed by 5 (yes 5) people at once so eye contact wasn't an issue. It's not a perfect job but my boss seems to be an Aspie as well and really understands me. In addition, many of my co-workers are highly educated and many know all about ASD's (and probably assumed I had it years ago: I think I'm the last one to figure it out).

It's not what I intended to get for a job and I spent over three years looking so I can definitely understand the difficulties in getting suitable employment. Bottom line is that I make a terrible first impression but quickly prove highly reliable and conscientious after just a few weeks.

The best place for an Aspie to look for a job in my opinion is a small manufacturing/industrial location doing Shipping/Receiving work. I did that about 6 years ago and I met many fellow shipper/receivers and many have a very similar introverted personality which is PERFECT for that type of work. With smaller companies its usually easier to avoid those stupid personality test and usually nobody else wants that type of job. The downside it that those position are usually not well advertised. I'm in the fortunate situation of having a position where nobody else wants it even though the money is great because it requires working alone so use that to your advantage.

I've been a software consultant for 15 years ; been giving financial systems consulting to about 200 different companies in about 20 different countries.
I always loved giving presentations in front of customers, showing off really cool and unconventional solutions that will save them a lot of time and money. I dread to think how much of my life has been spent at various airports especially with flight delays.

Now settled down at regular office job at a company in Rotterdam; still doing financial systems consulting, but now I get home every evening. Now that's nice.

Network Administrator. I started at my previous place as a PC tech fresh out of school. Lasted there almost 10 years total. I use headphones and an MP3 player or CD player when the place get to be too much, or when I need to really concentrate.

Previous occupations included Animal Care Assistant at a Primate Sanctuary for 7 years, and Video Store clerk for 20 months (a record at that place -- finished as unofficial store manager). both tied in with special interests.

Desktop Support Technician. I repair and install computers for a library network. I am the only one for my company, but I support over 30 libraries and over 500 computers. I essentially work alone, which is great. My office is separate from everyone else's when I am not out at libraries. And when I am at a library, it's obviously quiet. It's perfect!

I'm not independent of my parents but I do work at Chuck E. Cheese's, which for those who don't live in the States is a Pizza/Arcade restaurant for the kids to go to. Responsibilities include dealing with customers, trying to promote sales, getting in a mouse costume, helping kids pick out toys and playing with kids.

As you can imagine I'm not very fond of this job. I can put up with it because there are some aspects that are rewarding (money being the most important factor). Customers can make me very nervous since they have a very short fuse and think you're stupid for working at such a low-level place (although it's pretty silly, since I'm 19 and I can't really get a job elsewhere at the moment). Then they might notice you getting nervous and say you're not good enough for the job or whatever crap they want to throw at you.

In addition, you have to literally jump from station to station because nobody wants to help you (I'm looking at all the 16-year old high-school-esque girls who are party hostesses, who only text half the time they're on the clock) and because of that I get very nervous.

So all in all, it sucks, I need a new job, but I can't find one because my interview skills are horrible. But at least I get SOME money.

Count me in as another Software/Tech guy. I am currently unemployed since I just graduated, but I have degrees in Computer Engineering and Math. I worked for a tech firm and ended up positioning myself as a valuable employee so I could force them to pay for my school or watch me walk away. Eventually I set them up with someone to take my place and moved on to head a tech team that created a form of biomedical communication and outsourced it to the US military.

Overall, both of the jobs were alright. The tech firm I worked for was pretty unethical, so I felt no remorse blackmailing them. I did have good hours though and gained a ton of valuable experience. The company that outsourced the project I was working was much better. I got to work from home frequently and got paid awfully good for someone who was going to school still. As of now though, I'll probably be employed again in a month, and plan on getting my ME or MS a couple of years from now.

I work in the field of Biotechnology and am currently employed as a senior technician in the Manufacturing department, where the company I work for makes a variety of kits as a companion diagnostic or research tool for patients with certain genetic forms of cancer. This is to advise what treatment programme the patients should go on. I have been working at this company now for 2 years and started off as a technician there. I have, however, been working in the field of Biotechnology for a total of five years. I much preferred my previous job in Biotech as everyone was much more harmonious and staff morale was fairly high. Where I am working now: the cause is good but people are very bitchy, immature and petty and this causes a lot of problems in that it can hinder people like me from doing my job. No-one seems to learn from this either which I find frustrating. For me, because of this, going to work is like trying to get out of bed when you have the flu - a real struggle.

I do closed captioning for a religious TV network. I've been at the company for 15 years, 13 years in my current position. I was hyperlexic and could read and write at a college level in the 5th grade but had/have severe dyscalculia and can only do math at maybe a 5th grade level.

I studied Communication Arts in college, with a concentration in Broadcasting, thinking I'd like to be a camera operator, but the "live" aspect of making television programs was a bit too intimidating for me.

After my internship, a woman I'd gone to school with told me about a job opening here and talked me up to her supervisors as someone who was steady and reliable (I don't know about the steady part ) I got hired during the height of the Clinton administration when unemployment was very low and they'd gone through the bottom of the barrel of nuts and flakes. I really think that was the only reason I got hired.

Doing post-production closed-captioning is about as easy as watching paint dry and about as exciting, especially after 13 years. I had no particular training in this area except for my language ability and the little bit of broadcasting that was relevant--timecode and how to operate various tape decks. All you do is get a transcript from a transcriptionist, or type it yourself from a pre-recorded program, divide the text up into the bits that go on the screen, then use a source of timecode that matches your master copy of the media and sync it up. In my software, I hit the + key every time it goes to the next line and it records the timecode.

The transcriptionists here use voice recognition software to make their transcripts, and some of the things I've found have been really funny. "The Dead Sea Squirrels," for instance, or, "Baptism washes away your sense."

I work pretty much alone all day, which is GREAT!! ! There's a little deadline pressure, but not too bad. I've learned a lot about the Catholic faith, which has been interesting, since one of my interests is the Middle Ages. Oh, and I was the first and only person in this position, so I get to do everything pretty much my way.

I'd rather not tell you how much I make because I've been here for a long time and have no idea what the starting salary would be, but it's probably above minimum wage. I don't even think one would have to have a college degree to do this, as my supervisor's job description doesn't require one.

I just want to say that even a 65% unemployment rate HUGE compared to the national unemployment rate and even the unemployment rate for most other disabilities. I think the 80-90% figure might be more accurate for ALL cases of autism but I think people who answered the poll and post on WP tend to be skewed toward the HFA side of the spectrum. Still, this doesn't diminish the the seriousness of a 65% unemployment rate.

What we have to take into consideration also is that people with ASD who ARE employed are often underemployed based on limited hours of work, pay not equal to equivalent to the norm for the position, being highly overqualified for the job, inability to maintain a job for more than a short period, etc,. These things make the problem even worse than the already brutal 65% figure suggests.

I always take for granted that on polls here, we get answers from that part of the aspie population that is:
1. aware of their autism
2. lucky to have bumped into this site
3. lucky/well-off enough to have access to a computer / library
4. not struggling so much that they can spare the time and energy to post / vote on here
5. English-speaking
6. comfortable enough interacting in a mostly anglo-saxon website
7. educated enough to be able to use a computer
and the list goes on.

You'd be surprised to know that the percentage of aspies in the world that fulfill all of the above conditions is near zero; the tip of an iceberg. The amount of aspies living in sub-human conditions or non-functioning is much, much larger than represented here. You're talking to an aspie elite here. We are the lucky ones.

VERY well said! I appreciate your candor.

After working in retail for six years (doing almost everything, including running the register, customer service, food services, and retrieving carts/trolleys. I had gained a bit of a reputation for flexibility, and they would even call me when I was on vacation/holiday to ask if I wanted some extra hours), I started working as a database administrator and developer four years ago at the university. It's not the greatest paying job out there, but it has some good perks, such as regular hours, evenings and weekends off, being able to take classes for free (currently working on my second Master's) and generous holiday times. I've written a few pieces of software that have simplified processes and done things that other staff members thought were not possible with the resources we had.

Underemployed can still be a good life. Pay rate isn't my primary factor in choosing a job, and is unlikely to ever be a factor in my choosing to change jobs. Quality of work environment on the other hand . . . .

So far, the only poll/study/etc that I can put much stock in is the one done in South Korea where they took a sampling of the students that cut across the entire student population for the ages studies and checked all sampled for Autism. They found that 1 in 38 was on the spectrum, with many that showed positive for Autism not yet diagnosed.

All others I've yet seen have some significant bias -- most only look at those officially diagnosed, and here we have only those who self-identify as being on the spectrum, be they officially diagnosed or not, and are looking to improve themselves.

So when they say 65% unemployment rate, does that mean 65% of us get unemployment? Because that's how the government calculates unemployment rate... OR, does it simply mean that only 35% of us have jobs?

I'd love to tell you about my job, but my job sucks. I work in fast food pizza. If it wasn't for the people i work with, it would be absolute hell. I get paid a measly 7.35 an hour, just above minimum wage. I'll never be able to support myself because I can never find a job where I can actually stay for a long period of time, and even if I could, I never make enough. I have no desire to be a manager because I have enough trouble keeping up with my own s**t, let alone bossing people around. I'm basically screwed without someone else to live with.

I would LOVE to be able to live on my own and support myself entirely, but I have no idea what i could do for a living that would allow for that. I've gone to school for computer stuff, but it was a sh***y tech school aimed at getting you in and out as fast as possible, so I didn't really learn much of anything(I already knew most of what was taught, but without a stupid piece of paper, nobody believes you). And the paper I got from the place isn't even worth anything anyway. AND, to make matters even worse, a lot of IT stuff gets outsourced now. So the only way I could ever pursue that at this point would be to go learn a crapton of new stuff and probably work for free somewhere to get "experience." Well I can't afford to work for free; I got friggin' bills. I'd work in a warehouse(I actually don't mind that), but my back and ankles are screwed, and every warehouse I can find wants like 12 hour shifts. There's no way I can do that; I wouldn't be able to walk the next day. Plus they do drug testing, and if I didn't smoke pot, I'd lose my mind in this crazy world.

Last edited by DerStadtschutz on 11 Jul 2012, 11:41 am, edited 2 times in total.