How many adults on wrongplanet with asperger syndrome are...

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How many adults on wrongplanet with asperger syndrome are able to work successfully in a mainstream job?

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I've had the the same engineering job for over 20 years.

I worked until I was finally "spent" about a year ago, but I do not know how "successful" all of that was other than that I did somehow always manage to find yet one more job when things went sour after anywhere from three days to a couple of years.

Ditto for myself. I am amazed at how many times I found the strength to apply for still another job, after being fired or having to quit. I am burned out now.

Yes, completely ... but I am certainly glad that does not have to be the case for everyone!

Last edited by leejosepho on 12 Feb 2011, 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have been a high school teacher for 23 years. The first 19 years I taught English. I have now been the gifted intervention specialist for the past 4 years.

Ditto that. Kinda depends on what you consider 'successful.' I worked for years off and on, but couldn't keep a job much longer than a year and a half before the stress would get to be too much, which would affect my ability to conform and keep up the 'normal' act, then my bosses would get annoyed and fire me. If I hadn't been able to draw unemployment for a few months while I recharged my mental battery, before going out and starting the whole cycle again, I would have either been homeless or a suicide. But I stayed in the same field the whole time because I couldn't stay focused on anything else. Never made more than survival level income. So by NT standards, I was never very successful, but now that I realize I was struggling with a disability the whole time, I guess I did okay. I couldn't do it now, though. The stress would have me in a psyche ward in no time at all.

been in the same job/field for over 10 years now... in August it will be 11! but it gets SOOO overwhelming for me at times. however, the people I work closely with everyday, i have been educating them about the Spectrum...and they help me most of the time.

Can you define what you mean by mainstream job? Do you mean professional level?

I'm a software engineer. I've been continuously employed for 20-something years. I can't imagine doing anything else.

I am doing well in a job that is not mainstream. I could succeed in something mainstream if I had to. I've held farm jobs during the summer while I was in high school.

My pattern is to find a low skilled job and hang on like grim death. I hate job hunting with a passion.

I can usually hold a job for 9 years before they get rid of me for being slow, verbally abusive, and for not handling change well. I have never had a well paying job or had a job where I was not insulted or teased daily.

I do well in the jobs I've had. My current one is a real career-track one, and my bosses have made a couple of vague noises about me having management potential in the future. My three performance reviews thus far have all been good.

This, more or less. I've been with the same company for six years, and while it has certainly been rocky at moments, I'm still there. I tried a "real job" (read: office job, complete with computer, phone, and a dress code) with them for 15 months, but it absolutely did not work out and they were happy to let me go back to the department in which I function best.

I've been working (mostly in web development) pretty much consistently for the past ten years since I got out of college. Things were rough at first. I quit my first job after four months and almost got fired from the next after two months. Since then it's been relatively smooth sailing. I got laid off two times in restructurings but was able to find new work fairly quickly.

Although my reviews are generally good I've never been "promoted" per se. I think both me and my employers instinctively know that I would be no good in management. I usually find a niche at whatever job I'm at and get stuck there until the company goes under.