Employment For Aspies

Post Reply New Topic

I have Asperger's syndrome, and have struggled all of my life trying to stay employed. I've never been able to find the right job. I was wondering what is the best kind of jobs for people with Asperger's syndrome?

I'm not sure, but if i had to guess, I would say whatever has the least possible human contact

There are several threads about this I believe. The typical answers I see are "computer programming", "data entry", and for the less educated "janitor", "assembly line worker". Ultimately, I think I have to focus on a few things when looking for a job.

1. Social interaction - The less the better
2. Environment - There are some environments that cause me more difficulties than others and any environmental difficulties make everything else about working much harder.
3. Multitasking - I can't do this at all, and the nearest approximation is simply switching my brain from one focus to another, but doing this all the time is quite tiring and information tends to get lost along the way, as I'll leave one task incomplete and forget to return to finish it. This is quite frustrating for employers and is probably a big reason why aspies have a high unemployment rate.
4. Social environment - Tolerance for people who are "different" varies greatly. Many people in the private sector have some expectations that they expect people to conform to that have nothing to do with actual work. Many people take a very spartan view of disability and simply think if people can't "cut it" they should just be tossed aside for someone who can. Our capitalist society rewards this behavior because it is always cheaper and easier to find another worker than actually find ways to use someone that can't fit a predetermined mold. Workplace politics are very important in some environments and our inability to handle this puts us at a disadvantage. I could go on. My current policty is full disclosure up front. If someone is going to not hire me because I am aspie or have a mental disorder, they'd probably make working miserable for me and I'd get fired or have to quit anyway.
5. Relationship building-If a job requires this (like maintaining relationships with clients and such), there is zero chance I will be successful at it.

Get in contact with your local vocational rehabilitation office or whatever the equivalent of vocational rehabilitation is in your state/country. They can help find a job that you will be able to succeed in, and help compensate for the lack of a social network.

I haven't seen the other threads but I am interested in this aswell... you see I am not interested in data entry, janitorial work or anything of that nature but I certainly need to find my niche aswell. Believe it or not I've worked in sales for most of my life and it's just way too stressful. It takes so much out of me just talking to customers that by the end of an 8 hour shift I'm about to pass out cause I'm so mentally drained..

Good luck finding a job that you can tolerate. I've had no luck in it myself. I tried to get help from the government in finding a job but the only thing they could suggest was manual labor where they stick the rest of the ret*ds making shirts. Being around people with mental retardation is not my cup of tea. I would likely go insane. I can barely tolerate "normal" people. So now I'm just receiving a disability supplement. 800 or so dollars a month to somehow live on. When I lose my grandparents I'm most likely going to be homeless. LOVELY! rabblerabblerabble...

I wish you good luck in finding your perfect job.

I had the perfect job, then the company shut down. I was the only artist on their flagship MMOG. It was a cool game and looked great. Oh well.

Thanks everyone and Zur-Darkstar the information was insightful. I do agree with you Zur-Darkstar about our capitalistic society. I could go on and on about it, but my main goal is to try to get employed and better my life, and cope with my Asperger's syndrome. A couple movies I have enjoyed that talk about how capitalism is ruining our lives, and the environment are A Crude Awakening and the Corporation.

From memory there's a pretty good list in Temple Grandin's thinking in pictures. There are also a couple of books about on AS & employment which have lists. A few suggestions I read recently were postman and truck driver.