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mrspotatohead
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13 Jun 2014, 1:50 am

So, my local news station posted this article on Facebook about companies that tend to hire autistic employees. ...and they're all software companies... because that's all autistic people are good at, and all autistic people ARE good at software? Discuss...
5 companies autism <--- link (after editing 10+ times and it not making a link out of "companies" above, I am assured that I would not be appropriate for one of these jobs at this time...)



LoveNotHate
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13 Jun 2014, 2:37 am

I have worked at several software companies, and ASD people are not necessarily suited for computer programming.

I was considered "too slow" at everything , so I has to work many extra hours to offset my "slowness". I found the real world of programming to be messy, hectic, dynamically changing and having many angry personalities coming from the other tech people.


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mr_bigmouth_502
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13 Jun 2014, 2:48 am

I don't work well with advanced mathematical concepts, and I'm not an abstract/creative thinker so I would probably be poorly suited to programming. Hardware maintenence or repair on the other hand, I could see myself doing. If I were vigilant enough, I could even see myself being a sysadmin.



iceb
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13 Jun 2014, 8:11 am

LoveNotHate wrote:
I have worked at several software companies, and ASD people are not necessarily suited for computer programming.

I was considered "too slow" at everything , so I has to work many extra hours to offset my "slowness". I found the real world of programming to be messy, hectic, dynamically changing and having many angry personalities coming from the other tech people.

I am always considered too slow unless it is a good and precise job is required, nowadays everyone is in too big a hurry and would rather have buggy software with no documentation than someone do a 'proper job'
BS artists rain supreme in most professions unfortunately most of us with AS are not good at BS.


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MissDorkness
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13 Jun 2014, 12:59 pm

iceb wrote:
LoveNotHate wrote:
I have worked at several software companies, and ASD people are not necessarily suited for computer programming.

I was considered "too slow" at everything , so I has to work many extra hours to offset my "slowness". I found the real world of programming to be messy, hectic, dynamically changing and having many angry personalities coming from the other tech people.

I am always considered too slow unless it is a good and precise job is required, nowadays everyone is in too big a hurry and would rather have buggy software with no documentation than someone do a 'proper job'.
BS artists reign supreme in most professions unfortunately most of us with AS are not good at BS.

Heh, indeed.

That's why I work for an 'owner' instead of a services firm/consultant.
I might be a bit slow doing things in-house, but, it's still faster and cheaper than outsourcing it.

And, yeah, my biggest frustration at my old job (as an owner consuming a lot of construction services), the deliverables were almost always subpar and very often horrible. They are all 'hey, building is done, documents are done, yay! look at how great we are!' nevermind that the building doesn't function as it should and the documents are next to useless. SO FRUSTRATING.
That type of attitude is evidently not just endemic in the construction industry, but, I'm happy to get away so I no longer have to be mired in disgust at the waste.



MathGirl
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13 Jun 2014, 8:51 pm

I've noticed this trend, too. Seems like exclusion of more energetic people with ASD. I would hate sitting in one spot without talking for hours for the rest of my life. I am doing it now and it really gets to me, to the point where I absolutely need to pick up the phone and call somebody at least every two hours. Not all of us are happy with THAT much solitary, non-social time.


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Kurgan
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14 Jun 2014, 5:42 pm

MathGirl wrote:
I've noticed this trend, too. Seems like exclusion of more energetic people with ASD. I would hate sitting in one spot without talking for hours for the rest of my life. I am doing it now and it really gets to me, to the point where I absolutely need to pick up the phone and call somebody at least every two hours. Not all of us are happy with THAT much solitary, non-social time.


A lot of software developers these days have desks that can be raised, so that you can do your work standing up. I really liked this at the place where I did my thesis.


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MissDorkness
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14 Jun 2014, 8:06 pm

MathGirl wrote:
I've noticed this trend, too. Seems like exclusion of more energetic people with ASD. I would hate sitting in one spot without talking for hours for the rest of my life. I am doing it now and it really gets to me, to the point where I absolutely need to pick up the phone and call somebody at least every two hours. Not all of us are happy with THAT much solitary, non-social time.

I email my BFF throughout the day... Keeps me connected and lets me decompress... Occasionally we help each other with problem-solving (we're both system admins who dabble in programming).