I lived in my truck for a year after the divorce, partly because I was scared to commit to a place. What if I hated living there; what if I was putting myself in a bad environment with desperate people; what if the rent increases and I couldn’t pay for it; what if I couldn’t … insert so many worries here.

I didn’t want to be stuck until the lease expired, so I drove around looking at apartments, houses, trailers, any possible home during that year. I parked in their parking lots and studied the residence. You could say I was kind of stalking them, but I had good reasons. I qualified for financial disability from the state, but I didn’t take advantage of any other services. It is a rural environment, and the people working for the state were not … I’m unsure what adjective to use, so to be nice I will say they were not experts in their field. Low pay doesn’t attract the best and brightest. There are likely many great people working for the state, but I had not met any of them at that time. I had several misunderstandings in the past (partly my fault) and couldn’t force myself to try with them anymore.

I’m in my 30′s now, and am a little better than I was at 21, but am not anymore employed. I did find a run-down house that I learned how to make livable. I then went to college and earned 2 science degrees — partly to hyper-fixate on my interests at the time, but also because I had nothing better to do. School and home-improvement were my only successes within the decade of living here. I can’t stress enough how much that hurts.

I am proud of earning college degrees, and proud of how much I have learned taking care of my house. However, not being employed, and feeling unemployable (unwanted for my talents), made me understand that my country doesn’t want me. I know I am useful for something. I’m just really bad at marketing myself. I don’t have any references (no friends or family) so there isn’t a way to prove beforehand that I am useful. They have to take a risk, and hire me to see what I can do for them.

I have a new idea that I am slowly implementing. I found several volunteer work programs in Europe. I chose the country Germany, because I think I might fit into their society better. If I fit better, the socializing problem might not be such a hindrance to keeping a job. They stress work over socializing, and seem to appreciate special skills more. I do not know for certain, which is why I have to go and find out. I am not getting anywhere in my own country, so I must broaden my scope of options.

I shared my struggles to tell the story how far I have come with myself, but how little that mattered to get me gainful employment in the US. I am thinking, maybe if I gain work experience in Germany, I will have references to try again in the US later. Although, I doubt, if I get settled and like it, that I will want to upend my life again and come back, but I agree with the phrase ‘never say never’. I don’t know what the future will bring. I do know that my present prospects inside the US are nil.

Hey, maybe once I get another car, I could work in NYC for $15 an hour as a frozen food flipper and a mop flopper.

I think the challenge, while these are all beautiful and dignified jobs in proportion to the values the people working in them hold as individuals, it tends to remain the same that in most places it’s a heck of a thing to get by on the income provided by these kinds of careers. Talking to some relatives recently about what a single should make to really be able to make it on their own without living paycheck to paycheck, the were talking somewhere around $25 an hour – and I’m in the midwest where housing and rent are comparatively super-cheap.

I have a professional degree, am using it, and still at 35 haven’t found the financial security to move out (also still haven’t had the fortune of breaking the $40k per year barrier). I tend to think that if we want a more robust economy where people have the kind of disposable income to spend on various goods, the kind of spending that keeps the whole machine running, we really need to focus on ways to cut back on basic staple costs; housing is probably what cuts deepest into most people’s wallets and at the same time I wonder just how firm the numbers are or how much the right kind of innovations could completely change that game.

I mean I can easily think of ways mobile technology can used to improve the lives of us suffering from AS and Autism.

I just need to figure out how to get the capital to the start the company.

They could also use these devices to get much needed research data on adults suffering from AS and Autism spectrum disorders…
So far they have very little.

And the best way to cut through all that corporate nonsense crap !

1) The U.S. and other industrial economies, even those of India and China (went to college with many students from India and China) are still undergoing a huge market correction, which was caused by easy credit and the subsequent financial meltdown.

2) unemployment for people under 40 in the industrial economies including India and China, is quite high, due companies not wiling to hire them. My fellow classmates from India and China talked about how hard it was for college grads and young people as whole to get hired, leaving most of them unemployed or working for family.

3) Entry level jobs no longer exist for the most part. Unpaid internships require 2+ years of “industry” experiences (hence the world industry) and in many cases industry certifications to get hired. What entry level exists, requires 3-5+ years of experiences and industry certifications and the specific set of skills each employers requires. This makes it very difficult for college students and young people as whole to get hired even in the U.S., this partly the reason why I haven’t been hired yet despite all the applying and interviewing I’ve done.

4) Training for the most part is non existent. You are expected to be able to the job you are being hired for with no training or adjustment phase. You literally are expected to know everything required to do that job the day you start. Even when I interviewed at General Motors IT department, they expected me to “hit the ground running” aka no training on how to the job I was applying for at GM IT. Yet they send their employees to an 8 week course on what GM is and learn the culture and history of the company. You literally cannot be expected to know how each position in each company works and the software and hardware they use. Each company uses different hardware and software among other things, some of which is proprietary.

5) Asinine requirements. Seriously how does a young person even one in college get the 2-5+ years of experience required for the internships, let alone the necessary years of industry experiences required to get an entry level job. I interviewed near the end of 2014, that expected me to have at least 2 years or so of enterprise software, which you cannot get in an internship let alone college due to the sensitivity of the software to a business’ operations. Also how do you get professional/industry certifications (which requires years of industry experience), when you have to work for a few years before you can get them?

6)Industry experience required… How do you get the necessary industry experience when most internships now require 2+ years of experience and last during the summer months? How does a young person or college person this day in age even get the internships with the asinine requirements? From my experiences general work experiences counts for nothing essentially being equal to unemployment…

Yeah how does someone under 40 get hired in todays climate?
Seriously I keep running into asinine rejections for all the jobs I interview for, let alone never hearing back for most I apply for…!

It’s not us Aspies and autistic who aren’t getting employed, it’s heavily impacting young NTs, almost 1/3rd of my graduating class was unemployed and many of them still are unemployed. another 1/3rd were underemployed and lucky if they could get 20 hours a week and were worried about being let go…

Maybe I will pursue starting my own company…