Should young Aspies consider unskilled jobs instead?

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I have a great respect for people doing "easy unskilled jobs", especially physical labor. As a person for whom easy is difficult and difficult is easy, I don't think I would last more than half an hour as a cashier, waiter, construction worker, or pushing carts/trolleys in a supermarket. I am neither physically not socially fit enough, and working fixed hours is not really for me. But I was very logically fit and obsessed with computers, so the choice was quite obvious. I went through college without problems. Work was a different story. I may be good professionally, but working in a team is not my forte (that is, I have no problem working with others, but others don't seem to like working with me). Solution: seek an environment with more aspies and other weirdos. Where? Universities. That's what I'm trying now. From the stories I hear from my coworkers, I am surely in a weirdo-infested place. The problem is that wages are nearly twice lower than what I got before. And that's an even bigger problem with many unskilled jobs: you work very hard, but never earn enough to elevate yourself above the level of "poor". (There are exceptions, some unionized jobs, for example.) As much as I respect the work of people doing unskilled jobs, I must say that this is not an efficient way to earn a living.

Would I recommend young aspies to skip college and remain unskilled? No, never. If you can afford college (financially and psychologically), go through it. You can always do unskilled labor later, but you will also have many other options open.

Sadly, I think you find more weirdos and Aspies pushing supermarket trolleys than going to university.

I don't think you can take a single approach on this. Some people with AS are great professionals, others are find success as skilled laborers, and others are best suited to unskilled labor. Just like the general population.

My personal experience has been that working as an unskilled laborer gets boring fast, and I need a steady stream of new challenges to stay interested in what I do. Jobs where I've had the most responsibility are also where I've had the most success.

I've lost 13 years of job chances trying to become a graphic designer. Now I wish I had just taken a job gardening, mowing lawns and raking leaves instead!

I have considered unskilled work many times in my life, but considered aganist it. Firstly I am way too intelligent to do that kind of thing, unless it is for a few years until I finish university, secondly I would not cope working places like supermarket checkouts and Take Away places.

ok, so can we think of a different name to call this category of work ? my hubby (parts) is VERY skilled at doing what he does...most of the folks i work with ( white-collar workers) can barely screw in a light bulb let alone try to fix something that is broken . why is enjoying repetitive work bad ? someone has to do this sort of work . it is a shame that repetitive jobs don't pay more....hey....maybe if we all stop calling these sorts of jobs "unskilled labor" employers will pay more ! LOL.

whatever happened to using the term " blue collar worker" to refer to those people who work with their hands ?

I enjoyed my blue collar job. I worked for a company that put in masonry flooring in institutional settings (terrazzo-- you see it a lot in schools, airports, big places.) Basically, I showed up at the shop at 7 AM, called each of our job sites (up to six) on the radio and found out what materials & equipment they would need that day. Then I would plan out the most reasonable way to get everyone what they needed, hop into the company's F-550 flatbed, and get everyone what he needed. This might include: using a forklift to put a couple pallets of cement on the back of the truck and then unloading at the job site either with a fork lift or carrying 100 lbs bags on the shoulder, using the lift gate to lift a 1000 lbs grinding machine on the truck to move it from one job site to another, finding and buying the correct plug heads for high voltage machinery, and long trips to the occasional outlying jobs or suppliers. I worked about ten hours day and spent about seven of them by myself in my truck listening to NPR and going from place to place. The other time I was picking up supplies or dropping them off, and didn't really have to do much interaction with people. I made $14/hour working fifty hours a week. That's probably not enough for a family to be comfortable, but it was plenty for me to support myself.

My high school principal thought (of course)that starting out in an unskilled job would be good for me-teach me some discipline.
Instead , it became a rut,because these were to easy to get,which went well with my poor executive function.
In the U.S., being unskilled means not having health insurance or good medical access, being subject to a changing economy,and not having any real options except tomove to another crappy job.

[Sorry for replying with 2 weeks delay, I lost track of this thread. I guess it's better late than never. ]

I was struggling in Community College for 4 semesters and messed them up, because when I was supposed to concentrate on classes, I was hanging out with my friends instead and going out too many places. I had a chat with my Disabled Students services about future goals. I said I want to work in any kind of financial profession. She said, "Be realistic and shoot for more realistic goals." She told me that most people with AS issues have trade school jobs like auto mechanic or cook, but I see that stuff as very low-class and I feel like those jobs are for ex-criminals who got in trouble with the law in the past. But I have pulled about a 3.0 GPA this semester (very first time I actually applied myself since 7th grade), but it was literally extremely hard work though, I made lots of mistakes in classes, including not being organized enough, getting overly confused about directions, forgetting to follow little details on assignments, plus some others. But I have figured out how I can better prepared for the fall and I am actually very clearly aware about what I did wrong. I can get A's in Math Tests and Multiple Choice Quizzes, but I have a Learning Disability when it comes to assignments that require a bunch of multiple-step directions and I get confused when I have to go over a bunch of directions. Also, sometimes, I need more time on my tests, but I am shooting for a 3.5+ transferrable GPA to go to a 4-year university of my choice. The reason why I messed up a few semesters in Community College because I had an awful High School experience (meaning I didn't really care about school, I was suffering extreme depression, so extreme, my parents thought they need me to be locked up in an institution, I was even contemplating suicide literally, as well as contemplating dropping out from high school). Regardless of the obstacles, I refuse to go to a low tier school, and get into a competitive public school in California, since I reside there and I will never give up on my goals no matter what.