Getting employed Questions and statements to the 6%-12%

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There is a statistic that says that 88% of those on the spectrum do not have a job at all and can't get any job whatsoever. It is also said that only about 6% have full time employment. If this is true then I need to be talking to the 6%-12% about how to get and keep a job instead of focusing on the 88%.

This is my set of questions to the 6%-12%. I believe we in the 88% need to be talking to the 6%-12% who do have a job of somekind.

Step by Step, how did you get employed? Please post your entire work history and tell me how you got those jobs?

Is it traditional employment or do you employ yourselves? Is it contract work?

Here is an example of demeus being a member of the 12% possible 6%. http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf102191-0-15.html

We need to be talking to Demeus and Tantybi and those who are as successful as him and her.

If we all can see what the 6%-12% including Demeus and Tantybi are actually doing then maybe we can establish a pattern of what the rest of us should actually do with a good moral concience.

All we're doing is metaphaphorically bashing our heads against the wall trying to fight the system and trying to figure out the system. I believe we're getting nowhere.

I think it's more likely that there are plenty of people on the spectrum who go undiagnosed because they've managed to be successful without recognising that they have difficulties in certain areas. If you have a job and are managing in life, you're less likely to notice there's a problem.

I am retired military, employed full time as an engineer and am autistic. If you want a job, figure out what you like to do. I wanted to be an electronics engineer since I was 4 years old. It is my special interest. I love my career because i get payed to play with electronics. What are your special interests?

Get a job related to your special interests.

BTW, those statistics are utter crap. Take them with a grain of salt.

I applied for the job, went to interviews and finally got it. I can talk and i know what i am talking about, that has never been the problem. I think the problem is more recruiters who think social competence is much more important than deep technical skill.




Entire? Sorry, CBA to do that, but i can say that I've had several types of IT jobs since 1994, and while most of them had pretty mundane stuff to do, most of them saw me through 6 months of trial employment, just to fail because lack of social skills. Obviously, being a social tit is more important than knowing how to configure network and servers.

The problem isn't to find A job, it is to find the RIGHT job which lets you be yourself without all the suits, stupid smiles and asskissing.




Traditional. I have tried employing myself earlier but everyone else had their own agendas and the others just went where the money was, they couldn't focus on IT so i dropped out. It its not IT, i'm not interested, no matter how much it pays.




No.

For me it was never about getting a job, it was about getting an INTERESTING job that was challenging and allowed me to grow. None of the jobs i had earlier were like that, so the job i did bored the f**k out of me.

...in retrospect it was probably not a surprise why things went the way they went, i just cannot care about some stuff. Strong special interest and concentration difficulties is a bad combination.

This is a possibility as well. I am assuming that these stats are accurate. Unless proven otherwise I will assume they are accurate. Even if the stats are inaccurate my point still stands. What are the successful ones doing right?

For example, what did Temple Grandin do to succeed? If we know what she did and how she became successful in her field we need to emulate the process she took to succeed. What did she do right that alot of us may be doing wrong and vice versa. There are successful aspies on here. What are they doing right that alot of us are doing wrong? Is it truthfully functioning level? Is it truly our attitude? In fact, my question is is the interview the only way to obtain a job. I think no. What if there are other ways to obtain employment and succeed? What if we can workaround the entire workplace entirely. Demeus, one year ago, said that maybe our solution is to completely walk around the mountain. I say, let's test it out. This is why I'm trying to gather data here. So far, through three examples of those of us who truly succeed don't try to climb or figure it out but walk around it.

I'm taking his argument a bit further. I want to see how strong his argument truly is? Are you all with me to do this? Will you all please post your employment history and how you obtained each job on your employment history. Will you tell me if it was full time work, part time, contract, or owned your own business? Personally, I think we can succeed if we start thinking outside the box. Grandin and Demeus did. Look at them

Sorry, I'm not going to write my autobiography to answer this question.

In general, after being somewhat unreliable at work (didn't care enough to do my best and as a result never got hired doing anything that really interested me), I learned the hard way that if you don't give your best at jobs you don't like, you'll never get anything better. So, I took a rather menial job that I could tolerate and focused on just doing my job as best I could. That I showed up when scheduled and didn't need to be watched to do the essentials of my job got me points with the employer. Still, I've always been stuck in "dead end" jobs. I might be appreciated, but I've yet to get hired in real good jobs. So far, if I get in someplace that looks good, I soon find out there is a reason why I got the job...normally because nobody else would want it.

I find applications tedious and aggravating. Why can't everyone use a uniform application form? Interviews are uncomfortable at best. I want the job, that's why I applied. Having to "win over" the interviewer is just plain annoying. I've read books like "Job Interviews for Dummies" and it helped me some, but I'm still quite "underemployed" when you compare what I'm capable of versus the capacity to which I'm employed.

As far as doing what you love....well, I had a passion, once, but I was not accepted into that profession. It will never happen for me, and nothing has made me feel that passionate ever since. I see my job as a way to afford the things I'd like to do. I need something better, but in this economy I'm glad just to have a job. I keep thinking about chucking everything behind me and doing something awesome and new, but as I feel no passion for anything, I can't see what direction I could pursue and expect to succeed.

too lengthy. you can see a selected list of 20 of my past jobs here:
http://hyperlexian.blogspot.com/2009/12 ... -jobs.html
i interview very very badly, so i got my best jobs via telephone interview.



both, and that last one too. i sucked at self-employment. i couldn't keep myself busy enough - i like to work 50+ hours a week if i can.



i've been working for 22 years and have never been unemployed for too long, except when i was actually laid off (9 months, and i tried to start a business at that time), and when i had my child (5 months), or in my final year of university to try to improve my grades (it did not help. got my best grades when both working full-time and in school).

my advice? do whatever you are decently good at and can tolerate. try a bunch of things until you see what works for you.

i used to choose my jobs according to the actual content of the work i could expect to do, but for me that did not work. the jobs where i have been most successful are ones where i was comfrtable and accepted in the work environment.

If you have a job and are managing in life, you may not be eligible for diagnosis. The DSM requires significant impairment in certain areas, and if you're successful enough at work, you may not qualify as significantly impaired.

KaiG: "Location: Berkshire, UK."

DSM applies to the US only where people-hating republicans rule now and then, and even if they are working on v5.0, Us will be adopting ICD10 because of HIPAA.

There is more to life than work and just existing.

Being employed and significantly impaired are not exclusive terms. I am proof you can be both.

I seemed fine the whole time I was on active duty. After I divorced and retired, I started to realized my impairment. Between my wife and the military, almost all aspects of my life were taken care of. All I had to do was focus on my special interest. They gave me a place to live. I had friends because of my unit. They fed me when I traveled. They made all of my doctor, and dentist appointments for me. I scored very high on the ASVAB and my eccentricities were ignored because they did not interfere with my job.

Now that I am working a regular job, my boss and coworkers all see my impairments. I do get extra slack at work because I do a very god job. I hire people to help me at home. I got my first civilian job by testing very high on the company skills and knowledge test. My interview was not good at all, but they wanted me anyway because of the test and my military record. I found it is hard to keep a job where they don't give any slack for eccentricities.

'significant impairment' can be social impairment - it needn't be employment-related.

plus, a person whose employment involves a pattern of impulsive quits or firings, or a person who is underemployed for their intelligence and/or level of education could also be considered impaired. i spoke to someone in canada who was referred through EI employment counselling to a professional for ASD diagnosis because of these types of issues.

True, but it's often related.

I don't have a "problem" getting A job....

I do have a problem getting a GOOD job.

Opportunity is extended to those who can fit in with society. Being "odd" means you get kept at arm's length and I've found no place where my "quirks" become a valued asset.

yeahi understand what you mean (hence my histopry of many, many jobs). right now, i am university educated, with lots of job experience... but i am doing a job that requires high school education and no experience at all. i am making 2/3 of the wage that i had as a teacher, but i was not successful in the Professional world.

Wow... you definitely ask some pretty specific questions, and I get the impression you're pretty desperate for answers. I wouldn't blame you in this economy.

Some of the jobs I have had are:
Teaching Assistant - got that one through a form of graduate student work-study
Waitress (I know, bad job for someone on the spectrum, but it was at a relatively quiet restaurant) - interview & app
Patient Transporter - app and interview
Direct Support Associate (caring for people with disabilities) - app, resume, and interview

Current job I'm applying for:
Academic Support Coordinator at a large university for a specific department - app, phone interview (will have this week) and portfolio). I am just now trying to submit my portfolio to see what happens!



Oh my.... you are in luck, friend, you are most definitely in luckbecause she just recently published a book on this exact topic!! ! It's called Developing Talents and you can get it off of Amazon or places like that. I got it recently and that's how I came up with the idea to do a portfolio. It's very practical and she talks a lot about what she did and what other people did.
Stuff she talks about:
Why working is hard for people on the autism spectrum
How we specifically can cope
How to leverage our special interests to get into careers
How parents or support systems can help
How to network & 'get in the back door' even though networking is a social thing, there's pointers in there on how to make it easier for us
PORTFOLIO advice
and profiles of different jobs people on the spectrum would be good at.

I honestly think that it's her next big thing: helping other people on the autism spectrum succeed like she has. It's come up on some recent interviews that she's done.

Before reading her book, I knew what to do during interviews because I read about interviewing from books, my university career center, and advice from my mom and aunts. They didn't realize I was on the spectrum, so they trained me assuming I was NT and expected me to do things the NT way, which I found I could do. I was also taught good work ethic by my mom.

I hope you stay encouraged as you search for a career. I know it's difficult, but if you know that you have a purpose in this life you're supposed to fulfill and find strength from somewhere to continue to pursue it, it will be easier.

Good luck! I hope you get some good advice!