Maybe I should just be a bumb...

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I can't get hired anywhere and when I go into details I get very mean nasty comments. I didn't go to school, I'm female so I must have kids (which isn't true). I never bring about my AS but I think it has shown through so my of work. It hurts me the most.

How do unemployed aspies, autistics or whatever else deal with this?

Why don't you go to school? A lot of people with AS become professors.

Not all people with AS have the literacy skills to become professors.

I would love to!! If it didn't cost so much money.

You might start calling around to see if there are any government training programs you might qualify for. You might qualify for grants to attend colleges or technical schools. These kind of things aren't always advertised, you have to go digging and not give up until there is absolutely no place left to call. If you call around to colleges and technical schools, they would probably know what programs are out there because that's where their money is at.

MissConsture, have you thought about creating a job for yourself? I don't know what your talents are so I don't know what to suggest. But see if you can try to do something in the area of your special interests. You'll be happiest that way.

In some states, at the community colleges you can get a fee waiver if you meet certain criteria and then you will only have to pay for books.

If you do well enough you might be able to get some scholarships and grants.

Also, even if you aren't a student yet, you can come in to the financial aid office of your local college and they will have databases - either computerized or in binders or both - that you can look through to find what scholarships you might qualify for.

And don't overlook student loans. I don't know if you're in the U.S. or not, but there's a program in the U.S. where you take student loans, get your degree, and then consolidate all your student loans through a Department of Education program into one loan. You can choose the repayment terms and one is called "income contingent." Under the income contingent plan, your loan payments are based on your income. So if you go through school and then can't get a job or end up working for minimum wage, your monthly payments are $0. It is designed so that the paymnts will never be onerous or keep you from being able to afford housing, food, clothing, etc.

After 25 years, if you haven't finished paying off your income contingent consolidated loan, the remainder is forgiven, meaning it goes away. You will owe taxes on the amount that goes away, but again, if you are still low income you can negotiate about that tax amount. If you have become successful, you can set aside a few dollars every month to be able to pay the taxes when they come due in 25 years.

I think the income contingent plan is a great deal and right now student loans are paying for my graduate school (until I start teaching, at which point I get a grad fellowship) and also paying my rent so that I can survive while going to school. I'll have a lot of debt when I graduate, but another nice thing about the consolidated loan is that it shows up on your credit history as having paid off a huge loan, so even though you still have lots of debt after consolidating, you also suddenly have great credit!

An option is to seek opportunities through voluntary organizations. Work is work, even if unpaid, and looks better than a blank resume. I did two shifts per week for three years in an Oxfam shop. I did six months volunteering on the development of a native plants forest. I was offered volunteer work in an office, and the possibility of volunteer work in a church run vegetable growing nursery.

There are four industries that I could gain an entrance to, study further if so inclined while practicing with their material resources, tools, etc, and avail myself of any in-house training programs. Then hopefully if any of my colleagues became aware of paid positions within the industry, I'd have experience and a reference.

Once in paid employment, I could then use the income to further my ultimate goal... whatever or wherever that might be.

Damn I really gotta listen to my own advice.

i can't get hired anywhere either. even if i could i have periods of brain fog which prevents me from getting out of my own way. i don't have any skills that anybody deems worthy of renumeration so i have to live in poverty in a relatively inexpensive place out in the sticks, unemployed for god knows how long. it is just as well as i am a lazy bum. there are times i stay in bed all day, just not feeling like facing the day. if i could tolerate alcohol i'd be permanently blotto.
i am a talented digital audio restoration technician but nobody believes my skillset is worth a damn. oh well