Aspieness can be a HUGE advantage!

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I have seen a ton of topics by aspies saying that they are really screwed, professionally speaking, by being an aspie. I submit that this is an entirely inaccurate way of thinking. Being an aspie sucks in some professional ways, but the job market is definitely shifting in our favor.

Aspies are bad at socializing but good at logical, systematic thinking. If you're an aspie without a job, I highly encourage you to look into the business analyst/systems analyst/tech analyst field of work. I get paid to sit around and solve puzzles all day, and while socializing is a big part of my job, I am sure my employers would be willing to keep me even if I could "only" turn complicated processes into readable process maps. I know that it is easy to feel like being an aspie just makes everything harder, but there truly are some fields that we are truly designed to excel in.

Hi, Nathaniel75, thanks for giving some really useful advice!

Could you be a bit more specific about the sort of thing you do or could do? I have just joined WP, and getting and keeping a job is really the most important thing I am struggling with now - I doubt I am the only one.

I want to study via internet, to qualify for working with something aspie-friendly. I am looking into stuff like data science, but I am not sure I quite understand what people really do.

I do pretty ok with the social stuff, as long as it's structured, but the executive dysfunction really is a pain.

Any tips? Feel free to be specific, you know it helps

It may be an advantage once you get a job but you need to find a job first. Job interviews still rely on social skills, at least in my area. There is no skill contests. It is also hard to get information about available jobs because most job offers are spread through social grapevine and only a few get into job center/Internet/newspaper lists.

Kiriae: I find I used to do much better at interviews in the past, particularly if interviewed by an older person. I think I came across as girly and enthusiastic. In my late thirties, this doesn't cut it anymore. Interviews have become more structured and professional, and the interviewers better at giving nothing away. The lack of info freaks me out, and then I babble.

I've been thinking that I need to contact companies I am interested in, to demonstrate my interest. I get a lot of the " We don't think you are really motivated for this job". I am not certain whether this just means "We don't like you", or that they genuinely don't think I am interested. I am a lot less expressive than I used to be.

Sometimes I wonder what I need to do to appear interested. Dance the hula?

Do you get accused of not being interested?

They don't say it. They just don't call me.

But I got a feeling I might even look more interested than I actually am because sometimes they apologize to me for some reason.

Them:We are sorry but we are looking for someone more experienced.
Me: I see.
Them: We are really sorry but we truly cannot hire you.
Me: It's OK. I understand it.
Them: We are so sorry.
Me: I understand your position. I am interested in a trainee job too if my experience is an issue. You got my contact info in case you are looking for more workers in the future.

I honestly wonder how I am supposed to get experience if noone wnats to hire me, even for trainee job (trainee job is paid by goverment job centre so the company has a free worker, the only downside is they have to hire the worker after half of year of the free trainee job unless the worker really sucks)

The thing that works for me the best is writing a script with answers of how I think the interview is going to go. For instance, I write questions that I think the interviewer would be likely to ask me and then I write down answers for those questions. I tend to memorize all of my answers so I do not become flustered at having to think of new answers on the spot. This has worked well for me and led me to land the job I wanted. When you are more prepared with what you are going to say you feel more comfortable and are more able to focus on the "social aspect" of what is going on. I can fake being an NT for about 30 minutes at a time if it is something that I really want. Believe me, the older you get the more your Aspieness will work to your advantage because interviewers are more direct and get to the point. I think the older you get, the more they appreciate your honesty. Hope this helps!! !

Actually I am not very good at that at all....I absolutely suck at math and looking at numbers/figures all day trying to make sense of them sounds like a massive headache. Not to mention all the little mistakes I'd make, that could cause much bigger errors...so would probably have to do a lot of re-doing. Seems like you're kind of buying into the stereotype we're all great at computers/math and tech stuff when that's more aspies with special interests in those things who are capable of doing math(my math skills are probably worse than a 5th graders). I can research topics and take in a lot of info and learn a lot about things but I'm not good at making calculations or analyzing numerical type data.

I will rephrase some of your wording, some aspies don't have logical thinking or don't have a good understanding of it, it really depends on the individual and goes in a wide spectrum of things. Not everyone thinks systematically, not every one of them will do well at university, like myself, I failed university because it was too much of a social thing to be a part of. I only did well at college (high school equiv.) because the environment was relatively quiet and I could concentrate. I don't enjoy contact with people, most days im depressed and dont feel like talking at all, and theres the odd day in the week where I feel like I can do anything. I don't think logically because I haven't learnt how to...yet. When i'm put on the spot to remember something important like a fact, my mind goes blank as opposed to the stereotype that aspies remember every fact like its in their photographic memory or something, I don't have that.

I don't excel in anything, I can solve some basic problems in computers that people simply overlook, thats pretty much it. In my eyes, NT's view aspies as first-class graduates with technical degrees who can get into top companies like Google or Microsoft, or failures who never get a job, doomed to be unemployed for the rest of their lives -- the latter most likely going to include me.

Sure, I'm happy to add details! I work in the human resources department of my medium-sized company (4402 people as of this morning) and my job is primarily to act as a link between the IT department and human resources. The other guy in my position is probably even odder than me - I'm not sure if it is aspieness or what, but he's definitely different. I imagine he gets paid in the neighborhood of 130k and works a 40-hour week, so his lack of social grace apparently hasn't caused him much harm.

I think this is because that in tech-focused jobs, people kind of expect you to be a little weird. This is actually one place where a somewhat negative stereotype works in our advantage - if you come off as aloof or very introverted during a job interview for such a position, it is less harmful than if it was for another kind of position because half the department is full of oddballs already.

As for the actual difficulty of doing my job... I've been pushing to get more challenging and rewarding work, and now I'm getting it, but the sorts of tasks I had to do when I first got this position really weren't rocket science. I'm terrible at math and it has not caused me any trouble. Some of my easy tasks include -

*Look up how many people we have with college degrees. Count PhDs separately too.
Count the number of executives, admins, managers, and scientists.

*Grant the new admin system permission to access the right databases. This is literally as simple as going to a webpage, looking at what other admins already have listed in their permission profile, and then putting that stuff into the new person's profile. Navigating Facebook is harder.

*Compare our staff demographics now to one, two, and three years ago. See if we have more or less diversity than before.

*Get a list of all administrators who work in a specific department.

People think I'm some kind of tech genius, but that's really not the case. I couldn't begin to compare with the guys over in IT. What I'm trying to say is that if you work in a soft, squishy type of department like human resources, you can be the tech master without actually having to master tech. I suggest anyone with a bit of technical know-how look for something like this

Oh, there's a solution for this!! Sending the employer a thank-you note is a great way to show enthusiasm and a real desire to get the job.

Haven't came upon any time where it has been advantage yet

I've had the opposite experience.

Although undiagnosed I'm sure I'm on the spectrum somewhere. I've never had an issue holding down long term work. Perhaps it's my individual personality traits.

1. Reliability and punctuality. I show up when I am supposed to, ready to focus on work, as apposed to blowing in 10 minutes late with a take away coffee in one hand and playing with my phone with the other.

2. I'm polite and pleasant to colleagues and clients.

3. I say less rather than more. Some colleagues talk all matter of crap in front of clients as if a few seconds of silence is forbidden.

4. I am good at my job and put in the effort to be conscientious with a minimum of fuss.

5. I fly under the radar. I get in and do my stuff, clean up after myself, quietly sign off and then bugger off into the ether.

Because of these things I don't draw attention to myself, my managers know I can be trusted to do whatever work I'm assigned and HR probably don't have a clue who I am. As a result weeks on the job became months which became years, I'm still there in the background getting stuff done. Money is in the bank every fortnight. If you don't do anything to come to the attention of management and HR you can cruise by unnoticed. I like it that way.

Is that what you mean, Nathaniel? I get what Eurythmic is talking about - but s/he seems to fit the aspie stereotype, which, admittedly, includes quite a lot of aspies. A lot of these people will fit into engineering and it.

Like Sweetleaf, I'm more of a languages type of person. I had a temporary job in publishing, editing large amounts of text, which led to more work on the basis of working faster and better than everybody else. However, everybody and their dog wants to work in publishing, and I've been trying a lot, and I think it is time to give up and consider some other profession. I am sick and tired of temporary positions and being treated like s**t by staffing agencies.

The key question is this: can a head for languages and systems be used for learning IT? I am considering making an effort to learn more IT simply because the it sector offers significantly better working conditions and is more accepting of nerdiness than a lot of other sectors.

People like myself and Sweetleaf will always end up competing with some female NT academic with better social skills and a neater cv, for a badly paid temporary position with very little autonomy.

That's what I'm trying to do right now, my brain doesn't do math and it has gotten worse over the years. I've embarrassed myself so many times with my basic counting skills, it's distressing as I don't really struggle that way with any other subject. You should see me count money, I'll count a stack 5 times and get 5 different answers. Me doing math is like someone who tries to speak Chinese by watching Kung Fu movies with no subtitles, I have no idea what I am doing and just stare at the problem sometimes just thinking WTF and when I do try it's pretty pathetic and wrong. They diagnosed me with 'math disorder' which is/was on the DSM which I guess is learning disability but I don't see how it is possible to accommodate for. Dyscalculia is suppose to analogue dyslexia I guess sort of as a learning disability or at least that's the way I interpreted it, both my brothers and dad are dyslexic so maybe it's related I don't know but they got accommodations and learned to read despite that disability whereas I don't see it is possible with math since there really is no accommodation they can give you and you can't guess math like you can language. Your brain automatically fills in language for you, tahts wyh yuo cna tpye lkie tihs and still probably understand it. Doesn't work with math that way, guessing usually doesn't work.

I'm in pretty early on with IT stuff, I'm doing the A+ class right now and that really doesn't include any math at that level. I know I am capable of learning new things, I knew probably more than the normal layperson when it came to computers before but that was more of a utilitarian knowledge picked up over a lifetime of use just troubleshooting and maintenancing my own computer but over the last year I've gained a lot more of a real understanding of what I already knew and have picked a ton that I had no idea about. I'm vaguely familiar with binary and hex, some people can read it just by looking at it but most have to convert it like I do. They wanted me to do this for the same reason you're interested it, it's a lot more accepting odd balls like us. I don't know about diagnoses but I very much doubt I am the only person on the spectrum in the class but that I'm discovering that doesn't mean you'll get along with them any better and in some ways its harder. I get along better with the older students particularly the veterans who use their networking skills and appreciate me as a source of knowledge. I like helping people out when I know what I am talking about, whereas normal social interaction and small talk and all that I'll struggle and have a lot of anxiety over it is a lot easier when you know the right words to say.

There was a time I wanted to join the military, I think if I was NT I probably would of but then again that would be a whole different life and who knows how my life would of been different. If I were NT then there probably would of been just big of a chance or greater that I ended up some sort of criminal considering where I came from and my peers. In retrospect it was a complete fantasy to even think I could of done it back then, I feel like now I maybe could do it since I'm a lot more mature and I dunno the word... Looking for opportunity, desperate, wanting purpose, longing for praise and validation... Just a different person entirely. I think if I could get beyond the locker room kind of social cohesion that I could of really excelled that type of structured environment and maybe me feel better about myself doing something that at least in my lifetime is universally praised as heroic. It doesn't scare me either, like I'm scared of stupid social s**t to such a degree that the idea of being shot at doesn't even bother me as much. While I think I could maybe do it now, unless there are Chinese or Russian troops storming our beaches there is probably no way any military would accept me with my medical history. It kind of makes me sad in a funny way, my grandfather was a real war hero from WWII and I was raised with such reverence for his service and despite my political beliefs and cynicism now I was precocious little kid and experienced 9/11 like everyone else. I wanted to serve, I wanted to protect this country, I wanted people to respect me like they respect my grandfather, there was no opportunity where I grew up and the military was one sure way of getting out. I think there may be a fox and the grapes element to how my views evolved since, I reference that story way too much btw probably because I'm stupid and don't know any other way to phrase so I apologize if anybody ever notices that altho I doubt anybody reads half my drivel anyways.

Sorry for that tangent, back to school, I do worry a lot about having to do the math and I will have to basically take every remedial course plus the basic college requirements eventually and I really don't know how capable I am at doing it even if 100% committed. I definitely will need a tutor, I don't know how much it will help but what other options are there? English has been my favorite class, I wasn't expecting it to be as I wasn't a particularly good writer in high school and always clashed with my English teachers for some odd reason, I am discovering I really like writing(no s**t, huh? ) and my teacher really likes me. I dunno what I'm going to do, I know I can change things and its probably better to pursue things you enjoy doing but I dunno how far I can take anything really. The instructor I had thru VR when I was learning computers was impressed and thought I could be a technical writer or something since he said most tech guys are really bad at communicating things into an understandable format.

I don't know, just going to take it one day at a time.

Editing and translating are two areas where some Aspergians excel. Both require above-average intelligence, a university degree or higher, intense attention to detail and an ability to think outside the usual parameters. It's true that you'll need to deal with publishers, who can be dense, and authors, who are often ****holes, but you have quite a lot of control over how much you interact with them and can limit it to email/phone contact if you don't want or need to meet in person. Plus you get to work at home, where the cat can help you.

Ever met an accountant?

But seriously, I've noticed a higher concentration in technical environments, i.e. areas that require the traditional AS skillset. I have had 3 jobs, and got 2 of them by being highly qualified and preparing answers for all possible questions. The interview was more of a knowledge check for these 2 jobs, so sociability didn't matter so much - they wanted the tech-y and the geeky.

Every manager I've had (and due to management restructures, I've had more than a few) has commented that I can be trusted to do what I do, and that I get the work done. This may be accompanied by the "a little quiet" rebuke, but yeah, I'm going to be loud and relaxed when management is watching.

@Nathaniel75 I used to work very closely with the HR at my place and among them I was known as some kind of tech god. Probably 60 out of the 80 HR people on the floor knew me by name and regularly came to me for help. One of them even started calling me Spock, not knowing that I go by that on here...