Job Prospects And Aspergers

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Hey all. I'll be 38 in June and my job prospects have been tough to say the least.

I'll sadly always find someway to mess things up leading to my termination or shorter jobs. (Summer Camp 10 Weeks.)

My self-doubt starts to creep in tho given my University Degree in Criminology/Sociology.

Then again I know of others with Ivy League degrees in Math/Sciences who have encountered similar difficulties.

Is this par for the course?

Also see my thread on A Beautiful Mind where I compare Aspies to Schizophrenia and John Nash's story of struggles with the disease.

Two Favorite Aspie Movies. Adam starring High Dancy in the lead role.

Temple Grandin. Dancy's wife and Yalie Claire Danes. She won the Emmy/Golden Globe And Screen Actors Guild awards for her performance.

My brother met her on the Yale campus and says she is very down to earth and friendly despite her family's wealth. (Stereotypes)

I have trouble holding down jobs but mostly because I walk out of them.

I have always been lucky in that management liked my work and would tend to ignore any oddities I had as I could get the job done to high standard most efficiently. My problem was that the other employees (not management) hated me and made my life a misery.

Given that I found the atmosphere unpleasant to work in I would often leave and get a job elsewhere.

Job hopping isn't always good for your CV. On saying that I supposed it does add variety lol. I've done cleaning, shop work, office work, reception work, telephone work, factory work and so on. I even worked at Mcdonalds!

Academics is more my arena though...so now I want to pursue something in that area. We will see. I tend to fit in better in an academic environment. Again as I tend to be good at it (lot of A grades) people mostly leave me alone or come to me for help with their work (except at school...but college and Uni was different).

I'm a good worker, I just cant get past the interview bit. Ive only had a few jobs one was in a sheltered workshop that ended in lawsuits and legal arguments that are still going on today, ten years on. The second was as a barman in a pub which actually worked out good. I was the day time guy so I only served the day time drinkers which meant I only had 5 or so customers and had to look interested as they told me day after day how they ruined their life. Unfortunately the Pub owner died and his son went all Nightcluby which did not fit me at all.

Ive been doing the stay at home dad thing the last few years but next year I'm off to the workforce again, I'm rather nervous how it is all going to go cause if it is the same as last time most all jobs require good person/communication skills and a drivers licence, both of which I lack.

I plan on going to MIT for a software engineering degree,

Then moving to Seattle to continue my Android application development, as well as programming web servers. No way am I going to work with other people... And I don't want a significant other or children, so its all good here.

I'll have a cat and a laptop. What more could an Aspie ask for?

I plan on going to MIT for a software engineering degree,

Then moving to Seattle to continue my Android application development, as well as programming web servers. No way am I going to work with other people... And I don't want a significant other or children, so its all good here.

I'll have a cat and a laptop. What more could an Aspie ask for?

FYI, for those looking for jobs, there's nothing like SSRI's to kill your interview chances. The employers just assume you are schizophrenic or on drugs and won't hire you if you have that flat affect. I failed 29 on-campus interviews while on Zoloft and didn't get an offer until after I had been off it for a few months.

Absent SSRI's, your chances as a high-functioning autistic aren't that bad at the interview stage. It's all about sitting up straight and sounding interesting in a structured environment for 30 minutes, which is much easier to do than traditional unstructured socialization.

I do currently have a job, but I could do far better than that. I have a bachelor's degree, too. I want to find a better job, but I'm finding it very difficult. I think it is mostly due to my AS, which I have not yet been diagnosed with.

- I don't have any network of friends who could help.
- I'm very poor at job interviews. I'm just too nervous and have too much self doubt to talk confidently to the interviewers.
- I have absolutely no ability to connect with people - probably this is important after you get the job as well. I think people skills are essential in most jobs because if anything goes wrong, the problem can be minimized using your people skills. If you don't have that skill, then the problem could lead to termination of your employment. You can also miss your promotion opportunities.
- I can't drive a car (probably due to coordination issue and/or multi-tasking issue), which means I have very limited choices of work locations because public transport here is very limited.

Only recently I realized that AS is the major factor that has been disabling me in achieving my potential. Now that I know it, I'm wondering what I can do with that knowledge.

That can also be due to a lack of nonverbal cues and whatnot; it's hard to tell apart the "blank" look of an ASD and "flat affect" (they may just be one and the same -- they don't know).

It doesn't have to be medication to do it, as the blank and empty look and monotonous voice and tone tend to be the norm amongst those with an ASD (especially men).

A few aspie women do it, too (though not as many as men), and I think it's actually worse for them when women do it because it looks more unnatural vs. NT women.

What I'm trying to say is that SSRI's make this problem worse. What I have normally is "blunted affect" but it becomes truly flat on SSRI's. Blunted affect can be mistaken for intelligence, so it doesn't necessarily mean it will hurt you in the interview. Flat affect usually indicates a serious mental disorder, so it definitely will kill your interview chances.