Aspies and Jobs

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I was wondering what types of jobs people on WP have and how your autism has affected your job for better or worse. I don't fully know if this is a sensitive subject or not, so forgive me if it is, I just want to hear what other people do for a living and how AS has affected that.

I've been working since I was fourteen. My first job was as an umpire for softball. This was one of my hardest jobs, there are so many things to keep track of, yelling parents to deal with, too many things happening on the field at once, and of course there are always flying objects and loud noises to push my autistic buttons. The job was offered to me since I had been a part of that softball league since the age of 9 and because I knew and was liked by the head umpire. My first two seasons were complete rubbish, but most of the parents and coaches were nice to me since I was young, respectful, and they had known me for years. After those first few season I got progressively better and now I am one of the better umpires in the league. This job was only on weekends and because of it's high attention demands and complexity I often spent the next day in shutdown mode. I still have this job and have come to like it well enough, but I've never been fully able to get over my sensory and lack of assertiveness with it.

My next job was working for a writing teacher/publisher as a copy editor. This was my ideal job since I got to telecommute and all I had to do was format and check over basic grammar and sentence structure. However, this job was mainly piecework and since I didn't socialize well with clients and had trouble focusing in meetings I was kept as a piecework employee.

Currently I am working as an intern/personal assistant for a woman who also telecommutes. This job is ok because I can do most anything for it over the internet, but I am still sent to do odd jobs and have to attend meetings. While most everyone likes my work ethic and appreciates my blunt honesty on the job, I am awful in meetings and awkward to be around which has resulted in some people commenting about how odd I am. One of my responsibilities is helping my boss in her meetings, which requires going into Washington DC and braving the noise level of the city and the mass of people, which often sends me to the restrooms for 10-20 minutes so I can get through a meltdown/shutdown. The day after going to DC is almost always spent in a zombie like state.

None of my employers know about my diagnosis. And as long as I can keep doing the work without major difficulties, I don't plan on telling them.

So, if you don't mind sharing, what types of jobs do you/have you worked, what challenges did you face, and what did you do to overcome/deal with challenges?

I was an engineer for a hi-tech company, so most of my co-workers were really much the same as me. It was almost wall to wall aspies! In that respect it made the workplace a good place for me to be and I was able to actually enjoy what I did. Too, there were extremely few personal issues. Everyone there seemed to get along with everyone else just fine. OK, we were mostly an odd lot, but it really made work a lot of fun. Perhaps I was just lucky to fine employment in such a place where technical skill and knowledge mattered the most. We all had our own personal quirks, but everyone there was very competant technically. Although many of us were AS, it was never talked about seriously. Instead, there was a lot of good natured harassment and of course the inevitable one-upsmansip games to see who kew the most about almost anything and everything job related and otherwise. Yes, I was very fortunate to work in such a place.

I had a paper route for 2 weeks, a part time cleaning job for 5 weeks, and now I haven't worked in about 15 years. I don't think I could work at a job where I had to deal with customers or possibly even coworkers. I'd also have problems leaving the house every day to go there.

I am a shipper receiver for a major heavy duty truck company in the parts department. I work alone in the warehouse and plan my tasks myself. It is a pretty well paid job with an excellent benefit package. The only issues I have are making eye contact and picking up whether someone is being serious or just joking. Most of the guys are good, it's just one sales man who asks me to do something, then tells my boss he was joking. One example would be relabelling my shipping shelves because he says he can't read the labels. I ask my boss where the label stickers are, then the salesman comes up and says he was joking. I was not in any trouble.

I'm a librarian and have always done well in the field because my special interests tend toward the intellectual, which has always made me the best of my peers in terms of technical competency.

I did have problems getting along with my peers on my first two jobs though. When I became the boss, that dynamic changed totally. It became the job of my employees to get along with me.

My AS in my current job has been a net plus, as it has allowed me to think outside the box without much interference from others. Consequently, I have been able to do the "impossible".

Pizza delivery is the only job I've managed to do and I can't even keep those jobs. Before I have too many issues and either get feed up and quit, or else get fired.

I'm a nurse. Pain, misery and suffering is my lot and I get tortured so I can get money to pay the rent.