For the Aspies who can work and/or are highly educated

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I've thought about this topic all night and how not to offend anyone. One of my big special interests/obsessions is to become highly educated. I can't pass as an NT and I'm not sure I'm smart enough to tackle college/university and find work.

Would you say you were able to find and keep work or become highly educated due to being a highly intelligent aspie, or the ability to pass as NT, or both?

I guess both...kind of. I'm self-diagnosed and don't tell too many people. When I was getting through school, I didn't even know about it myself. When interviewing for jobs, I just didn't say anything.

Not sure if that helps...if I had to pick one, I'd have to say (mostly) "passing as NT".

Well, I failed at university because I got extremely overwhelmed, but the only reason I got accepted there in the first place is because of sheer intelligence. I'm sure I can do well there if I have accommodations, so I wanted to get an official diagnosis first before going back.

I have also gotten jobs by being able to fake NT well enough in the interviews, but in some ways that is a problem, because I can't keep up that act for very long afterwards. Almost all of my past employers have mentioned something to the effect of, "I thought you'd be a really great worker at first, but it seems like you just stopped caring after the first week or two." It is probably a result of me looking more personable in the interviews than I really am. I mean, I think everyone probably looks a bit better in the interview, as it should be, but for me it seems to be a much bigger difference.

To be honest, I think the only reason I can pass as NT is BECAUSE of my intelligence. I can figure out generally how to act if I sit and think about it first, and I've collected a lot of information about how people interact just from observations over the past 2 or 3 years, but I've always been highly logical about it, none of it came naturally. I'm able to make myself look especially good on paper in resumes and such, because I can take my time with it. I definitely look way better on paper than in real interactions.

I feel like I've developed an almost alternate version of myself, which is basically just me copying NT behaviors I've seen. At one point I had a pretty good friend that was very NT, and I got a lot of my information on how to act from him. I can consciously copy his mannerisms, but once again it isn't natural for me, and I can't do it for an extended period of time. Especially lately, it's been a lot harder for me to fake NT. Probably because that was my only focus in high school, the school work was easy for me so I could focus on interactions all the time and trying to be normal. Now I have a full-time job and a bunch of other stress-inducers, so that's not really possible for me anymore

I don't know if getting a BA qualifies one as being "highly educated."

I believe I was able to be successful in college because I was able to apply whatever "intelligence" I possess into learning the course material. Closely following the course objectives (contained in what is known as a "syllabus") was another means.

You had to "pass" for NT--in that one could not "melt down" when one felt so inclined. I had that desire--and, somehow, resisted the temptation. It is felt that people who exhibited "autistic" behavior in class threatened the overall fabric of the class. It's difficult to learn when one cannot control one's impulses.

I'm highly educated... I just don't have a degree.
Working at it bit by bit. Money is hard to come by, but that's ok since I can only survive as a part-time student.

As for jobs and stuff, the best I can do is custom soundtracks for indie game developers and the occasional landscaping job for my grandfather. Neither pays well.

It looks like one needs to pass as NT at least some of the time to be successful... Not discounting others in this thread, I'm just not sure what to say.

Since I knew nothing about Asperger's, or that I myself was anything different, other than having trouble with Clinical Depression, until my work-life was almost over, I suppose that you could say that I was "passing". I didn't have many, if any, "meltdowns" in public, and what I did, public or private, was considered a "hot temper". I learned to control my temper reasonably well. While I didn't finish a bachelor's in college, which I put down to the sixties ("Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out"), I did take a lot of college courses, sometimes with high grades, sometimes with abysmal grades, and have always been a reader and a learner, in school or not. I was as "successful" as I wanted to be at getting and holding jobs, usually low-level jobs (cook, lab technician, telemarketer, etc.). Never held one more than about two years, usually through getting intolerably bored with that one, or going into a worse case of depression. I almost always did _have_ a job, however. I was just being "myself", not "normal" or "abnormal". Maybe you should just forget about Asperger's, and do the best you can do at what you want to do.

Yep. I'd have to agree that it was passing as NT, which includes denying tendencies to feel overwhelmed and just muster energy and focus to muscle through tense and difficult circumstances. At the same time though, I think that the reason I was able to pass as NT was due to coping mechanisms I created due to high intelligence, or so I've been told. It took a great toll on me, but I didn't understand what was happening at the time.

And as much as the superpower of hyper-focus may provide benefit, a lot of higher education involves "group work" which means interacting and putting together projects with other people. It is training for the collaborative nature of work in a lot of the fields you'd be training for working in. If you find you clash with some member(s) or they take that instant dislike to you (like when people can sense that oddness and decide to target you because of it), if you can't smooth over that or can't fake interest in your group members long enough to complete the project, you could find yourself ostracized from a group where your grade depends on success in a team environment.

That's not to say there aren't options, though. That's just speaking from the path I took.

Have you considered selecting a specific field, say History of the Ancient Levant, finding a professor at a local university who has published in the field, calling up the university (sometimes they post their phone numbers online) and see if they'd have time to discuss options for what you want to pursue, either in a university setting, or get advice/suggestions on some type of non-traditional setting (online, tutored learning, etc.)? I've been reviewing admissions procedures at schools, and they ask about accommodations you'd need in order to succeed in their programs.

Erik Erikson's work in Developmental Psychology is foundational to the field, but he never got a bachelor's degree. The point is that if you have a vision, find people you can get suggestions from about how to get where you want to be. Most of the time, you'll get people eager to help, unless, for example, you ask Flamenco guitarists in Austin, Texas about how to train to become a Flamenco guitarist. Just sayin'.

For me, intelligence > passing as NT.

According to the official I.Q. tests I have had to take I am "Highly intelligent" and of "Above average intelligence" but I have not done remarkably useful with it.

Geez... I've managed to upset myself with my own thread.

I am highly intelligent and educated and am able to work. There's just one problem. I have to be careful of the environment I work in. If I can't take time-outs, or avoid certain social situations. I might find myself having a meltdown.

For me, the skills needed to win an interview and obtain a job have been different from the skills needed to perform well at school
To me, school performance has been strictly academic. Although I did get a B+ G.P.A in college with a Bachelor's degree (in psychology), I still needed the help from the Disability Resource Center at my university. Because I was in special education all of my life, I was automatically tested by the school psychologist at the end of high school to make sure I could still qualify for the services. I was qualified for extended test taking time, a note taker, and tutoring. The DRC center also had recorders to borrow for the classes, though the only things that were crucial to me were the extended test taking time and the note taker I needed for each class. Also, another advantage to joining disability services at the college or university level, is that if you register for the disability services in a timely manner, you get to register for your classes earlier than everyone else. For this reason, of all the 4 years I was in college, I was only waitlisted with 1 class.
Finding and maintaining a job, on the other hand, require more social skills. While I don't pretend to be anyone else I'm not, (because I wasn't aware I had AS until being diagnosed in my early 20's) there are some jobs I've kept for years, and other employers have only kept me for days to weeks before deciding they didn't like me. I've worked in education for years (and retail for a few weeks), and I find that within that field, there are all sorts of mixed positive and negative attitudes about people that are different.
Although, I tend to very smart with my use of verbal language, most of my struggles are with the nonverbal aspects of language, and with controlling my voice (Not being monotone, speaking with the right volume).
I've been told I speak monotone, and my facial expressions are flat, but other than that I'm not completely certain how I appear differently to others. When I used to be an outdoor education instructor, there was 1 time there was a group of kids that complained about me for no reason. Their teacher went up to me and told me, I asked why, then the teacher didn't know what to say. I was just told that it was vaguely about my personality.
Anyway, I've tended to do much better with jobs that are less competitive, overall. Whenever I interview for the jobs with higher turn over I tend to do well, because a "good" interview and a conscientious work ethic are enough to win and keep less competitive jobs. However, in the past year I have went on more competitive interviews, up against 7 or 8 other interviewees on each interview and haven't won any of them. I feel like that instead of doing well, I have to do perfectly, as if I'm some sort of super human.

However, if you're enthusiastic about your occupation and are able to keep yourself from worrying about things too much, then you should be able to do well. Other working aspies have told me that when doing what you enjoy doing, aspies are able to connect well socially with others. Though, if possible, it might be a good idea to research the company culture or the place you're applying to work at, in order to find out the way you'd be treated. (For this reason, I'm thinking of starting a thread on most and least friendly aspie places.) It's a good idea for you to be able to fit into the workplace naturally, while being yourself. Sometimes, if you're pretending to be someone else, people could pick up on that, through your body language or the look in your eyes.

Both. My intelligence I've mostly needed to problem solve the hundreds of little issues with social interaction, executive functions and dysgraphia; my job only requires a BSc so it's no rocket science. School is actually a lot harder than work (oh god all those written assignments). Working is easy, graduating is not. Performing at work has required me to develop what I refer to as my "work glove persona": a set of useful mannerisms and social interaction habits/structures. I think of it as a part of my work uniform; I put it on when I arrive and take it off when I leave and it's not any bigger a deal than wearing the rest of the uniform that designates me as a member of my profession and communicates that to Joe Q Public. As far as I understand many NTs develop similar working personas too, though they don't perhaps think of them as explicitly or have to build them as consciously. I don't disclose, I've found that at least in my field (ironically healthcare) disclosure is more of a hindrance than help and most people's attitudes are extremely ableist. I used to work & study in a different field where people were much less critical about passing as a NT and more relaxed about being different. I think that enabled me to develop the skills I need in my current job, where passing is pretty much mandatory. I think it might have at least partly to do with the average education level of the workplace--where I worked previously people were more educated and more tolerant. Though some jobs/workplaces I've had there has just been that "dislike factor". I like to think that it's just not a good fit and move on.

I don't know if I'm highly intelligent - but my B.A. was in the Social Sciences which has always been since the fourth grade my area of interest. Thus I came off looking quite bright because I was studying what I love and do best.

When I got into the healthcare field - I had to study a lot of course work that was not in my areas of special interest - But I had developed the study habits and confidence from my interest.

Being a bit older - I grew up and came of age and acquired my education before anyone knew about Autism being a Spectrum or that there was something called Asperger Syndrome. So, I never thought about whether or not I was passing as an NT. Because I didn't know what an NT was. But I did know that a lot of people found me a bit weird. I just tried to be astute enough to not weird people out too much and learned to make and hold eye contact.

For me, it's mainly my trouble-shooting skills and educational level.

I also tell people what they need to hear, and not necessarily what they want to hear. Thus, when someone wants to know why a valuable piece of equipment failed, someone else usually gets in trouble over it.