No one will hire me

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Every job I've ever apply to the past two years I've been rejected. The reason is because I was severely bullied in public school and as a result I had to go to a special education School and even though I got my high school diploma from a high school, the fact is I never took classes in that high school but went to that special education school in Boston.

As a result, even though I hide my autism diagnosis on my resume, unfortunately by giving away the name of the school, the employers are able to look up the name of the school and find out that it's a school for kids in young adults on the autism spectrum.

And I also predicted that no one would hire me because I'm so unlucky and so far every prediction I've made regarding that has been correct.

I also applied for an internship with the Department of energy through my community college and I predicted to my classmates who encouraged me to apply for the internship that I will be the only one who applies in the entire College who will not get accepted both because of my disability and because of my bad luck.

Even though I got three letters of recommendation, have an excellent GPA and am a science major and, I was literally the only person in the entire school who got rejected for the internship for applied twice in a row as I predicted both times.

My dream is to become a broadcast meteorologist, but how the hell will I ever get my dream job if I'm constantly facing non-stop discrimination and bad luck. Honestly, What's the point of even going to college if no one will ever hire me.

That really sucks. I do feel for you.

If you get an interview, just mention that you went to a school for autism----but that now you're ready to work hard.

Hello, climategeek. I am sorry you are having so many frustrations with getting employment. I must add, however, that by attributing that problem ONLY to factors you cannot change - your high school attended, discrimination, and bad luck - you prevent yourself from influencing future outcomes to be any different. You must focus instead on things you CAN change. Have you had soft skills development classes? Counseling to improve your resume/CV? Have you attended interviewing critique sessions? Did you do anything to learn networking skills or public speaking skills? Have you had a counselor review your letters of recommendation to make sure you aren't being damned with faint praise?

It sounds like you have had no student or summer jobs. Most folks start small, in high school even, doing things like flipping burgers, washing dishes, or mowing lawns, and move upward from there, each job leading to something with slightly higher status and pay.

Finally, I have to observe that your dream job is one that seems very autism-unfriendly. In my city, tv weather-person jobs and all those broadcast jobs seem to be won by personality more than knowledge (somewhat to my disgust). I would think a behind-the-scenes role in something like the national weather service or NOAA might be a much better match for you.

Best, Bea

That was one of my ambitions as a kid: to be a weatherman.

When I watcher the Weather Channel as an adult, I wanted to be like Jim Cantore, and report the weather, and wear that blue parka with the Weather Channel emblem on it.

Well, TV is always looking for schmucks to go stand in a hurricane and hold on to a light pole for dear life!

Have you thought about sticking out on your own? Starting your own business I mean.

Do not wait for a school assignment or internship. Do some projects on your own or volunteer that is both something you enjoy and demonstrate employable skills. I would look at small organizations less people, less social hurdles to overcome.

This is not because of bad luck though, this is pure discrimination. Is it possible to take legal action? I live in a country where autism isn't very well known but even here people are starting to take legal actions against things like this. Honestly this just made me so angry. You sound like you'd be amazing for this job and if i were you i'd at least try to make them pay.

Maybe lie on your CV and pretend you went to a different school? Do employers ever actually check?

I've heard of cases where people got jobs they were totally unqualified for by creating fanciful CVs that didn't reflect their true past at all. Makes me wonder just how much employers verify what is written in CVs.

I would say most employers do check references these days—especially when there is a potential interview.

Moreover, sometimes they even check after one is hired. If a lie is found, the person is fired.

In pre-computer days, this might have worked.

But not these days. I wouldn’t lie on a resume today.

I've been there. I applied to God knows how many summer jobs in the past three months - most of them I didn't even hear back from. In fact, I only heard back from two of them. The first, they weren't able to hire me because I wouldn't have met the minimum time requirement I was supposed to work for them (they asked for four months, I would've been able to work for only two). The second, I managed to get as far as a job interview, but I never heard back afterwards.

The previous summers were even worse, though. Again, didn't hear back from any of the places I applied to, and if I did, it was essentially a letter of rejection.

I did manage to get a job for two months last summer, but the way in which I got it is a bit of a funny story. My parents happened to visit a place they heard about via radio of all things the previous fall, and they got acquainted with a woman who runs kind of a holiday resort. My mother then mentioned that I'm in need of a summer job, and the lady told her to tell me to send an e-mail her way. Which I did, and a few exchanges later, I was hired.

I think a lot of my lack of success on the job-seeking front has to do with the fact that I don't really know how to put myself out there, much less how to stand out. I'm guessing that's due to the inherent lack of social skills that comes with AS. And the scary thing is that I'm 24 years old, and my job experience is fairly low compared to a lot of other people my age. I just don't want to resort to early retirement, but sadly, that's looking more and more likely by the day.

This is EXACTLY how much hiring is done - a social network of many different kinds. Possibly the WORST way to get hired is to fill out an application form and never do anything more.

Yes, you probably do not know how to put yourself out there. If such services are not publicly available where you live, see if you can get an employment coach to work for you for hire. You should learn such things as the right kind of handshake, the right amount of eye contact, how to answer interview questions, follow-up letters, how to ask for possible job leads, and so on. You will still have AS, but these additional skills can take you quite far.

Good luck!

This is what I thought as well.

Become an expert at what you love most. Specialize and know more about your topic than anyone else. Spend some time researching every single job you can find that's related to what you love, and see if it's possible to create your own business from that.