How do I get a job?

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If someone can please tell me, tell me with excruciating detail.

You can get the book "Job Interviews for Dummies" for the mechanics of what YOU have to do to get hired in a job.

The deeper question is, "What's keeping you from getting hired?"

Excluding the obvious problem with the economy right now, are you lacking any marketable skill? Are you really bad with people (which not only impacts interviews, but keeping a job once hired)? Do you have a problem staying with a job/task once it gets old?

For any or all of these issues, I think all of us who manage to work and hold a job can tell you the same thing....you just have to learn to compensate for what holds you back and hopefully find something or some place where you fit in well enough to retain a paycheck over time.

Without knowing anything more about you specifically, I'd not know were to start.

Learn and develop skills that someone is willing to pay for. Thought they might cover this in High School but times have changed.

How should I do that? Again, with excruciating detail.

Well, you're asking for detail but giving us nothing to work with.

What kinds of things do you like doing? What kinds of things do you hate doing? What kind of job have you seen others do and think it's something you'd like to do for the next 10 years or so?

Getting job skills can be done by doing it for someone as an assistant (you learn by doing it) or going to a trade school and being taught, but the details vary based on what plan you follow.

I just can't get motivated is all.

Ah. Well, I've been down that road. It's likely why I couldn't hold onto a job worth a spit early on.

Unless I enjoyed what I did, I lost interest quickly and wanted to move on.

So, let's do a more pragmatic exercise.

Your motivation is this....SURVIVAL!

You must have a source of finances to survive with (hopefully) at least a modest quality of life. I can't speak at to what it costs for you to accomplish this as I don't know where you live and how much it costs to live there, but I can say without some money coming it, none of that matters.

So, you are going to be forced to go out and work. The employer is going to want a person who will do the following....

1. Show up to work when scheduled in a reliable fashion...limiting lost time from work to when it is legitimate (actually home with the flu, not taking a day to go to the beach when you're supposed to be at work).

2. Know how to do the duties of the job once trained and can be TRUSTED to get the job done without having to be watched or prodded throughout the day.

If you can learn to do that much, a number of places will put you to work, and you will get a paycheck.

So, you will be working for the purpose of having a paycheck and anything more you get out of working your job will be a bonus you didn't expect to get.

In that light, what kinds of "skills" or "talents" do you feel you have? Do you know of any jobs that seem appealing? Any jobs you definitely don't like?

Also, are there any resources out your way to help someone with a disability navigate their way into the work force? It sounds like you'll need to start out with employers who are more sympathetic to your AS and are willing to give you more time and patience than an NT who they would be right to expect to just show up and go to work.

The first question is here:

What are your qualifications? Formal? Informal? What you did till now? How old you are?

Having this information we may (!) could provide more meaningful support.

I dunno. I was randomly offered the chance to apply in the library , so I quickly wrote up a resume in response to that. I didn't have a lot of experience but neither did I want to fudge, so I wrote what I could, what skills I had and how they could apply to the job. They seemed to like that. (I volunteer there now, they asked if I wanted to apply for paid work but I didn't think I could handle that without melting down.)
Do volunteer work first for experience, so you have good references.

I could use some tips too. I had a job pretty much handed to me in high school, and then was never unemployed for more than a week for the next 7 years. Most of the jobs were either gotten for me (3, via school/college) or things I had an intense interest in (3 via want ads).

Then, my life fell apart in 2000, and i haven't had stable work since (short of a brief career in construction that ended due to my sleep cycle difficulties).

I never learned to properly find work outside of want ads and walking around the mall/downtown, and don't know the ins and outs of networking - which is tough for me to do as I'm a recovering alcoholic, so networking events around town at bars are doubly awkward for me. It's hard enough to be social without booze floating around, much less trying to pay attention to everything i need to AND ignore the drinks.

In this day and age, there isn't much happening in the want ads, so that's not really working for me anymore.

Really, you could add details like "put on your sock, then put on your shoe, then tie your shoe..." I don't mind.

Fickle, if you need instructions that precise, you will likely never get hired by anyone.

How "independent" are you in your current condition? Could you get up at a set time, get dressed and get yourself to work on time without someone having to walk you through that process?

Never mind then, it's no use.

Not sure about the USA but they never covered it here. They fooled us with the more qualifications you have the better and a pile of good grades would get you a job over someone without them. Never told us about "sorry you are overqualified".

As for the OP, I have no idea what kind of job he is looking for or his qualifications as he has not answered in spite of several prompts for further information. If he answered this way at interviews I would not hire him.

Well, if you are so adversely affected that you can't manage the fundamental tasks involved with getting up on time, getting ready for work and reporting to work on schedule, then nobody will hire you until you can at least get past that bridge.

I know that may sound harsh, but it's the truth. I'm sure you're not the only person with AS who finds themselves in that situation.

I'd suggest you start by finding someone local who can help you master the life skills of being able to report to a job site prepared to work on a reliable basis. Once you get there, then see about what talents you have to offer than an employer would find useful.

Screw it, I'll just be a hippie.