Major discrepancy between academic success and real-world fa

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3.Major discrepancy between academic success and real-world failure

Kon wrote this, pretty intresting stuff.

Basically is the key to detemining if you have AS all you confused undiagnosed ppl out there.

Having not experienced the real world yet, I can't really comment, but I can agree with this when it comes to many professions (especially those reliant on social skills, such as business and politics.) However, I don't think this can really hold for everything, in professions such as teaching, academia and science, this probably doesn't hold as well (I recall reading that most people in Harvard's maths department have AS, I've got a few teachers who act like they have AS.)

I was not DX'ed with AS until after trying and failing to live in the "real world". My grades throughout high school, university and graduate school would not have indicated this - each year on average I had an average above 80%. Like most Aspies I could focus on learning and assignments, especially within the subjects I personally chose as interesting. However when it comes to applying those learning experiences to job applications, resumes and interviews I a hopeless!

Same here. I also was much better in theory than in lab/practical/clinical work. I have zero talents beyond school. I can't even learn how to use the till in the pharmacy. And yet I studied geology, neuroscience, medicine, dentistry, law/mba and recently pharmacy with above average standing. I didn't finish all these degrees, just 2 of them. But, I have performance anxiety (SAD), so I'm not sure how disruptive Asperger's is? Maybe it's just the SAD but that wouldn't explain the theory/lab work dichotomy. I'm also really good at writing stuff but crap and oral communication. But again that might just be my SAD?

I graduated at the top of my class (and then refused to give a speech at graduation). But I've always felt like a failure in the real world. A valedictorian, one would think, would go on to earn various degrees and have a successful career. But I didn't last through college, and I only ever manage to get work when someone else shows another person my work. I've never gotten a job that I interviewed for. And the past few years have made me furious, because every job posting seems to have "Must have excellent verbal communication skills." Why does a programmer need excellent verbal communication skills???

Thats an excellent point you raise. I think its because you have to work for management AKA pointy haired bosses, and most of them want you to do as much of there job for them as possible by being easy to deal with. Good management gets the best out of all sorts of people and doesn't insist on the right type of personality.

My [low functioning NT] sister dropped out of the normal educ system. She was forced to do a tech college course, but did not graduate because she point blank refused to do one last puny assignment and let all her undeserved time extensions run out.

She got a good job for the geovernment. She quit it and ate her pension plan. Then she had a series of free lance jobs. Finally she lost some for being abrasive and unreliable and dropped the last one because she did not feel like working if my mother would pay her way which she incomprehensibly did.

Point of relevance? If she could and did for years get a series of jobs with her attributes and qualifications and attributes, there is somewhere a slot for you. You basically need the courage . encouragement and persistence to keep looking.

I also did really well academically, but I have a very difficult time dealing with people in the "real world."

In all academics and especially on all aptitude and competency tests, I excel. Quite frequently a shocked career aptitude test administrator tells me that I scored exceptionally at everything across the board, and can choose any career based on my abilities.

If all careers required of me was learning from books and taking tests, they'd be right. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to take anything I know intellectually and put it into practice. In other words, I am bad at nearly everything in real life. In no way can my academic success be used to predict how well I'll accomplish anything practical.

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Academic success often involves a gift for visual items such as textbooks and data. Much of the information is delivered under ideal conditions such as quiet classrooms (no noise). The real world (Macy's, Wal-Mart) is full of auditory items and noise (Kmart's Blue-Light specials). Some companies ask employees to do work in areas where phones are ringing from different departments. Even being a cashier involves gross and fine motor control skills. Also, in the business world politics can enter the picture, even how a person looks. Historians have speculated that Abraham Lincoln may not have been elected president if TV was available due to voters preference over John F. Kennedy looking type of candidates. If a person has any sort of hearing impairment or speech impairment, that can be a major factor in the world of work. Some school systems do not discriminate that much due to school codes but the business world often works on a different set of codes and often does not like to deal with gifted but learning disabled candidates. Certain conditions like autism and epilepsy will keep applicants out of the military. There are major discrepancies between how the game of school and game of work are played. The standard fib (proven fairy tale) of the educational system is that anyone can be anything they want to be if they only apply themselves. That isn't how the work world works - if one is color blind, one may not be allowed to become a doctor or dentist. If one has poor social skills, they will never become a great salesperson.

Applying for a job position often involves:

- Written aspect (prepared resume, educational background)(Academics)

- Oral aspect (spontaneous interview with one or more persons)(Communication skills/hearing - speech/social skills/human interaction - customer service - sales presentation skills)(Real world)(Gift of gab)

Speaking as someone who used to hire programmers, I can give you my take on this.

Most programming jobs are more than just heads-down coding. You have to work with somebody, whether its end-users or just colleagues on your development team. You have development meetings, you have code reviews. You have to be able to work with people, just like you do in most any kind of job.

Having said that, though, good hiring people understand that programmers, in a lot of cases, are "different", and make allowances for it. Since I'm Aspie myself, I tried not to be too concerned if a job candidate was shy or uncomfortable in the interview. Can this person fit in with our team? That was the main thing I was concerned with.

Some jobs involve different tasks, too. If the job is a P/A, then you'll have more interaction with users and managers. In that case, yeah those communication skills are necessary.

I agree. I've scored very well on different post-grad admission tests that are supposed to be a barometer of success and to weed out the applicant pool. I don't do nearly as well with the practical hands-on application of my knowledge. I see two possible reasons for it. When I am working with others, I feel like my interaction with others saps a lot of my mental energy. Works seems like two jobs at once: the actual job responsibilities and decoding people's behavior enough to work well with them. Secondly, I have a knack for coming up with good ideas, but planning and implementation of an idea seems to bog me down. I believe I have executive function issues that force me to become very regimentalized if I do expect myself to get some project completed. It is like I can see where I want to go when I start, but I end up lost in some dense forest on my way there. Very frustrating. I have a continual struggle between being sufficiently mentally challenged and not taking on something too demanding that will stress me to a frazzle. I sometimes wish I was ignorant, so I could feel satisfied every once in a while.