choosing a career

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I found this website on choosing a career and it is aimed at the spectrum:

http://autism.about.com/gi/dynamic/offs ... Fjobs.html

check it out and tell me what you think.
A

I like it and it has already been
"saved as"-Explorer document
in my to..be..burned CD log 4/8/05'.

It say's the specifics that one
might neglect, but is always
aware of inregards job idea's.

This is as you know from other
forums on jobs been a hit(seldom
unless you play your strengths
and make that job)
and Miss(mostly when one
chooses a quick fix job) issue.

Temple Grandin means well, but she should remember that everyone is different. Things that cause me to overload and melt down may not affect you at all and vice-versa. I think she's also listing some of the jobs based on a mythical or stereotypical idea of what the jobs require.

I've actually held two of the jobs on her "bad jobs" list and had little problem with either. With proper training you can learn to avoid the most common causes of overload typical of those jobs.

I've also been fired from several of the jobs on the "good jobs" list because of AS-related problems she apparently failed to consider.

I’d be careful about getting in to drafting. Most places I know just get architects / engineers to do it. As engineers / architects get better at using it and as cad gets easier to use there will be no jobs drafting people.

My brother and my dad are engineers. It takes alot of communication skills. Only part of it would work really well with aspies. The fact that it takes analytical skills which alot of aspies most certainly do not lack.
A

I was an assistant pharmacy technician + receptionist for a couple of years, and aside from the receptionist part the job was perfect.

I had to organise the shelves of drugs (alphabetically), enter them into the database, check their dates etc, as well as make sure boxes of emergency medication for wards were always in date + stocked. If I could have just done that forever it would have been perfect!

I remember I was promoted once to be a head of the Production division at a web development company, of the many I have worked with across the years. It was cool at first, but suddenly the needs of multitasking and be in a zillion things at once -not to mention firing constant reports, papers et.al- proved too much for me. Reluctantly, I had to switch back to be a simple pawn in the company chess game instead of being a tower, or at least a horse.

(Hope you don't choke on that metaphor)

Now, after almost ten years of doing web work, I feel pretty much burned out about it and would like to step up to a position that implies more planning/logistics and less code-monkeying, but I have already experimented what it's like to be "up there", and failed -in that moment- to live up to the task. I don't know if I could do it better this time. And that pisses me off very badly, since those are often the best paid jobs and positions in the industry - or any other industry for that matter (you can never have enough money!).

Do only NTs can create companies and become potentially rich, becoming leaders instead of followers? I wish it weren't so.

I wish I could hear about people with AS that have gotten management / company ownership roles and have survived to tell the story. Testimonials of this kind are pretty scarce, almost nonexistent. Why?

Entrepreneurship is generally a very stressful and insecure way to earn a living. I and my partner owned a small franchise restaurant and it just about drove me crazy because I was too involved. We sold that one and bought a larger (non-franchised) restaurant, but this time I'm a completely silent partner and really don't want to have anything to do with it. Luckily I have another job, so the restaurant business is nothing more than a financial investment for me.

At my normal job I've turned down several opportunities to move into management. I like what I'm doing as an employee and don't feel any need to move up the corporate ladder.

I believe that, sadly, that you should basically choose any job you're able to get. If your "special" interests are pretty narrow, you should not try to get an education and a job in a pretty narrow field if you have social and concentration problems. Sometimes, just accepting that all in all, you're going to earn money no matter what is the best.

I notice that most of the jobs on her list are ones that typically have low wages. You don't see many millionaire car mechanics. Are we doomed to be slightly above burger flipper status simply because we aren't great salesmen?

I think Temple Grandin's point here is that some people have to think money, not status or special interest.

Competent auto mechanics make <i>very</i> good money.