Does anyone know about Specialisterne?

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Specialisterne are setting up operations in my home town and it has been recommended that I apply. It all sounds good but I'd want some more information. I don't think sign up has started yet anyway. So if anyone has any info about these guys they'd like to share, that would be greatly appreciated.

All I know about them is that they're in "IT" and have some sort of connection with HP. If possible I'd like to know;
1. What are their prerequisites, if any?
2. What are they likely to pay? I don't want to be greedy but I don't want to be paid a comically small amount like at my last job.
3. What are the hours like? I can adapt to full time if need be but I'd still like to know.

Here's hoping they're not like my last job which turned out to be a total Micky Mouse job.

I think you will have to call them or just show up; I didn't find much information on their website except that they train you for IT duties that draw heavily on attention-to-detail and routine (software testing and data entry).

I've read up a bit about them. Specialisterne in the US is going through the Vocational Rehab agencies. They are selecting candidates on the autism spectrum who can quickly provide value as software testers or data entry employees. From what I understand in the US they have a 1 day visit with candidates at the Specialisterne office. The original Specialisterne operated in Denmark where they have social funding available to work with their students for several months to develop work and social competencies to work as software testers or data entry staff. The Danish government pays for the tuition and subsidizes jobs for the disabled, so it is a rather different situation between the US and Denmark. I did hear that in the UK or Ireland Specialisterne tried to setup their service, but they couldn't place people very well and they closed down. I believe that they may have relaunched more recently in the UK and are trying to alter their strategy so that they can improve their placement rates. I have not heard much about the US operations as I believe that they are just starting this year after a year or so of fund raising.

I worked with Specialisterne in Denmark for eight months. I was dismissed for not living up to the demands, but I have another job now and I'm OK.

In Denmark they do some SEO, some software testing and some administration for larger companies or the municipalities.
To answer your three questions, I will answer this:

1. Prerequisites: An education within IT. Or some job experience where you worked with IT on a professional level. If you know about software testing, web design and general quality assurance, you should have a chance for the job.
2. You will get a comically small amount, and they are most likely to offer you part time jobs. So, don't expect anything great, just the standard wage.
3. The hours: You decide! This is the great thing about Specialisterne - they hire part time workers, people who work from home etc. - So you can ask for anything in between 20 and 40 hours.

Remember, this was in Denmark, but I think that things are the same in the USA.

Let us know if anything good happens - have you contacted Specialisterne yet?

I applied to them when they were in Glasgow, I did quite well but don't really have any IT experience so didn't get a job. Not sure of the details I think they mainly perform freelance jobs for other companies.

They're looking for a small number of people in Adelaide, to work in a HP testing facility on a three year training contract. I haven't heard yet that they've started recruiting - I'll report when I hear more.

Cool

Wait a minute, that might get in the way of that diploma I was planning to do next year
But if I get a position at Specialisterne I can use it as a valid excuse to study part time

'ppreciate that.

edit: I just found out they've started recruiting.

There's this:http://www.autismsa.org.au/news/search-profile-hp-test-analyst

Yeah, thanks, I should've mentioned I applied on Sunday night.

Fingers crossed

I've heard about them and I think they even have, or had, a department running in the Netherlands (at least, if I recall correctly, I saw them on a special about autism online a while ago).

I think it's great they're doing this, but as with many of these companies that offer jobs for people on the spectrum, I've never seen anything that's not IT related.

And despite that I attended university doing some IT stuff there; I dropped out after about 2 months, refused to use my computer for a month and still feel bitter for anything IT related. In short; I have less than zero affiliation with anything IT related. That's purely personal, but the notion that the only thing we're good at is IT related seems a bit odd, since it's such a recurring pattern.

The one thing I like judging from the list Ok posted; you decide your own hours. That by itself would be the start for me, regardless of the job. And for that I wonder why this isn't more commonplace, especially since AS is becoming more commonplace and plenty are sidelined for whatever reason; part time and flexible hours would add quite a lot.

Flexible hours? They mentioned something about one of their past workers doing something like that but I'm not sure if they'll let me do it and even if they did, they might think me doing that is grounds for non-promotion (the HP staff have vaguely hinted about promotion for testers several times but I'm not sure what I'd get promoted to, I was thinking since they're very close to a technical college I could take some night classes for a Diploma of Software Development (some of the other applicants already have similar qualifications) then perhaps I could get hired internally, two drawbacks of that are the college told me it would take years to get a diploma at night because they rotate their night classes (then again, night class every weeknight while working would exhaust me) and also the HP guys mentioned something about "internal qualifications", (in what I don't know) so maybe I could get one of those instead)

but still, I'd love to be able to have a four day work week for a number of reasons. I could use it as my day to go to the doctor, bank, other agencies that are only open 9-5 etc (as I mentioned in my other thread). A few months ago I was speaking to a worker at the community center and she said since they're open Tuesday through to Friday she finds it really convenient because she can get everything done on Monday.

Also I could use one day a week to attend a daytime class at the nearby technical college (so I could at least go at half speed instead of quarter speed (and not get exhausted because the class would be in lieu of work for that day, not in addition to work).

And since the work days are expected to be 7.5 hours a week and my pension cuts out if I work over 30 hours per week if I worked four days a week (30 hours) I might be able to receive two income streams (work and pension) and one of them would be tax free (so even if I ended up getting the same amount in total, only some of it would be income taxable). It's also dependent on how much I get paid. At the moment I'm getting $17 an hour but if I go permanent? Well I think it would be rude to ask about my wage but the rumor is that the wage will be between $17 and $34 an hour. If I got $34 an hour it wouldn't be worth attempting to claim the pension since the pension gets cut 50¢ for every dollar I earn. Currently the pension is $1,058 per fortnight (after the first $156 per fortnight) so if I was getting $34 an hour for 30 hours per week the pension would be cut back to -$139 per fortnight so there wouldn't be much point

On the other hand the rumored $34 an hour sounds way to high for a testing job. I know far more qualified workers who get paid less than that. Anyway, Australia has a high income tax (due to all the welfare recipients like me (in fact, HP's testing contract is with the welfare agency, a major employer here)) so for that reason it would be good for me to have untaxable income in addition to a job.