Actually looking for a job

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I don't come right out and shake a potential employer's hand and thell them I have Asperger's. I don't think I really need to. I understand that the current job market is much less than optimal, but I still think I should have the gotten a job by now. I'm courteous, smart, and very kind. My acamemic record is spotless. So, why does it seem as if nobody really wants me as an employee? Any tips on nailing an interview or otherwise scoring a job?

I'm open to doing anything- farm attendant to cleaning toilets, bag boy to dog walker.

need more information on this. Without giving out personal information.. just what is your major, your job experience and what are you doing in interviews?

More importantly, how are you applying for these jobs?

In my experience what really gets you a job is to go in person and hand your resume and set an appointment for an interview. Applying over the internet or over the phone/fax does not work well.

I've been on both ends of the line. One of my previous jobs had me overseeing the hiring of several new staff for my department and doing the interviews (it was a small office so we did not have an HR staff to do this).

After putting the ad for the job on several internet job sites and on the local newspaper I was amazed to receive almost 100 applications a day.. coming in via website, via fax, etc.

These all got put on the pile 'to be reviewed'. Review them I would... and heck, after an hour they all look the same. Its rather hard to pick one and say THIS is the one because he/she is better than all the others.

As things would have it, we had a couple of people actually come to our office, hand me their resumes and they got their interview on the spot. Just by being there they jumped from being in the pile to being in the interview chair.

And yes, most of those that came to the office in person to apply got the job.

It took me 8 months to get the job where I was in charge of those interviews. 8 .. freaking.. months. Loved the job, lasted me a couple good years. Then the economy crash and they laid off almost everyone. Me included.

This happened just 3 weeks ago.

Having been on the recruiter's end of things, for 2 weeks I browsed job websites, found the jobs I thought looked good... searched the company name on the internet and get their address & went there in person.

I start my better paying, closer to home job first week december. I spent the past 2 weeks going all over town giving my resume in the daytime, at night I looked for more jobs online.

It works, please try it. Dress well, rehearse what you will be saying the first 5 minutes (1st impression = gold) and improvise from there on after.

before you turn up for the interview find out as much as you can about the place you will be working in. The more you know the more you will be equipped to deal with the questions which you might get asked.

Also try to clean up your appearance, while today people like to 'express themselves' with their hair cuts and clothing, my advice to men is to swallow your pride in any exotic hair cut and get a 'normal' hair cut. Ladies do not need to be quite so careful about their hair cut.

Also put on a clean pair of shoes, polish them before you turn up. When you step through the door to the interview it is better to look smart than to look like a scarecrow which has come to life.

Do not wear slogan T shirts or otherwise display any badges or signs of your political views. Bear in mind that the interviewer might have different views to you, for example if you walked into an interview with a person who does hunting, shooting and fishing for a hobby wearing a PETA t shirt then it might put the interviewer in a bad frame of mind.

Be careful about eye contact, you should not try to drill holes in the interviewer with a constant stare nor should you avoid his / her gaze.

Watch what you say and do outside of the interview room, every second you spend at the future employers site is part of the interview. Do not make any wise cracks about anything.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Well, I'm current in college, going for a speech communications major and english minor. I'll be 19 in january. I was a Kroger courtesy clerk for a while, but that was my only "real' job. I had an interview at Circuit City as they were hiring for the holidays, and another for an orchard near my home. At the orchard, there were more experienced canidates, and at CC, I got an automatic email which told me I was not qualified.

Looking for a job myself, probably the best advice I have recieved, can be summed up as "putting your best face forward."

Don't think of it as being a phoney, your still being yourself, just emphasizing the good parts of yourself. You wouldn't want your "bad side" to be facing in a picture that you attach to an application, so why would you let your harder to evaluate attribute show on a first impression with an employer.

The fact is that an employer won't be able to evaluate the pros and cons of your eccentricities immediately, so it's better to just set them aside and let their advantages win you points towards your promotions slowly as you get to know your superiors one on one. An interview is hardly a time for such complexities to be able to be taken into account.

In an ideal world this wouldn't be the case, and employers could look at the advantages of your more eccentric attributes but we unfortunately don't live in an ideal world, now do we?

Someone with OCD patterns may be great at following certain procedures to the letter every time, but it just ends up looking like nervousness if you let it show too much on your interview. Instead just say "I like to follow rules to the letter" and leave it at that, and leave it to the workplace to show how that works out.

As to keeping a job, a piece of advice I got too late, is simply: "Don't take things personally." Sometimes people's eccentricities will clash with yours, especially when one of you is in a bad mood. Don't let it get to you, and it will just blow over, otherwise it will instead blow up.

Lack of job history and being in college right now does limit the numbers who will hire you soon. Be so good at what you will do they overlook or let slide your social errors. If you like outdoor work learn a skilled trade doing it. There are too many low skilled workers. You said speech communications major what about being a low paid intern somewere ? Will allow to to be more sure you want to do that type of work.