Career Suggestions

[Xickin]

I have a question, what jobs and/or careers have you (my fellow aspies) done that you found tolerable? For me, I need a very delicate balance between mindlessness and engagement. I found that being a school photographer gratified both of these conditions, but I think I'd like to move on. Interacting with people, however, did become difficult after a certain amount of time.
If you just want to share your current/favourite past job, feel free!

P.S. Posting what you would like to do/your dream job is also viable. Personally, I would love to be an author, a voice actor, or a therapist/counsellor of sorts.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

My eldest son is a biomedical engineer with a PhD in tissue engineering. He does cutting edge work on reverse engineering of stem cells, CRISPR, creating bioidentical organs (hearts, kidneys, pancreas, etc.). His work could eventually help create an industry that would allow humans to create their very own replacement organs, eliminate deadly genetic diseases, and help others recover from the ravages of cancers. He works with a small team of other scientists.

If that was even remotely a possibility in my day, I would have gone that route. His job seems so cool to me,...he enjoys it. I am so proud of him.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

The bulk of my career was in the nebulous world between Quality and Regulatory in Drug and device Process Validation. It was my job to demonstrate to Drug Regulatory Agencies that the manufacturing process was assured to be consistently capable of making product meeting its quality specifications.

 

[apolloidolsice]

i've currently doing a work experience programme in this victorian house where during we during the summer and spring and fall do lots of yard work, and winter we do cleaning and gift making inside. I found doing janitor jobs like raking leaves and organizing tools really did me good and if left alone with some tunes blasting my 'phones, i really get busy and useful. So i'd recommend factory work, or something like janitor

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[Outdated]

I was a tradesman, an Offset Printer for more than 20 years. That trade no longer exists except as a niche market but there will be other jobs that share similarities.

I was a highly skilled machine operator on machinery that truly demanded high levels of skill. In effect an indispensable worker, a worker that was highly prized and other companies often tried to poach me.

The job required a high level of concentration, a high level of focus. No one interferes with you or interrupts you. Anyone that tries finds them selves standing outside the front door with a weeks pay in lieu of notice.

In jobs like this the only thing that counts is production - quality, quantity and reliability/consistency. No one cares if you're a little bit weird, no one cares if you've got a bit of an attitude, all that matters is production.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

out of 41 working years I spent 26 of them working on a coil coating line, started my career on one ended it on one these lines are run with minimal staff, in a lot of ways are well suited for people like us. a lot of position even hourly require a degree of skill and for the most part minimal supervision both of which suit people like us well. I Had technical position lab technician; on both lines I moved up an order of magnitude in qualifications and renumeration in the intervening years the machine produces 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Very similar to above we also did printing, gravure.
Interesting common answers, lots of positions they paint and print everything, just look around colour is everywhere. perfect job for us Apies. I have dealt with appliances, automobiles, siding, roofing, you would be stunned with how much colour you see around you that was controlled by me personally.

 

[Luca]

My dream job was always to be a professional dog trainer and cynologist (dog scientist, essentially.)
I have my dream job

 

[Mr. Stevens]

I've loved being a caseworker for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The people interactions can definitely get tough (i.e. team meetings), but it's work I value. I relate a lot to the people I serve, since our communication styles are similar in certain ways. So, it does involve interaction, but at least it's with a lot of people like me. It's very hard to imagine working with "normal" people after years of doing this.

My dream job was always to be a professional dog trainer and cynologist (dog scientist, essentially.)
I have my dream job

"Cynologist"...you probably know this, but cynic comes from the same Greek root word. This is because they thought the Cynic philosophers lived like dogs . I think that's really funny.

 

[Angular Chap]

Self employed IT guy here. There's no way I could go back to being a salaried employee at a company. I wanted to be self employed almost as soon as I walked in the door of my first job. The traveling, the staff, the customers, the arbitrary following of company policy, climbing over, navigating all these hurdles just to be able to do a pretty easy job was too much. So like a lot of things, I built my own job myself, piece by piece. I like to joke that I was employed at my first job for 5 years, but I only worked there for maybe 2 and a half, since I pretty much masked my way though the other 2 and a half.

 

[Tom]

Military for me. I was Radar tech most of my time. Did a 2 year stint as deployment manager for 2 Air Tanker squadrons. My son, also on the spectrum is also Air Force. He worked on cargo planes first and now is Stealth fighter tech/maint. As I mentioned to someone else here recently, the military and history being both of our soecial interests and the consistant structure worked well for us.

 

[ヤス三ン]

I have a question, what jobs and/or careers have you (my fellow aspies) done that you found tolerable? For me, I need a very delicate balance between mindlessness and engagement. I found that being a school photographer gratified both of these conditions, but I think I'd like to move on. Interacting with people, however, did become difficult after a certain amount of time.
If you just want to share your current/favourite past job, feel free!

P.S. Posting what you would like to do/your dream job is also viable. Personally, I would love to be an author, a voice actor, or a therapist/counsellor of sorts.

I have to say your post reminded me of a book (finction) called "There’s no such thing as a boring job"
I recommend it, it's by a Japanese author.

 

[MadFit]

I've loved being a caseworker for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The people interactions can definitely get tough (i.e. team meetings), but it's work I value. I relate a lot to the people I serve, since our communication styles are similar in certain ways. So, it does involve interaction, but at least it's with a lot of people like me. It's very hard to imagine working with "normal" people after years of doing this.


"Cynologist"...you probably know this, but cynic comes from the same Greek root word. This is because they thought the Cynic philosophers lived like dogs . I think that's really funny.

Have you ever worked with neurotypical people?

Me: I’m the rare female software developer. I went to an all girls’ school and was heavily discouraged from pursuing this career - I guess it’s just not a typical girl’s interest or career.

 

[Leanon]

Hey there, well, I am ... a teacher hihi

And so far, I am not coping too well (I think). However, since my diagnosis a few months ago, I have some hope to find a way to avoid intense fatigues as I have them (caused by overexposure to stimuli, I believe, my work is typically intense for this).

I have thought about two options: Plan A - simply spend 10 or more years as a teacher and require adapted schedules (with breaks), etc. (needs to be discussed and thought over with Human Ressources within the coming months)

Plan B - simply evolve into a job that is better suited for me, with less interactions. I have yet no clue (exact info, let's say) on all that exists as other options; I know there exist some office jobs where a teacher (still a teacher) is in charge of handling adaptations for disabled kids (more of an office work from what I have heard). I would like to try and discuss this option with HR.

So far, employment has both been a source of great interest, it pushed me to research intensely how the world works so as to be able to do my job properly for a few years, and also a source of great anxiety as I have been regularly fatigued, had to stop work for a week here and then also have not been understood by my hierarchy as a willing capable person who has real impacts from a condition (which was logical till I knew for my condition). I hope that things also evolve a bit, so far my managers have either been too loose (had I had no respect, I could have been off work more), or too tight (currently).

I simply dream of a job where I don't have fatigues anymore (that would just be sooo cool for me!), where I earn enough to have a decent life (so far so good), where I feel useful to this world other than in paying my taxes (where I feel my job can bring help to people) and ideally I'd love a job that I can keep for decades.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

Have you ever worked with neurotypical people?

Me: I’m the rare female software developer. I went to an all girls’ school and was heavily discouraged from pursuing this career - I guess it’s just not a typical girl’s interest or career.

Sorry, I didn't realize you responded to me. As a caseworker, I've only worked with people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Before that, I had other jobs with neurotypical people.