Do you think autistic adults can get jobs involving social skills?

[Cazzie]

hi all,
Do you think autistic adults can get jobs involving social skills?
take care
cazzie

 

[superboyian]

Yes, anything can be possible, but in some ways (but not all autistics) would find it difficult in some social ways, to me, it would be like doing sports.:lol2:

 

[petrossa]

:shocked: Why on earth's name would we want to? The very idea makes me nauseous. I just had to stand in line for 5 minutes, by the time it was turn i was ready to shred the person with words. Instead i counted to ten, smiled and said something polite.

Imagine having a job where i had to deal with people, you'd have to scrape the blood off the walls the first day.

 

[Droopy]

It depends how well adapted the Autistic adult is and how demanding the job is of requiring social skills.

Some will cope better than others. Some will like it and some would rather avoid that sort of a job.

 

[jaws]

As an Aspie who is in a social job...it is possible IF required, but I do not advise it. The reason is that working will take ALL of your mental and physical ability to get through each day, and leave you exhausted and miserable. I'm in retail sales for a product that is not a special interest. I'm able to use logical skills learned to perform a series of rehearsed questions and dialog to complete the selling process (with any product) and listen to vocal tone and watch body positioning to ascertain if the person is interested in buying or if I need to uncover more concerns. However, I feel like I am on the verge of a panic attack every time someone walks in. That said, I've been told I'm good at it, and have won many sales awards. I just wish I could find something less nerve racking.

 

[whale_bone]

As an Aspie who is in a social job...it is possible IF required, but I do not advise it. The reason is that working will take ALL of your mental and physical ability to get through each day, and leave you exhausted and miserable. I'm in retail sales for a product that is not a special interest. I'm able to use logical skills learned to perform a series of rehearsed questions and dialog to complete the selling process (with any product) and listen to vocal tone and watch body positioning to ascertain if the person is interested in buying or if I need to uncover more concerns. However, I feel like I am on the verge of a panic attack every time someone walks in. That said, I've been told I'm good at it, and have won many sales awards. I just wish I could find something less nerve racking.

I totally agree with you here!!

 

[AIDYsPoetry]

I am in total agreeableness with the above post. I have to work alone. l have to rehearse commentary before I go anywhere. I am extremely shy. So I almost never talk unless I absolutely have to. I am great with emails and the like. Face to face interactions are almost impossible.

 

[katcha]

I think it's just an issue for the individual as opposed to what we can do as a group. I'm sure there are some who can do so and would enjoy to do so. I personally could not do it without ill effect.

 

[IContainMultitudes]

I probably could manage a job that required decent social skills/frequent interaction with people, but like jaws says, I don't think that would be the ideal thing for me to do. I can deal with people in small doses, but having to deal with them all day is too exhausting for me. It's not that I don't like people or anything like that, it's just that I find dealing with them tiring. That's why I'm trying to find some type of "behind-the-scenes" type of job where the amount of time I have to spend dealing with people is kept to a minimum. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to make a living as a freelance writer, but that's kind of difficult to do. One job that I think would be pretty cool to have would be a film editor (in other words, someone who assembles a finished movie out of raw footage); I wonder if there are very many aspies in that line of work.

 

[PanPaniscus]

If that career involves a special interest then it wouldn't be that hard. My dream career involves social skills but is also a special interest related one, I want to be a primatologist and I will need social skills because they hold big meetings where they discuss conservation and stuff, I think they hold these meetings once every few months or is it every year? I forget.

 

[GhettoButterFly]

hi all,
Do you think autistic adults can get jobs involving social skills?
take care
cazzie

I am not trying to knock anybody down or insult anybody. No offense to anybody once so ever.

Anything is possible. I am going to become a librarian and that involves social skills and being social. When I take career tests, it tells me to go into the social services field. So I guess that means in reality, I am a somewhat of a sociable person. :O!

It depends on the adult though and the degree of Asperger's/Autism. It really depends though. If the degree/functioning level is of that of the "average Joe (or Jane)" or a.k.a Mr. (or Ms.) Normie, then it is possible if they put their mind to it.

If the degree is more "debilitating" or the person has less social skills, then it might not be possible without some adaptations.

I am not trying to knock anybody down or insult anybody. No offense to anybody once so ever.

 

[LlaLla]

I did four weeks work experience in a local council once. It was so physically and emotionally draining. It was torturous to go there everyday. I had to ring people and ask them questions, and I had to communicate with the other council workers and go to meetings and stuff. But at the same time, I enjoyed it in some sort of odd way. And I didn't realise this until on the way home on my last day. My work placement officer had given me some flowers and a card to thank me for helping him. He told me I was a lot of help, and that he couldn't have organised the event I helped him organise (Day of Disability) without me. Made my confidence rise XD I am very efficient with getting things done in the workplace, its just the social skills I lack at >_>

As above, my dream is to be a librarian. I want to work in a public library. I'm currently studying a Masters in Information Science, which will hopefully get me a job as a librarian when I am done. I know that it will be hard because librarians need heaps of social skills. But it is my dream and I will do my best to achieve it!

 

[Spinning Compass]

Yes, with qualifications. It depends on the degree of autism and also how hard the person is willing to work to overcome these obstacles. I am currently employed in a job that I probably would have been counseled very strongly to avoid, had such counseling been around at the time. However, I have been there thirty years and I have prospered. In fact, I am now looked up to as the "go-to" person for certain procedures). Recently they changed my job duties so they aren't as strenuous as before (part of a general restructuring, had nothing to do with my Asperger's which they officially don't know anything about). But it was very difficult, especially the early years, and I am really very surprised that I didn't get fired. Someone must have been looking out for me I guess.

I feel that over the years that my social skills have improved precisely because of the demands of this job. And once I proved that I was competent and reliable and produced quality on-time work, I found my superiors "demanding" even more of me in the form of higher expectation. Some of those expectations were in areas I have the hardest time with. There was no use trotting out the Asperger's excuse with them. (I tried once with one supervisor and was told that there was no way that I could have Asperger's; he knew all about Asperger's because his wife was studying psychology. Oh well.) So I think overall it has been a good thing for me.

 

[LgndKllr24]

As has been mentioned already in this thread, I think it depends on the severity of how the person is affected. For me, I do think I have Aspergers but my social seems only seem to be mildly affected. Given the right environment I can come across as being almost normal in the way that I communicate. Almost all the jobs I have had involved contact with the public, even the part time jobs I did when I was in high school and college. I didn't really like dealing with the public that much usually, but I was able to handle it for the most part.

 

[katcha]

Depend on the individual, but anything is possible of course. How much do you 'want' it?

 

[Billi]

Like others said it does really depend on the person and the job. I really work best alone, not dealing with the public or co-workers. That said, I know that's not very realistic, so I deal with it. Even NTs often find interaction on of the most difficult and tiring parts of a job. I have: supervised other workers, trained workers, had to deal with service customers, contractors, vendors, etc... was self employed for five years, now I work in a corporate environment. I can deal with customers, but I have problems with co-workers. Sometimes the communication between us is not good, I tend to be a bit too direct and brutally honest and I bruise egos, or come off hostile or bossy. (I've been told) I have trouble reading what people mean when they don't say it directly, and I'm practically clueless on body language. I can pick up some peoples facial expressions, but I have trouble processing that part into the conversation.
In my current job I still have to deal with the public (hospital patients and family, and staff) from time to time, but it is in a technical capacity, so I can do alright. I had a boss years ago who taught me about good customer service, and I try to treat people like I would like to be treated. It's not easy, it makes me uncomfortable, I feel clumsy and awkward, but I have a system, a little playacting I do. I say the same thing, in the same order, adjusting for the situation.
The one thing that makes it bearable is that I know my job well, so I have some confidence.

 

[Sandiney]

Lol, I had taught social skills to class of EBD students for four months and miserably failed at it, but it gave me the idea of writing a book on how to teach social skills. However, they taught me all they learned...lol.

 

[Occasional_Demon]

It depends if someone is an extroverted or introverted Aspie, IMO. I've worked in jobs where I've had to have good social skills because I was working in a team of people and therefore had to interact with people every day. I managed a workshop for a while, which meant having to interact with a lot of people, plus talk to strangers on a daily basis about getting their cars into the workshop so we could install a new radio [it was part of a police radio network upgrade].

It also depends on what sort of social skills you're talking about. I found out - the hard way - that I wasn't built to be a social worker because I lacked the sophisticated social skills that you require in such a role, where you are working on a visceral level with someone's emotions. I find it hard to tell people's emotional cues and apparently I also don't give off enough emotional cues, and you can't really do that as a counsellor. It can impact on how you build rapport with someone, and hence also impact on how you would proceed with treatment. I had some training in aspects like active listening and so forth, and I know approximately how I should position my body and what sort of verbal cues I should give when in conversation with people - but some of the other aspects just didn't gel. So, for me at least, working in a field where I had to be in intense contact with people was not ideal.

 

[WildCat]

If they have the competence to handle the non-social aspect of the job, and if there's infrequent interaction I don't see why not. I think the first step would be to adapt the job to their current skill set, then second - see how well they can handle those dreaded fast paced social scenarios.

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't last a day as a salesperson or cashier. Though I'm better socially than I used to be, I still can't process everything quick enough to prove myself competent enough to be a keeper. I'd get reprimanded so quick it's not even funny. However if I'm behind the scenes fixing engines or putting up stock (I'm a night stocker BTW ) relying on specific knowledge rather than social I do far better.

 

[Tropicalcows]

Well right now I plan to apply to graduate school for school psychology. I think that I can do my best to fake social skills and norms; however, I believe I will get tired of it and my facade will crumble. Perhaps I should stick with research.