Published on 12, July, 2020
I recently got my dream job as a Python Developer and at first it was really great, but after a few weeks I had to declare I was on the autistic spectrum because my boss kept taking the mickey out of me infront of my colleagues at daily standup meetings when I asked questions where he thought the answers were "obvious". I had to take to take him aside and explain that I do need to ask questions and the answers aren't obvious to me, but he responded by giving me a really massive project to do that involved learning a great deal. I managed it, but it took me six weeks and during that time he had increased the level of ridicule so I was having regular anxiety attacks infront of everybody and making a lot of errors because I couldn't concentrate. Things came to a head when they brought the whole team on a work getaway to Menorca that I really didn't want to go on. I had meltdowns in the airport on the way there and on the way back and felt I was going to lose my job because of them. The week after we got back I managed to complete the task and was fired immediately. I had been expecting it but I was not expecting to be informed the same day and told to leave my keys to the building. I did not really understand what was going on and I felt really awfully let down after all those group exercises about how we were a family.
Now I don't know what to do and my anxiety is driving me crazy. I'm failing tech tests I should pass and employers aren't being accommodating about adjustments at interview - one in particular is demanding I make a video of myself explaining my work and this is not something where I feel I understand what I'm being tested on - I don't want to be a presenter, I want to be a coder.
I'm going crazy. If I don't get a job before Christmas I won't be able to feed myself or my cat - my cat is the reason I've stayed alive really and I don't want to live without her. I don't want to go on Universal Credit either because I'm sick of the jobcentre. They are not subtle about how much they hate people like me and I don't like being around people who despise people who need help.
It definitely sounds like you have very good skills! You've done really well landing a job as a Python Developer in the first place, and you were able to complete tasks given to you while you were there even under stressful conditions. It was unfortunate that you met a bad boss. Given your skills, could you apply to a similar Python Developer position with a different team, and hope you could get a better boss next time?
Thanks for your encouragement! Yeah that's what I shall do - I've been getting interviews consistently for about a month but my confidence has taken a severe knock tho