Share your thoughts on getting a job as an autistic adult

I have a job and its a responsible job with a big organisation but I find them totally ignorant of ASD and they are an employer that should know better!

I agree

It is lovely to see someone so positive about it. The interview is a very important process of job searching, it shows the employer who you are as a person. 

We hope at Stack that we can empower Autistic individuals to not be afraid of a job interview and take it as a learning curve. 

Thank you very much for your story and have a lovely day. 

Hazel 

Stack

Thank you so much for your story this was very interesting to read. I can definitely agree with you on the interview process. Using short answers and fidgeting alot.

Our goals as Stack is to educate employers on Autism and Aspergers syndrome. Showing them that we are able to work and that our metal state isn't a thing to be afraid of.  

Thank you very much for your story and have a lovely day. 

Hazel 

Stack

I come at things from the other side. I pass well for 'normal' and my mask is of a jolly nice chap. My memory has allowed me to appear to be ridiculously experienced and knowledgeable.

I use my extrovert personality to fake my way through interviews to put the ball in my court - to give me the power of taking the job or not. 

I've been offered every job I've ever applied to and I use the interview to decide if I would be in over my head - because I know that I could pick up 90% of what's required within a couple of weeks - and most NTs seem to be only capable of 50% of their own jobs mixed with 50% bluff.  The decision depends on the 'feel' of the place.

I've made mistakes in the past and ended up working in a couple rubbish places and I've also worked in great places.

For over twenty five years I was not in work.

This was not for want of trying.  I am a very strong cI ontender for the Guinness Book of Records category of most jobs applied for without being offered anything.  I had many, many interviews over the years and unsuccessful in all of them.  There were times when no one else was interviewed but I still came third choice and was not successful.

I just did not know why.  I once or twice had 'mock' interviews and was told that I was not maintaining eye contact, I was answering questions with one word answers and was 'fidgeting'.  Trying to address these things I was then told I was 'staring', sitting bolt upright and being totally irrelevant with my answers to questions.

Over the years I honed my written applications to perfection, still got interviews and still invariably failed.  I only succeeded when I taught myself to type using 'Mavis Beacon teaches Typing' and getting my RSAs in text processing/word processing that an agency took me on and I was sent to jobs.  I was then taken on permanently (well until I went on another course) at an electrical maintenance company and then later at the NHS where I worked as a data analyst until TUPEd over into a job which was basically back to typing and in which problems started big time and I finally went for my autism diagnosis.

It must not be forgotten that for a major period of the time I was out of work autism was not known about, and certainly not Aspergers syndrome.   I was just classed as 'strange' or a 'wierdo' by others.  And then people began to hear about it but it was thought by many to be something caused by measles vaccine and was an affliction of childhood.  No one thought that older people were affected and had problems of their own.

I have documented in other posts the problems I have had with my current employer, it culminated in a case at an employment tribunal and an 'out of court' settlement for a sum of money before a full hearing (a COT3 agreement where there is no blame and agreement to certain terms on the part of my employer and certain conditions imposed on me, but I still have my job, the conditions at work have improved tremendously and my stress levels have considerably reduced. 

My diagnosis led to help from Access to Work, a support worker for two sessions per month and adjustments.  It was a very difficult time with my managers who still didn't seem to understand about my autism, and it reached a stage at one time that I thought I would be without a job very soon at a time when I would find it extra difficult to find a job (I am in my sixties and due to retire in less than two years time.)  The employment tribunal (after a grievance, grievance appeal, and Early Concilliation) was really the thing that made things change even though it reached an agreement (very few Employment Tribunals go all the way and are successful, in most cases the employer will offer a sum of money to withdraw or reach an agreement, and the tribunal system is geared towards money rather than anything else so it can happen that if money is refused an employment tribunal will not offer any money as it is less than the sum refused, and it might be that costs are awarded against the claimant also).  The employment tribunal system is a long drawn out process and is stressful so it is as well to bear that in mind.

Most of my problems I believe have been caused by not considering the strengths I have, just considering my weaknesses and playing on that which caused stress, anxiety and affected my feelings of the workplace.  Despite everything I now feel better at my workplace, I am listened to a lot more and no longer absolutely dread arriving at work every day wondering what I am going to be pulled up about.  Which in my opinion shows that standing my ground eventually gave me the best result possible in the circumstances.

This was a very interesting read. The jobs I have been volunteering on have been the ones I enjoy the most but unfortunately it doesn't pay the bills. I felt myself agreeing with everything in this post and hopefully we at Stack could work towards a easier and more successful way of applying to jobs. 

Thank you very much for your opinion and have a lovely day. 

Hazel 

Stack

This is great information! Ill have a read this evening. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Where to begin? :) 

Applications - it annoys me when I have to fill in an application from scratch, employers seem to be moving away from CV's these days and more online applications, I  love websites which autofill an application based upon previous applications, so that you don't have to go through the whole process again, just double check whether the information is still relevant and focus on the supporting statement.

Something that I heard a few year's ago, but sadly haven't heard anything about it since, so I'm not sure whether this actually kicked off but someone had the creative idea of sensing employers a video CV, a video of yourself going through your experiences, qualifications and experiences ect ect, I feel that something like this could be one solution to the application process.

Interviews - I feel that employers should be specific to where the interview will be held, I've been to interviews where I turned up to the place it said on the interview invite and I was told I had to go somewhere completely different, on a diffrent floor. thankfully, i had arrived in plenty of time to find the new location. I've also had an experience where the interview invite said where the interview would be in the building, but what it didn't say is that I could only get to that part through a particular entrence, I only discovered this when I found a list of where everything is in the buliding, so I had to exit the bulding completely go into the buliding next door diffrent and then because the lift had broken down, go up several flights of stairs to the top floor, I had to try and look professional whist trying to catch my breath whist telling talking to the receptionist (otherwise if I rested I would've been late). 

I feel that one of the biggest problems is that, employers put too much emphasis on interviews rather than the person's ability to do the job, I recall being on a course for unemployed people and one of the members of the group said something very inspiring, he said that he remembered seeing his dad getting work, he would basically go up to a construction site and ask if they have any work and he said that the worker would say something like, can you lift that bucket? and if he could, he got the job.

I feel that the process of recruitment is to much of a "tick box exercise" these day's, which is becoming more evident paritcularly over the last few months because, in the past there always used to be a staff member from HR at interviews, whereas at the moment it feels like it's whoever they can grab of the floor.

I feel that something else that would help is if employers provide feedback in a diffrent format as usually they call you, tell you haven't been successful and give you some feedback, which is alot to take in, I feel that employers need to be more flexible as in my experience the preferred option is to call the candidate and even if they don't get through, they always ask for the candidate to call them back rather than just giving them the news, if employers provided feedback and the outcome through other means with an opportunity to discuss the feedback at a later date, would be beneficial.

One solution is work trials, however work trials isn't always a perfect solution as they are normally over a week which is a short period of time which leaves little time to adjust to a workplace.

I feel that the image of volenteering on the employers side and the image of work experience needs to change, often with volenteering, people volenteer for a whole range of reasons, one of the reasons behind volenteering is unemployment, even if you express the reason why you are volenteering is because you are unemployed, they describe all the positives about volenteering but rarely talk whether the volenteering could lead to a job with them, I once was on a placement with a charity for 6 months, it was a programme where i was paid for 6 months to work with the host workplace in hope that they'd employ me at the end of the 6 months, unfortunatly all that happened was the CEO asked whether I plan to continue as a volenteer, the CEO caught me off guard and I said yes, but in reality I didn't continue.

I also volunteered as a teaching assistant at a local college for several months and thoroughly enjoyed it, at the end of the experience there was a job vacancy where another teaching assistant was very keen on me applying for the role, I applied and had an interview, but was told that I should continue volenteering for a few more months but elsewhere in college.

which is why I feel an important part of any programme or trials, which is the preventing abuse of any programme/trial, which is a big disadvantage of apprenticeships, as at every interview for an apprenticeship I've been to, they either say on the application or in the interview, There's no guarantee of a job at the end of the apprenticeship, which I feel it would be better if employers commit to employing the person (not on the national apprenticeship pay), even if for 6 months after the apprenticeship if He/she wanted to continue with the employer, I feel that'll help to reduce abuse of the apprenticeship system.

I completely understand how you feel. This is exactly how I felt out of work to. It really knocks your confidence to get turned down by every job you apply for, but just know its not you. The system just doesn't cater to us with Autism and this is what Stack is all about. Our goal is to educate employers about the way we work and why it isn't a bad thing. Please don't hesitate to email me at hazel@stackrecruitment.org for any questions you have or if you just want to have a chat. 

Thank you very much for you story and have a lovely day. 

Hazel 

Stack

Some jobs I can do well in, but my biggest challenge is when I'm out of work.  Applying for jobs is very hard, it takes a long time because I will either not apply or I will fully invest my time in hoping to get the role and usually I don't get the job and having to accept that is very hard emotionally becasue it's like dealing with change.  You have to kind of forget about the previous role and focus on something new and that's just not what my brain is wired for, I'm not good at changing focus.  You're expected to be able to do this a lot and quickly if you want to get a job and I can't.  It makes applying to jobs at all feel very risky and a bit upsetting because I am already expecting to feel let down and my confidence becomes very low and I start functioning worse in all aspects of my life.  I find it very difficult to imagine myself in different jobs and to decide whether it is a good idea to apply or not, or what to prioritise.  I don't like lying and feel very uncomfortable applying to something if it is asking for a skill I know that I am below average in (like working with people - which most jobs want), especially becasue the idea of having to pretend or force myself to try and do the things that I struggle with because I'm autistic makes me feel sick and awful about myself.  It would make me very unwell if I had to do that, especially as a full time job.  It would be exhausting and I would feel bad about myself like if you constantly got someone who couldn't read well to read in front of a crowd and had getting fired and not being able to afford food depend on it.  I am quite blunt socially and struggle to share the same perspective as people who are doing the hiring.  I think they have a threshold you need to pass before they even consider whether you would do a good job or not and it's usually about whether they get on with you socially which is obviously a problem for a lot of autistic people in interviews where it can be very hard to focus on social skills and politeness if you're trying to remember what you want to tell them about why they should hire you.

People seem to judge you badly if you've been out of work for a long time even though that isn't relevant to the job.  Being out of work makes me more mentally unwell too as I barely have any money and that makes it even harder than usual to organise looking after myself.  I get depressed and feel like I'm not good enough and a burden on everyone who knows me.  I feel like not having a job makes me uninteresting and everything feels meaningless.

I'm trying to get PIP and hoping it will help me pay for the things I need to be okay day-to-day so I can get healthy again.  Then hopefully I will eventually get a job.  But I do need more help with applications and having a good plan so all the ups and downs aren't as hard to handle.  It would help to have a mentor to see regularly who understood me and autism and mental illness and could help me keep on track and not become too distressed or stuck.  The closest to that near me (that is free) would be short term counselling but that doesn't help becasue new people are hard to deal with and having to see someone for only a short amount of time doesn't help me becasue my problems won't go away and the stopping and starting transitions in my routine causes problems for me.  It's also not really their job to properly help you with tasks like that as they just listen and give advice really.

Most of all it's just hard to keep organised and keep track of everything.  I need help but don't know how to get it, my Mum used to look out for me but she died and I don't feel comfortable relying on others anymore because people can die.