If you are working, what careers are you in?

Hi, NAS, what a great question! Thanks for posing it.

I work as a teacher, which is apparently an unusual profession for people with Autism. My psychologist has gently and in a completely non-pressuring way suggested to me that I consider changing careers in order to avoid burnout. This, after I’ve disclosed to her that I feel burnout coming soon and that I don’t foresee being able to maintain this career for long.

In the meantime, I have been able to survive full-time teaching by pursuing roles in which I work in quite a specialist capacity and do not have to work as part of a team or a large team. Instead, I seek positions in which I am ideally in a department of one (just me) or two teachers, and where what I do is so specialized that I don’t have a lot of involvement from school administrators.

With that being said, I previously worked in the social work field and much preferred those roles, particularly when I could work one-on-one with clients in quiet settings. Sometimes I think about doing that again starting this fall, but it’s a bit of a balancing act because it pays about 70%  of what I make now. If I had a spouse things would be easier because I would have his income as well, but because I’m single this has been a bit of a challenge for me to figure out.

Ultimately I believe my wellness matters more than money, so who knows where I’ll be, perhaps as early as this fall.

Thanks for listening!

Elizabeth

Hi, NAS, what a great question! Thanks for posing it.

I work as a teacher, which is apparently an unusual profession for people with Autism. My psychologist has gently and in a completely non-pressuring way suggested to me that I consider changing careers in order to avoid burnout. This, after I’ve disclosed to her that I feel burnout coming soon and that I don’t foresee being able to maintain this career for long.

In the meantime, I have been able to survive full-time teaching by pursuing roles in which I work in quite a specialist capacity and do not have to work as part of a team or a large team. Instead, I seek positions in which I am ideally in a department of one (just me) or two teachers, and where what I do is so specialized that I don’t have a lot of involvement from school administrators.

With that being said, I previously worked in the social work field and much preferred those roles, particularly when I could work one-on-one with clients in quiet settings. Sometimes I think about doing that again starting this fall, but it’s a bit of a balancing act because it pays about 70%  of what I make now. If I had a spouse things would be easier because I would have his income as well, but because I’m single this has been a bit of a challenge for me to figure out.

Ultimately I believe my wellness matters more than money, so who knows where I’ll be, perhaps as early as this fall.

Thanks for listening!

Elizabeth

I agree, our health is our wealth as they say. I've also wondered about teaching as a career option; I did a course in teaching adults and enjoyed it. I think I would do best in a small place for autistic people, and it seems that to train in "special" education you have to do general teacher training first, with learners of all neurotypes, staff room politics etc. I wonder whether being autistic (well, I'm waiting for diagnosis) might help when working with autistic people. Mind you, my husband has a diagnosis of autism and I sometimes wonder whether our life together would be easier if I wasn't also potentially autistic. My husband doesn't communicate with me about money and I'm not sure how to encourage him :-(

The 1:1 work is where I thrive in social work too. My difficulties are around meetings with multiple professionals. If every contact in my life could be 1:1 then I would feel so much happier!