Employment and Autism

Hello, I was wondering about my long term unemployment, I think I was about thirteen when I got my first premonition that I would never have a career. I went a fair way with my education and now have three university degrees, but no career.

I think we would all admit that things like relationships involving mutual trust and interdependence are always difficult with Autism but I wondered whether this was a community wide thing?

In 1993, when I was thirty my last proper job finished and I knew that this was to be an open ended period of unemployment, and so it has turned out, I said to myself that that New Year I need a job, a car and a partner, since then I have had three cars but no career and no partner.

It seems that the way I apply for work is the problem, I do have a fancy way of using words and like to display my knowledge and maybe this is off-putting, the few interviews I did get were a result 'ticking the equal opportunities boxes' and boy does the panel always see me coming, yes, I got travel expenses, but no offers.

I am still at least in theory due to age employable, but it it is all looking a bit late.

Nick.

Parents
  • People with classic autism or more severe forms of autistic spectrum disorders cannot generally handle jobs which require any significant degree of interaction with others. Autism makes it difficult to communicate effectively or to receive communication effectively.

  • On the surface of it I come across as very wordy with a large vocabulary, but, what if anything does it communicate? If the understanding is not there or misinterpreted well then that marks me down as a useless communicator and despite an interest in creative writing I am not much good at dialogue owing to bad listening skills, but I am working on them.

  • I can relate. Until a good while ago I used to have 'at least I'm articulate' as my one imagined saving grace. But then it became ever clearer: I'm not articulate, I'm merely wordy - circumlocutionary even to the point where it must seem to others at times like an embarrassing affectation even though I mostly long for the effective conciseness and clarity others seem to have at their fingertips. When a family member (knowing they can be blunter with me than most) says 'Can we get to the point?' I don't mind the humorous pointing out of how tortuously inefficient I'm being with language, but it also makes me even worse somehow - the more I reach for 'getting to the point', the more pronounced the side-winding towards it becomes.

  • I think my side-bar killed the thread! 

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