Published on 12, July, 2020
There are going to be a lot of questions here so sorry in advance if these questions are already answered elsewhere. If you could point me to them that would be really help you thanks.
So some background. I have just graduated from university with a degree in Maths where I got a really good grade. I thought that if I focused on doing my degree well then that would be enough people would hire me because of that but it appears that my degree really didn't matter what I should have been doing is focusing getting internships, work experience and doing projects. It wasn't till after I had completed my degree that I realised I could be autistic there some red flags like the fact that I hadn't talked to anyone in my final two years of uni but it didn't click until after I have graduated. I am in the process of getting diagnosis but I have read that takes a long time to actually do. My strengths are I am very good at completing clear written assignments I have been given, I got 100% in the majority of my university assignments. I am very good at solving problems similar to ones that I have seen before, I ended up with getting at or above 70% in all of my university modules. If I am given a deadline to learn something I can. I enjoy learning things especially how to learn, which is probably one of the main reasons I did so well in uni, I created a structure for myself so I could do well. I also have the weird ability to sometimes understand there is a mistake in my work if I understand what is going on. Everything is interesting to me, I could become a software developer, data analyst or go into cyber security but I have trouble with talking to people so I think software development would probably be the best but I will still need to talk to people in it. The problem is what I want to do is constantly switching every five minutes so it is hard to just pick one and learn the skills I need to get a job because it seems employers want you to already be able to do the job before they hire you which I understand but also that does not help me much. I am also having trouble with figuring out the requirements to actually get the job because it hard to know what I need to be learning. I am also worried about ChatGPT and that will take away most of the entry level programming jobs given enough time so is it even worth still learning programming or should I focus on learning something else. I am not really bothered by what job I get, I like the book "So good they can't ignore you" by Cal Newport which says you should focus on doing things well rather then following your passion. At the end of the day if you can do something well you will eventually enjoy it given enough time but companies seem to think differently they want you to be passionate about the job rather then saying I will do it well anyway.
Sorry for the long ramble, as you can imagine I haven't really talked to people in a while and I don't really like asking for help but I figure if I want to live a good life then I am going to need to ask for help. So some questions for you.
How do I become a software developer? - I know I need to learn a programming language, I know Python and I would say I am a competent beginner I am able to complete tasks I have been given as I look up what I don't know but I don't know how to bridge the gap to intermediate programming which I think I need to use projects for but the problem is I have trouble coming up with project ideas and then actually finishing the project. I probably just need to find ways to trick myself into doing it. I think I also need to learn Data Structures and algorithms but I am not exactly sure what I need to learn and how. I also need to have experience with git and github, so I can host my projects and showcase them. What sort of level should my projects be at before I start applying because I have a tendency to I either over do something or under do something there is no middle ground. Should I focus just on development or should I focus on development in a specific area? E.g Embedded software development seems extremely interesting to me but I have a maths degree not an electrical engineering degree so I am not sure how I would get started learning what I needed to learn. How much time should I expect it to take to learn what I need to learn? I read somewhere that in order to get a job being a developer you need to already see yourself as a software developer. Does that make sense? Is it also even possible to become an embedded software engineer with a maths degree and how do I showcase my skills? Should I focus on learning the skills and look for jobs where they ask for those skills and can showcase in projects that I actually have those skills. I have trouble getting started doing things and not getting distracted when I am doing it. I imagine breaking a problem down into solvable parts is helpful but the problem is actually doing them.
How do I get a part-time job whilst I upskill? I don't have any work experience as I kept putting it off and off until eventually my degree finished and I have no work experience. I don't really have much to put on my CV as the only thing I have really done is worked on my degree and done nothing else. Does it matter? How do I even do an interview? Why do you want this job? Because I want a job not really the best answer. What sort of part-time work should I look into doing, as I imagine customer service is just going to go badly? I honestly have no idea.
Most of the resources out there seem tailored to people with a diagnosis, which I understand why, but are there any resources tailored to undiagnosed people?
How do I get social skills, as currently my social skills are at 0 and I don't know how to move the marker? How do I actually make friends? There is a lot of general information out there but not much specific information.
Sorry for all of the questions, there are probably answers out there already to all of them, the problem is I just don't where and what exactly is relevant to me. There is both too much information and not enough information. So I figured I should just ask them all in one place. There are probably more questions that I just haven't though of yet but these should be the main ones. Sorry, if anything I say is rude, I tend to either get stuck in my own head for days overthinking problems or just blurt out a response where I come across as rude but I don't know how to fix this. I am new to all of this and am trying to figure everything out.
Thank you to anyone who answers. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day.
With a very good first in Maths, getting funding for further study should be relatively straightforward, as should be getting a relevant job, maths skills are in high demand in many industries. What is in the way, is your lack of social skills. Having passed your time as an undergraduate, where social opportunities are at their lifetime peak for most people, in seclusion, you will now be in a situation where opportunities for socialising are much rarer. I think that you need to concentrate on social skills. I think that you may need to do some analysis of the root of your problems in interacting with other people. Are your problems anxiety-based? Or are you lacking in abilities at non-verbal communication? Such problems can be overcome, a working knowledge of non-verbal communication can be acquired intellectually and social anxiety can be addressed by talking therapies, such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
Hi Martin, I think the hardest part for me is asking for help. A lot of my problems are probably quite small but then they build up over time and you don't notice at first but then they become too large to ignore and then once they have got that large it makes it even harder to ask for help. Does that make sense? Where should I start with learning social skills?
Hi, Yes, asking for help, and being reliant on other people are very difficult for autistic people. I have a leak in my roof at present and have to have an old asbestos boiler flue removed. Being reliant on roofers to turn up and sort the problems out is giving me sleepless nights.
I learned non-verbal communication, which I had identified as my major social stumbling block, many years ago. I did so by seeking out books and papers where facial expressions, gestures and body language were identified and analysed. It was like learning a foreign language, but now I have a usable, if mostly intellectual, grasp of it. These days this type of information can be readily found online. There are even online tests for facial expression recognition.
I took part in the strikes, and picketing; very recently the pension benefits have been returned to their previous levels. The strikes have worked, at least in that regard. I wrote three chapters in a textbook, but it was a very specialised book so didn't sell like one aimed at undergraduates. No, I am never bored, I have very absorbing interests, most recently I have taken up watch repair (old pocket watches) in a small way. A lot of my research was concerned with drug resistance and drug design to overcome resistance. I also worked on some fundamental metabolic and cellular processes that have no direct connection with the diseases caused by the microorganisms.
When I did my undergrad degree only 12.5% of school leavers went on to university, now it is around 60%. There has been an increase in PhD students, but not nearly as large. The biggest change I have noticed is that research groups have tended to get larger. The 'big names' in any field seem to attract a larger proportion of the funding available. When I started work the average research group was around 5 to 10 people. Now there seems to be much less middle-ground, with new PIs having a couple of researchers and established professors often having groups as large as 20 to 30 people. Collaborations between PIs have also increased enormously.
You sound amazing. There were some strikes going on at my uni because they were planning on changing the pension scheme, I think. I am not entirely sure. Did you ever write any textbooks? I imagine that is how some Lecturers make money but since you didn't go into the teaching side I wonder if you could still write books. That way you don't have to talk to people and you can make some more money but I imagine it is a matter of connections. Are you bored, now that you are retired? Have you found things to keep you interested in or are you just doing nothing every day? What was the purpose of your research? Was it to determine why certain diseases behave the way they do or was it trying to find ways to prevent their spread? Find cures and so on. Did you ever see a noticeable increase in the number of PhD students and post docs or was it always the same? If it increased why do you think that was, was it just a matter of universities wanting more funding?
I took early retirement in 2020. My PhD was on the molecular and cell biology of pathogens. I worked in research (tropical disease) for 25 years, the last 5 years I was the lab manager for my group. Then the grant money was not renewed and I moved into managing scientific facilities in a university research institute, though I kept up some collaborations with groups working in my old field of research. I never wanted to teach, would not have the abilities to do so, therefore the lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor route was not an option. Academics are hired and paid by universities primarily to teach, though a good track record in research is also usually essential. The research side is really left to the individual academic (in research terms called the PI - principal investigator). It is a little like being self-employed, the PI organises grant funding (from government bodies or charities), hires postgrad students, technicians and post-docs (though the university is the formal employer), guides the research and oversees the writing of publications. The grant money pays for research equipment, consumables, rents lab-space from the university and pays the salaries of the researchers in the group.
The downsides of research work are the reliance on 1, 3 or 5 year grants, so there is a precarity in employment. The pay is not great, compared to the academic qualifications of the average worker, but is reasonable compared to most jobs. The upsides are: the pension is very good compared to virtually anywhere else, there is considerable freedom in hours of work (though I did do the occasional 12 hour stints on Sundays collecting data), holidays are good - typically 30 days a year, working on interesting and often challenging projects, having full rein in indulging in hyper-focus, plenty of opportunities for problem- solving and working in a stimulating environment with lots of civilised and intelligent people.