Where to find jobs?

mp500 said:

There is no shortage of "advice" on the WWW for people with autism about finding work, but it is all very generic. There is never anything applicable to the job market in local areas.

That is because everyones situation is unique and you need to take the initiative to find local employers, contact them and effectively become your own PR agent if you want to be successful.

Don't rely on the job centre to find you a job as they have so many people in a comparable situation to you (i.e. they are a challenge to employ) and few employers using them that you will be very low on their list of people to put forward.

What skills do you have to offer an employer? Do you have any work / volunteering experience at all?

Without these it will be very hard for an employer to even look at you as the experience of working is quite a challenge in its own right so as an adult they will think you will have difficulty adjisting to the new routines, pressures and discipline you need. Add autism (Aspregers is Autism to all intents and purposes here) and these issues are often magnified plus you have to work with people, harsh lighting, loud noises etc which many have issues coping with.

That's just helping you understand why you are where you are - now how do you break that cycle?

1 - Find areas you can cope to work in.

Are you good with your hands? What skills have you developed from your hobbies? Are you fit / strong? What special knowledge do you have? All these can inform types of jobs that would be worth targetting as they will use strengths you have.

2 - Find local employers.

Start by going round your area and find the employers big enough to have a premises and start building a spreadsheet to target them.

Check their website to find the HR or People Dept contact

Look at news articles on them (local newspaper website is a good source)and see what has been said about them recently to see if they are going bust, have programs on the go, are expanding - anything that may give an indication if they are worth targetting more intensely.

Remember things like the local council, the police, local parks etc.

See what the companies do and see where you could fit in.

3 - Build a CV

This needs to include as much useful info as possible but not be overly padded with stuff like your school info - just a summary of the grades if find.

Look to add stuff like where you have volunteered (if you haven't then try it), what online courses have you taken, what areas of technical expertise have you developed (eg do you repair motorbikes in your spare time) - anything that makes you at least a little valuable.

4 - contact the employers.

Write to them, ask where they advertise their vacancies and ask if they have accept direct applications. Where you have found news articles about them recently then consider mentioning that "with your plan to expand  your factory this summer I hoped I could apply for any vacancies you have at entry level here).

Be humble, say you lack experience but have loads of passion and commitment and believe you could be a valuable resource for them.

5 - follow up of you don't hear back.

Now you have the contact at the company, write a max of 2 times each after 2 weeks asking if they received your application and if they have any openings, even an internship / apprenticeship that you could apply for. Don't push more after this for at least 6 months or unless you hear they are expanding / taking on a new project.

It is a full time job doing this amount of applying but it has very much become the norm for even experienced an skilled staff to go through a huge amount of chasing to get a job. Think of it as good prep for when you spend 9-5, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year working for someone.

Most of the job sites online are for more skilled workers but some big employers will have their own sites - think Amazon warehouse workers, post office / delivery drivers / street sweepers etc - these are often from the employers themselves so the steps above will help you find these.

If you give us some info on your skills, special interests and what limitations you have from your autism then it will help us suggest some ideas too.

I have personally found Indeed very helpful for applying to jobs. You can filter for certain aspects that would suit your needs (For example: distance from your home, what hours you want, wages, if you want to work from home or in the office, disability confident employees and which sectors you’re interested in.). 

It can also be helpful to think about what your interests are and what industries cater towards this. For example if you love planes you could research what roles are available in the aerospace sector and see what would suit your strengths (for example if you are socialable and like to travel cabin crew would be great but if you prefer working on your own you could look at admin jobs in that field. 

If you already have an idea about what industry you want to work for (for example animal care). Research what companies work in this sector and look at their websites for job vacancies.

These are just things I have found beneficial for my employment journey. I started off doing admin jobs I found on indeed then migrated to thinking about my interests and this led to this year starting a job in a dream industry of mine.

Hope this maybe gave you some new ideas. Best of luck in your job search.