Autism and jobs

I live in France and if I can ever get over my fear of driving again I might consider it. Thank you all and take care

You are so very kind! thank you for sharing your experience Take care

I spent most of my life being a financial investigator or a trade union negotiator, para-legal and trainer. I enjoyed the training part because I wrote my own courses, which were later used for national trade-union training or by management. 

I had a severe burn-out when I retired, which lasted for years. That's when I realised I was neurodiverse, although it took a few years to realise I was autistic. Be gentle with yourself and don't be too impatient - recovery will come in its own time.

I was a postman in the 90's in UK. I liked researching the odd/incorrectly addressed letters and delivering them to the correct address. 

Hello and thank you for sharing your experience and advice. Right now I wanna stay as far away from a school as possible because it's just too loud and unpredictable  however I agree with you when you recommend not to jump back into it too fast too soon. I can already feel the fatigue crawling up when I think too deeply about it so...

Take good care of yourself.

I’ve also considered postman! Unfortunately here in the USA there is a 90% fail rate for the assessment to even be considered for an interview. I don’t have the analytical brain required for that lol

I imagine - or at least hope - it is much more accommodating over in the UK!

Former music professor (10 years) here. I found out I was Autistic IMMEDIATELY after leaving the university. I don’t know if I have ever had burnout, because I have clinical major depression, so there have been many times where it could have been either/or/both. It’s possible I’ve only had immense periods of depression.

Education is a very difficult field for Autistics in general. The only benefit is that - particularly in high school / collegiate - you can script lectures and interactions. Also, I guess we tend to be drawn to it due to fascination with a particular topic and a drive to teach others about it. However, there can be a huge toll for that amount of socializing and constantly wading through student/coworker drama.

My recommendation is two-fold:

1. Ease into work. Take your time. I highly recommend NOT diving into any full-time work until you feel that the burnout has eased enough that you can handle that many hours away from home. You might even consider starting with a few volunteer hours here and there if you are lucky enough to have someone you can rely on financial for a short time. Diving into full-time work too soon will only serve to prolong the burnout.

2. Consider educational support roles, such as administrative assistant, lunch staff, or custodial. You will still feel engaged with the purpose of assisting students to lead fulfilled lives, but in a slightly less direct way. A role I believe would be perfect for Autistic educators is a school counselor - since that focuses on one-to-one interactions - but I recognize that requires more schooling and is unlikely an option without significant investment on your part.

I hope that helps, if even just a little!

Well I wish you lots of luck, there will be something out there to suit you, but it seems we have to ‘jump through hoops’ to get it. 

Hello and thank you for your contribution ! Well that's the next stage actually. At the end of my sick leave the French system for whom i work will decide if I'm fit to return or not (obviously not!) and if they can offer me remote work (but like any other country i think demands outweigh the number of positions). Time will tell. Take care

Thanks for your reply. I'll look into it

Could you consider forest school or some online tutoring? 

None for me but my autistic friend went from computer programmer to postman and enjoyed it.

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I've become too sensitive to lights, noise and crowds. It's a no-go situation for me. Hence the big question : if I can no longer teach, what's possible? Take care 

I used to teach. 

Although I don't have sensory overload issues teaching had it's challenges.

Given the chance I think I'd be happy with many different types of jobs from different sectors and different levels. 

When I was married I did have crashes after about a month. There were simply too many issues to deal with. Also at that time about 18 years ago I didn't know I was autistic. 

I'm not sure if any of this is helpful. I'm tempted to say don't let your teaching experience if it was negative get you down. Teaching can vary extensively e.g. city centre you'll have challenging behaviour issues to deal with but in the suburbs quiter parts of the city students may have zero behaviour issues. So teaching there can be significantly easier.