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I desperately need help finding a job!

Jono180185

Please can someone help me? I am desperately trying to find a job that is suitable for someone in my position - my position being:

A) I have Aspergers

B) I have no GCSEs or A-levels

My situation is that I am constantly, CONSTANTLY, searching for jobs online and any other way I can think of, but I always get into this viscious circle of having no experience so never getting any. 

I left school at 13, due to my Aspergers, which is why I missed out on my exams. I do have a Theatre degree but this is literally the only qualification I have. 

The only things that I am good at - at least on a professional level - is acting, close-up magic and writing. After I graduated, in 2015, I moved to London to try and pursue a career in performing arts. Whilst this isn't going terribly in itself, what I am trying to do is find a part time 'side job' to bring in some money for my flat. However, Im just having no luck whatsoever because I'm simply not capable of doing anything else. 

I can't do anything like retail or hitting targets because I'm terrible with numbers and can't deal with high pressure environments in that instance. I'm very anti-social so I'm not very good at dealing with people - customer complaints for example. People make me lose my temper a lot.

I am trying to start up a business with my magic performing at weddings, etc, but like acting this also takes time and it's not bringng in enough income yet. 

People are always saying to me that I should just take 'any old job' and accept the fact that it won't be ideal. One line I hear a lot of is 'It's what everyone else does' but people don't realise that I am not everyone else, I'm me and I'm different. Believe me, I wish I could just take any old job, it would certainly make my life a damn site easier! I cannot change the way I am, but people are always saying I need to change which I don't think is reasonable. It's like asking a man with no legs to become a hurdler. 

I am a man with no legs living in a world of hurdlers...that's what it feels like anyway. 

I need help. I am perfectly well aware that I need to get a job - and I want to - but I just don't know how to find a job that fits my needs. 

Can someone, anyone, please help? 

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    I don't know what it's like in the UK but in NZ there are ways to get qualifications once you are an adult. Just been going through the process with SD20 who left school at 16 with nothing and did badly in vocational training. Turned out she has ADHD and dyslexia. Once diagnosed we could access extra support and she's now in a 6 months intensive course that will give her equivalency to A levels by the end of it. 

    At the moment we are dealing with my 20 y/o nephew with ASD being fearful he won't be employable. He does well on the academic side but crashes on the social side. I encourage him to get work in somewhere like a hospital kitchen where the jobs are structured but fairly repetitive and just get into the routine of working and succeeding in the low level day to day interactions such as saying hello to nursing staff as you pick up the trolley from the ward.

    Far from being 'any job' you use these jobs to get good at day to day routines and dealing with low level stressors in controlled doses - the tray line is overstimulation hell but it lasts 20 minutes max. Once you experience low level success you find other ways of being good at what you do in these roles.  My own experience with DCD was jobs like this helped me overcome the fear my physical limitations would be a problem in the workplace. On a social level I learned to deal with people being stupid and not seeing me in a nasty green smock wheeling a 6 foot tall food trolley in a variety of ways. Because of the ethnic diversity in the kitchen we used to have all kinds of miscommunication and it turned out my attention to detail was helpful because I could often spot when there was going to be a problem and sort it out. Bliss was when the supervisors realised I could be trusted to do accurate detailed work after 6 months drudgery and I got to prepare specialist meals in a separate area of the kitchen.

    Any job is what you make of it. One particularly awful job working in a paper factory taught me how to deal with nasty bullies. The supervisor used to get into inappropriate touching. Tried it on me and got his foot broken. He tried to say I was violent. I pointed out that the injury could only happen with me stepping back onto his foot hard and the only reason I would do that was if I didn't like being touched...that got him in big trouble. He expected tears etc and got cold analytical QF and so did the human resource manager...and he realised I was telling the truth.

  • Good for you and keep trying. It infuriates me seeing a TV show with a character with Autism where the actor clearly doesn't.

    it might be worth you contacting Harry Specters. I don't know if they are recruiting now but would be accepting if they are. They also do weddings and corporate events and might be willing to promote your magic act.

    good luck and please share if you are successful 

  • Thank you for your reply. I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposd to be looking for? Is it supposed to be a site or...?