Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there i am in the process of getting an autism diagnosis. I've got to say it's a breath of fresh air reading the posts on here. I'm so happy i'm not alone. The question i have is what kind of work do people do as i have done various jobs but struggle with the social side of it.
I tried to be an academic librarian, which in theory should be an autism-friendly role, but I couldn't make it work, particularly as I can currently only work part-time. I had burnout in one job and really had to leave although it was in theory ideal. The next job was worse, just too noisy and busy (further education college -- the only good thing about this job was that doing it, I realised I'm autistic!) and by the end I felt my boss held me in contempt, which destroyed my self-belief. I tried looking for other jobs after I left that one, but the part-time jobs weren't there, I struggled with the interviews and didn't get any offers and my skills went rusty from too much time unemployed.
I currently have an office admin job two days a week which isn't ideal for an autistic person (some multitasking and phoning), but it pays and my boss is understanding. I'm trying to set up some side work doing freelance proofreading from home, which I think would be more autism-friendly, but I've not had much time to focus on that yet and I worry about the amount of networking and self-promotion it will involve.