what kind of work do people do?

I think there is more awareness now and consequently more adjustments.  But I was starting out in the 80s with no diagnosis.

I always had an idea of how the "right person for the job" might look and perform so eventually I learnt to prepare for interviews by stepping into that persona.  This was enough to get into the workplace, but very hard to maintain once I'd got my foot in the door.

Wow

qwerty said:

Also, what jobs do you think are well-suited for the autistic personality?

How about a park ranger in Alaska who mans a fire tower, they overlook miles and miles of forest just waiting on fires to break out, that must be really stressful waiting for danger to happen but as some of us ASD's seem so good at it we may as well have a great view and get paid for it.

I think I also have the experience that I did academically well in school, but struggle in real-life. It's so different.

I agree that doing a job you enjoy is much more important than what society tell us are "good jobs". I'd rather have a job I enjoy doing with a live-able salary than a job I don't like that gives a high salary. 

I do think that we have to work though. If no one worked, there will be no farmers to grow any food (then how will society feed itself?), there will be no construction workers (so who will build the house you are currently living in?), there will be no autism support workers or clinicians (so how will you get your diagnosis and support?). Since there are people working, and as a group, that makes everyone else's lives easier. So work is kind of like a duty, everyone who works will be also contributing to that role in society - to help improve everyone's life overall.

Cool! So many engineers here.

Panel interviews sound really stressful! I really hate those too.

I think there are some IT companies that look into hiring autistic talent (like Microsoft and Auticon), and they adjust the interview so it's slightly less stressful. 

Thanks qwerty, good to know I have a comrade out there in cyberspace if that doesn't sound creepy.

Cool! You must have lots of academic knowledge about ASD then :) 

It's possible to do a part-time postgraduate, perhaps? To work while taking a couple of days off per week to do postgraduate stuff? 

And it's also a possibility to look forward to when your kids are grown up.

Wow, the last three paragraphs sounds just like me!

I can also focus hours on the same subject and I loved learning and gaining knowledge! I am also a girl but had tomboy tendencies and did quite a few experiments growing up. I also felt the same way about math and had similar experiences with the teacher teaching too slow and discouraged students challenging them. I also wish I had know earlier about Aspergers and could have more support in school. 

Your experiences are amazing. I can relate to it a lot.

...and the one persisting theme that always made things so difficult, was working with people.

In my last 'career' I dealt with HMRC legislation in relation to pensions law, but had several roles within the same organisation over several years dealing with many different policies and legislation, most of the time it was to decipher and extract relevant information, sometimes to challenge which would result in positive changes made to policy (particularly public sector). I worked with masses of information and for most of the time up until I left I felt I was doing something 'worthwhile', making positive change, contributing, making wrongs right, making a difference to those who were affected. 

In retrospect, it suited some of my Asperger's traits well, strong sense of justice, supernatural diligence, even the 'black & white' and 'rigid' thinking, focusing for hours on the same subject, love learning and gaining knowledge just for the sake of it, bit of an encyclopedia. In my personal life I amassed cardboard boxes full of research papers that I collected.

However, as a girl, I had 'tomboy' tendencies, like building go-karts with my uncle and loved working with him on his motorbike, or rather, watching as i wasn't allowed to touch anything, pleading with my granny to use my uncles chemistry set but after he set fire to the couch doing an 'experiment' the kit was banned. What I'm trying to say is that I was more 'practical' than 'academic' the latter seemed to come later and now the former isn't great, strange how things evolve....

Wish I could have my life over again knowing what I know now...especially with the Asperger's because maybe I could have told my teachers to teach me differently. I had a math teacher who I often challenged because I thought many math equations were overly complicated but I got told to be quiet and stop questioning everything just to accept what I was told, is that the worse kind of teaching or what?  Needless to say, I didn't do well at math and accepted the fact I must be rubbish at it and so avoided it.

I’m a Mental Health Nurse, I work mainly in dementia care. I did my under grad in Psychology though I’m interested in most things brain related. I’d love to get back into studying Psychology to be honest but Nursing pays a wage and the children are far too young for me to even consider trying to study at postgraduate level for the foreseeable future.

I'm a Business Analyst and I'm brilliant at it, having just been diagnosed with ASD (Asperger Syndrome if it hadn't been absorbed) I'd say I'm literally 'built for it'...

I went contract a few years ago which took all the stupid, pointless, annual review activities away, along with all the vying for promotion and the 'sucking up' and the 'toeing the line'...

They hired me for my expertise - they don't have to like me, I don't have to like them, I'll tell them the 'right' way to do something and if they force me to do it the 'wrong' way or deliver the 'wrong' thing I'll fight them openly and subversively to make it as 'right' as possible.

If I change jobs every 6-12 months no-one bats an eye, it's the nature of contracting.

I'd say you don't HAVE to have Asperger Syndrome to be an awesome Business Analyst... but it makes it a damn sight easier!

I want to follow up on the analogies... if I may?

I 'self-label' as having 'analogy Tourette's' - I'm a Business Analyst and use them all the time to facilitate understanding of non-technical stakeholders of technical (and sometimes non-technical!) issues, solutions concepts etc.

I have had people say on numerous occasions "I wish I could have put it like that..." usually after I've got frustrated by someone's Nth abortive attempt to explain something to the room and I've stepped in...

I'm also a highly visual thinker...

Is this an ASD thing?

My undiagnosed partner is a lorry driver, he likes being on his own

I would have been a classical musician if I could have got through the interview process. Auditions (playing) are fine. Interviews terrify me!!!! 

Now I play and share music mainly on a voluntary basis. I keeps me far saner than I otherwise would be and I have my place in the ensemble. I also teach a little on a voluntary basis (music) and help older people with ‘basic’ technology like tablets and smart phones. Jill of all trades, master of none. 

I am from a family of computer experts, chartered and other engineers, an inventor, a decoder etc etc. Whatever happened in my case?!!!

Yes - I like the older bikes where everything had to be made by a bloke - the modern plastic robot-made bikes are all a bit too over-engineered for my liking.

And also they fit in a workshop - cars take up too much space.

I totally agree.. the other good thing about motorbikes is that I can sit in my workshop, shut the door and literally stare at them for hours and never get bored.. total peace.. total zone out.. in my own little peace of heaven..

I'd like to get into restoring bikes - so much less complex than cars - all the parts are manageable and I hate dealing with acres of rusted bodywork.

II work on motorbikes.. repair/restoration.. a great autistic job.. everything spins.. I love it..