What are good careers for autistic people?

[PearlBird]

1. last job complained I lack workplace etiquette and social skills e.g. inappropriate communication to clients, working from home without explicit communication from the boss etc.

Was told I was a very good analyst and to stick with research

Pathologist.

University jobs

Hi. Thank you for sharing, I’m ND and found this useful since psychology has also been my SI.

May I ask if you have a BSc or a MSc conversion and if you found it difficult to break into the field? Organisational psychology also interests me and I’m good at reading data but have found breaking into the field to be a challenge. Thank you!

Data scientist
computer programmer
professor

xeno nailed it. A lot of the jobs being thrown out are my absolute idea of hell, you’ve just got to find one that works for you and then ND hiring friendly companies, for me personally rather than a company I’ve gone self employed which solves a lot of the problems I was having.

lol - I work with both and DB is the latter ... most are autistic

@MandUs - I work with many of them ☺️ they need to be factual, keep emotions out and focus on an end point ... all autistic traits
DB is an anaesthetist he's good with patients to a point - and adored as an anaesthetist by patients

It obviously depends, but some parts of the civil service. GCHQ runs positive recruitment campaigns for neurodivergent people.

Librarian

@pigletinthewoods you can have an undergrad in pretty much anything if you a masters in org psyc or management. Hr consulting is a pathway, lots of specialist roles in the hr function in large global orgs too.

When I was younger I did data entry. I loved it, just putting stuff paperwork onto a computer (eg travel insurance documents, pension details) No dealing with customers, not much chatting to colleagues.

I'd love to do that again, I don't see many jobs come up though (although I'm not looking really as I'm a carer for my son)

My nephew is autistic and studying medicine...he's aiming to be a cardio thoracic surgeon. I think he could be brilliant in the theatre, but may need to work on his bedside manner.

I'm not so sure about that- there seems to be a huge amount of needless internal politics in universities- usually top down- that would probably send most ND people round the bend.

I don't really think the question is "which jobs/careers", I think is more important for a lot of ASD people is the working environment, and whether they are going to be asked to do things or function in a manner that will cause them distress.

As an example, I refuse to consider any job where I'm going to be asked to work as a "team", or in an environment where I'm constantly surrounded by other people. I've done this before, and to me all "team" means is being constantly let down by other people because they can't work to deadlines and don't deliver when they have promised they will, and typical office environments are full of sensory phenomenon that tip me into overload. Both of these things mean that in short order I quickly become stressed, anxious, burned out, and depressed.

The "what" I'm actually doing isn't really here nor there, though I still crave job satisfaction the same as anyone else. What's far more important to me is that I'm able to function and the environment isn't going to make me ill.

https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/what-we-do/employment/paid-work-experience

@MysteriousUsername I've filtered for remote only data related jobs below in the link below.

https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs?keywords=Data&workplace=remote&minsalary=9000

CEO, finance, most city jobs and Silicon Valley. I'm talking from experience.

I started my working life in hospitality. I was great at first as I'm an excellent masker but it didn't last. I couldn't cope with the social element and the having to multi task/work under pressure.

I did self employed childcare for ten years. This went well until the paperwork and pressure started to increase. I also struggled with issues/communication with parents.

I then became a family support worker in social services. Terrible job for me. I had a heavy caseload and I am the sort of person who gives 100% on a job but in order to do my job well I had to work around 30 hours unpaid a week. I soon ended up burnt out.

Eventually I found my perfect job. I now work in a library. I love books and I am a passionate reader so I find being around books really soothing. There's a combination of dealing with public which I'm ok at as we are talking about books. Lots of organising and tidying which I love. A lot of repetition and working at my own pace. I love it.

Everything depends on someone's particular strengths and weaknesses. Even things like patient or client contact: for some people it means that the interpersonal skills aren't intuitive, not that they can't be learnt. I know ND people in many medical specialities. For medicine I would say executive functioning difficulties are a much more critical point. There's so much to remember and organise that you really need to be able to keep on top of it and have excellent study skills.

I have ASD and I work in public health, but my job mainly involves data and reports. For me, key things are being able to control my environment and work pace. (My father is a retired solicitor and has always sworn I would have been perfect for the law as I love the analytical aspects of it but I have never had any desire to.) I have a friend who also has ASD and very strong ADHD. I don't think I've ever seen her with her hands empty; she can't even sit through a TV programme without something to do. For her it's very important to have varied tasks and not simply be at a desk all day. She went back to retrain as a special education teacher and is brilliant at it. She says she couldn't be in front of a class of 30 all day, but she works in a special school with small classes and gets to do a lot of 1:1.

Everyone says "IT" and yes many autistic people do enjoy it, but that also is related to stereotypes of autistic people. You would be surprised at where we pop up.

There are job agencies for neurodivergent people, so check them out. Enna is one I know of, there are others. I would be looking at what you actually like to do, not what you hear autistic people "should" be good at. Enna also has a downloadable communication preferences sheet that everyone in a team can do. Autistic communication can come across as different, but the more understanding everyone has, the easier it will become.

For the thing I am not sure you meant to paste here, your answers sound like you are trying to fit in a bunch of business speak in American spelling. I admittedly haven't applied for anything in a while, but surely no one expects an answer that you are thrilled with redundancy for the opportunities it can bring?

I used to managed a team of 8 hydraulic (river flooding) modellers. They were all ND! Some had come from a financial modelling background. So I'd sugguest computer modelling! Very IT and process driven. I did all the client/supllier engagement.

I'm autistic and run my own, very successful dog walking business.

Can you do the same job but not client facing? Like with an account manager or someone as a go between.

As for the second point, sometimes I think you just have to learn from your mistakes and do better next time. Any job is going to have rules like that, I was constantly getting told off for things when I was younger. Try to get hold of all written policies and watch closely what others do until you can sort of figure it out.

WHAT SHOULD I SAY RE THE REDUNDANCY

@PearlBird say that your previous employer was restructuring and certain jobs were earmarked for redundancy as they didn't fit in with the new structure.

Re work culture read through the ACAS website to give you an idea of employment rights etc. I also linked in an earlier post the Ambitious About Autism employment resources. They will guide you through appropriate work place behaviours etc.