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

@PearlBird using all capital letters in a sentence is perceived as shouting. So maybe that's what your previous employers meant when they referred to inappropriate work place behaviour.

https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/professional-behaviour

ADHD dev here married to an autistic one

Completely agreed r.e. stereotypes but also want to point out... In 2024 very few technical roles involve just 'doing your job' with no people interaction. I was an accountant before I became a software developer, and the latter requires much more refined skills. No technical person works 100% on their own we all work in teams. Unlike my job as an accountant I had my clients and my cases.

Unless you're a rockstar dev/subject matter expert there's still a limit to what people will put up with. It's one thing to have your quirks. Another to behave completely inappropriately like not following instructions, derailing meetings and blunt criticism (this really brings down team morale).

I've seen many ND (primarily autistic) people attempt to retrain and have to leave because well autism doesn't necessarily make you excellent at technical stuff, and they didn't have the people skills to make up for it.

There are quite a few autism career agencies that will help.

which career agencies

Again it would depend on what sort of library, and what sort of role within the library. Many posts are very people facing.
I'm a school librarian and it is very full on. In the past I've worked in smaller private libraries where it's much quieter.

I disagree with everyone saying IT. In our organisation the small IT team have to travel to various locations and deal with every type of staff to help them install and fix the issues. It's not as simple as hiding behind a desk and only interacting with customers through ticket updates. Theres an awful lot of in person interaction and answering calls.

Depends on the person's strengths - and often it can be the surrounding team that makes the difference rather than any blanket career that's good for them.

I'm a Speech and Language Therapist - I've had horrendous times on placement with work teams where I just didn't fit in socially (quelle surprise with a diagnosed difficulty with social communication) - but now I work pretty successfully in a team that works with adults with ASD and LD - because my team are all fab people, used to dealing with people with "quirky" communication from the job - and I just fit in with both clients and colleagues. Because of my own sensory processing difficulties I quite often spot triggers for someone's behaviour or distress that their care team and my colleagues haven't noticed at all as well - plus sometimes people seem to be acting illogically and I can pick out the train of thought process (that's usually perfectly logical) that's resulted in that behaviour.

I would be shit in any kind of analytical role - I apparently didn't get that logical thinking type of autism. DH (not diagnosed) does really well in that type of role though.

Definitely, our workplace actively encourages inclusivity and will make all sorts of adjustments. We are ftse 100 engineering. GCHQ in Cheltenham also love the skills people with autistic traits display, and often sponsor groups through training .

Of course it depends on interests and motivations, but I know a few autistic teachers who demonstrate excellent communication skills. I’m not sure why people immediately jump to the ‘bad at communicating’ stereotype when referring to autistic people. Most of my family are autistic and all have great communication skills.

Bidding. It's essentially answering exam-style questions for a living and you can choose the sector you work in. Some need more creative styles and some are more technical. It's very compliance based and attention to detail is essential. Quite a few teams work remotely and it is well paid as good writers and managers are always in demand. In my team I would guess there is one person that is neurotypical.

On your (many) other threads you say you were fired when your colleagues complained about your performance or for mistakes with clients. You were seen as a good analyst but not great with communication or workplace etiquette.

I think you’re asking much better questions with this thread - seeking out career ideas that will suit ND - but lying about things is a bad start to any job search.

But I also expect this tread will go poof like all the others.

You might do better contacting a recruitment agency eg Enna or EvenBreak. They will guide you and give specialist support.

3 of my friends are excellent autistic anaesthetists. Detail oriented, don't get bored, don't panic. They're all extrovert autistics though, who are great at short term relationships but don't want the long term care role. As someone upthread said, when you've met one autistic person you've just met one.

https://enna.org/

https://www.evenbreak.co.uk/

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

Personally I wouldn’t recommend ambitousaboutautism op, just as no support and very much varies depending on the company, I quit my Aba 6 month one a week or so in, as was just very bad, no communication, little support from the company. But others may have had better experiences with different companies advertising.

Because social communication difficulties are literally part of the diagnostic criteria. If you don't have them, you can't be diagnosed with autism.

However, of course they manifest in different ways. Some people are better at masking, others are great at communicating in a work context but not others.

My husband for example is excellent at work, but he has zero ability to discuss topics he's not interested in socially. Where NT people can smile, be polite, ask questions and make the right sounds he just goes ?????

Anyway I can see from OP's posts her communication skills are at rock bottom so ... Not sure whether anything here can even help her.

I mean yes, in an ideal world surgeons would be empathetic with a lovely bedside manner, but based on the surgeons I’ve actually met that doesn’t seem to be the reality!

Can't you just live off your trust fund?

A relative is autistic and works as a radiographer. She's excellent at the technical side and brilliant with the patients - I wonder if she would be an extrovert as per the poster above - the interaction is intense, short term and quite structured with clear roles. However to avoid the office politics she has tended to work night shifts. Makes her very valuable to the team but I don't think it's particularly good for her.

Watching with interest. It is heartening to read the varied careers.

DS is autistic as well as having ADD and dyspraxia. He absolutely adores babies but I'm not sure a job working with them would be appropriate. Maybe I'm doing him a major disservice but the risk of him forgetting to do something or not coping with stress could be catastrophic.

He loves military history throughout the ages so maybe the history route would be better.

If you're autistic do you have to let your employer know? After one conversation with DS it would probably be obvious.

Judging by many of the people at work, electronic engineer, software engineer, quality control inspector and requirements engineer.

You don't have to, but for adjustments etc you would want to, if you needed that, so personal choice.

Oh and another vote for cyber security.

After working in accounting/finance, I'd say there are a lot of neurodiverse people in this career. Very analytical

But it's full of client work, esp. at the upper levels

Not necessarily. Financial analysts, planners etc work for a business unit. And for things like tax , you're going to be dealing with clients who are fellow professionals so more structured communication.

You'll never find a career with low levels of communication at higher levels. Because that's what they're literally paid to do. Not 'the job' on a day-to- day basis, but to manage and communicate. Even so-called 'subject matter experts' need to influence.

Anyway we don't even know what your strengths are apart from 'research'

XH is an anaesthetist; I think he is probably autistic, although DD (15) is the one with the diagnosis. He hates small talk and could never be a GP, but he’s great at problem solving (which you need for anaesthesia as it’s whole body medicine) and attention to detail, and he communicates very well when it’s task-oriented eg taking a history, explaining risks. Of course being very clever helps. Just don’t expect him to enjoy a party or call up and order a takeaway.