Asperger Adults and Jobs

[RuthT]

Just posting here to get a broader view.

One of my friends has a son of about 22 with Aspergers who is seriously bright passed degree with prizes and a 1st in English.

He does have a job but it pays well below his capabilities but I wanted to know from anyone else who has more experience in this area...

How do you advise on careers and what level in orgs can you expect child to get to?

I have a friend with aspergers who also has a good degree (in history) he's going into high school teaching once he's finished his pgce. I think he'll make an excellent teacher. Another friend of mine thinks her grandfather had undiagnosed aspergers (she knows a lot about it because her younger brother who's still at high school has been diagnosed with it) and he was an eminent paediatrician. I think it really depend on the person. Also I think people who have English degrees are often paid below their capabilities. I have another friend, who doesn't have aspergers, with a first class hons degree in English, prizes, published writer but works in a bookshop on minimum wage. HTH

Okay.

Very helpful.

The person avoids situation with lots of people and confrontation/politics. I had translated this (prob incorrectly) to mean some roles would not be good for them.

This is going to sound mad but being so far away from understanding this area can I ask some dumb questions too?

Ask away.

I don't know how much help I can be but I saw my friend with aspergers last night and I can always ask him.

I read a book ( think by Tony Attwood) about AS. He said that many people with AS become teachers or join the police because of the routine and formality.

post this in Special Needs too.... there is a mumsnetter called amber (and many others!!!) who is AS and talks openly- she is great- her DH is AS too.

(i have 3 boys with AS- eldest 14- so i'm interested in his future employment prospects)

ds1 (11) is convinced he's going to join the army part of me can see the attraction - uniforms, routine, lots of sporting opportunities - but I do hope he manages to find something else which ticks those buttons before he runs the risk of actually getting killed

I suspect my elder brother is on the spectrum (undiagnosed). He is very happy with his two jobs: immigration officer and BBC local radio cricket commentator.

He's been promoted through several grades in immigration. I think he's fairly senior. He enjoys delivering training courses. But I've seen his junior colleagues exchange not-nice smiles about him as he leaves the room - just like when we were kids

I'm so happy about the commentator job which takes up most summer weekends. He loved cricket as a boy but found the interactions when playing a bit tough - often became the outsider who was insisting everyone else play by the rules so got laughed at...so the radio commentary is just perfect. Also, people are very interested in hearing about it, whereas he can turn them off otherwise because he tends to talk too much about the weather and travel conditions.

Overall he has really found his place.

oh that's sad, lingle, with the not nice smiles.

what about accountancy?

IT position

My DB has AS and he is a teacher (maths).

My other DB also has AS and has struggled to get past the interview stage (despite having fabulous qualifications etc). Worked in supermarket for years because noone would give him a job (for social reasons). Now, my DH has persuaded his bosses to employ my DB and he is doing wonderfully.

a friend of mine has a diagnosis of ASD. He works in the IT dept of a big university - using his capabilities and being paid to do so. He finds people very difficult (including me a lot of the time) so he mainly works nights. It took him a long time to find his niche.

I know this is not exactly the same thing but another experience.

Having a DS with mild AS and dyspraxia I worry about what will happen to him. I have read too often that it is difficult for an AS person to hold down a job. It does really seem to be a case finding one that fits.

I think it is very difficult to say that a particular career will fit a person, you have to go on the individual roles.

I wouldn't necessarily say that accountancy would be a good fit for example. I used to work in a large finance department with a chap who I am sure, with hindsight and more knowledge, had AS. He was fantastic at exams, sailed through them but was terrible at the job. He couldn't cope with working with large numbers of people and didn't seem able to apply his obviously vast knowledge in a practical way.

DH is an accountant in practice and you need good social/communication skills to be a practice accountant and deal with a huge variety of people who don't necessarily follow 'the rules'.

I can see DS as a history lecturer - standing in front of an audience and telling them everything he knows on the Middle Ages or something. I can't see him being a teacher though. Mind you, he is only 8 so who knows how he might develop.

not sure if secondary school teaching is ideal for people with AS, as kids can be really cruel.

I know a teenager with AS who wants to be a paleantologist.(sp)

As a librarian, I've come across a number of AS (or probable AS) people who are very good at cataloguing/classifying/indexing and other technical areas. They are generally hopeless with the public for enquiry work though. I'm sure that there are many technical jobs in other areas that people with AS would be very good at.

Okay here is the dumb please take it as an attempt to understand question...

Many say they have friends with AS but I had thought that people with AS found social interaction difficult, so how do people with AS make friends?

I ask this to understand the workplace dilemma because most roles I know require some social skills and bonding.

The AS person in question indicated they avoid confontation, listening and persauding/questioning but also did not like certain roles in the past becuase they had no friends there.

Thank you for other posts v helpful

Sounds like he needs a job where he'd be in a small team.

My SIL (not ASD but some real social difficulties) has found her niche as an archivist for a university after doing a degree and a masters in English. She had take further courses to qualify as an archivist. The technical requirements are about precision, care, etc and it attracts fairly quiet people - more likely to form friendships over shared interest in literature.

AS is not an all or nothing thing, it is spectrum, so some people can be more badly affected than others. Also not all those with AS have exactly the same problems.

My DS has a few friends. He is loving, affectionate, he is friendly. What he has trouble with is listening to other people, and being on their same wavelength. He can be empathetic but will not always show empathy at the right time as he can't read the social situation very well.

Oh dear, I am not explaining this very well.

When he is having fun and playing with his friends he is fine but his behaviour is not always appropriate to the situation. He also finds it difficult to pick up the social cues so unless somebody is very persistent he would probably miss the chance of developing a deeper relationship with them as they would feel rebuffed.

Friendships can also develop over shared interests where the shared interests keeps the people together long enough for something more to develop.

Sorry, still not very clear, am I?

Ruth
AS can vary massively in the extent of symptoms so a person with AS may be socially clumsey but still have many friends.
It also depends of course on the enviroment. Many years ago I worked with a man who I now would instantly recognise as having ASD/aspergers but back then he just seem a little eccentric. We were nice people working in a great enviroment and we all got on well - we recognised his difficulties and still liked him. We just all knew that if we went out for a drink and we sat next to him our converstaion would be a bit more about photography and a bit less about...err... most other things.

A person who has not been able to bond may have greater difficulties themselves - or they may have been in a less open enviroment with people who themselves are less forgiving of 'different' personality types.
Does that make sense?

AS people have all the same feelings as NT people but they don't understand these feelings to a greater or lesser extent, in other people. They have trouble with the theory of mind - being able to put themselves in other people's shoes.

So an AS person will have friends if the NT person can see beyond that difficulty and don't mind the AS person being a little inward focussing.

AS people love to have friends, but they need NT people to accept them for what they are.

A lot of people with Aspergers can do well for themselves in IT, especially computer programming. In fact I think that having Aspergers in something like computer programming or research can be an advantage. Person with Aspergers will often stick at a problem and not mind working on their own for hours.

Not all jobs require strong social skills. Provided you don't piss off your work collegues to much you can do very well. I think that jobs like social work, nursing or teaching would be difficult for someone with aspergers because of the high level of contact with other people.

Rather than thinking of disablites, think of ablities. I am sure that my father has Aspergers but he did really well in the workplace, because his attention to detail was fanastic. Since he spent huge hours working on his own, he did not have socialise heavily.

I think that he could explore the Accountancy angle more, if that appeals to him, as it encompasses a wide spectrum of jobs. There are some accountancy jobs that require the same interpersonal skills as any other managerial job, which may not suit, but there are many jobs which are more theory-based eg taxation, technical/research, forensic, etc.

My DH has Aspergers and is a designer (construction) and runs his own successful business.
It came from his loved of model building and things like knex as a kid and the fact that he can sit for hours concentrating of doing very detailed drawings by hand.