Autism and jobs

[Progster]

I used to work as a teacher, but couldn't cope with the school environment and demands of the job, leading to a break down and diagnosis of Asperger's. Now I still teach, but not groups, only 1 to 1. I'm a language tutor. I worked in various jobs - a state school for a year (that was a disaster), a kindergarten, private language schools. I had lots of issues, both with the teaching and with fitting in with the other members of staff, and moved from job to job. Now I'm freelance, I work from home and part time. Edit: I teach out of necessity because there simply isn't anything else I can do, and I need to earn money somehow. I would really much rather be in another job other than teaching. It's doable but I find the constant interaction very tiring.

 

[techteach]

I teach electronics at the college level and if you are able I can tell you from experience that teaching adults is much easier than teaching children (in my opinion.)
The focus changes from getting the students to complete assignments to getting very involved in the material with them.
I find it rewarding and am excited to go to work on Monday. But everyone is different, it really depends on what interests you.

 

[Nervous Rex]

It would be a dream come true if I could work from home.

There are quite a few colleges that offer online-only classes. Perhaps you can look for a position teaching those.

 

[tducey]

Have you spoke with a career counselor? They could be able to send you in the right direction. I think, as well, a 1 on 1 tutor job could be good for you as well.

 

[H-Kath]

I wasn't overly stressed when I was a janitor, but the pay was awful. Aside from that I've enjoyed lab work and am working towards a research career. I just got rehired doing annotation for a laboratory phonologist (linguistics) which I'm happy about because it plays to all of my strengths; visual pattern recognition, repetitive tasks, and low social needs. I'm working on an MS (hopefully Phd) in computational linguistics which combines my absolute favorite topic (linguistics) with what I consider to be a relaxing hobby (programming) while minimizing the need to interact with the general public. After my most recent presentation I can see myself as a professor as long as I'm limited to two to three lectures a week and it's my specialization. Linguistics overrides the anxiety.

I am diagnosed with GAD, but suspect it's trauma surrounding forced socialization and being punished routinely for "doing it wrong" because I was expected to implicitly know how to interact with people.

 

[Sara3]

I am diagnosed with GAD, but suspect it's trauma surrounding forced socialization and being punished routinely for "doing it wrong" because I was expected to implicitly know how to interact with people.

I'm sorry you had to go through this. But it is good to know you found something better.

 

[Sara3]

Have you spoke with a career counselor? They could be able to send you in the right direction. I think, as well, a 1 on 1 tutor job could be good for you as well.

I've never met a career counselor lol

 

[Judge]

I've never met a career counselor lol

That's how I finally found a career in a bad economy. Went through the University of California's job counseling program for college graduates.

They gave me a battery of aptitude tests, determined my skill sets versus what's out in the job market and perhaps most importantly gave me access to their job library. Where I began to learn about all kinds of jobs I had never heard of.

Learned about insurance underwriting and went for it. Worked in that capacity for almost two decades.

 

[Sara3]

That's how I finally found a career in a bad economy. Went through the University of California's job counseling program for college graduates.

They gave me a battery of aptitude tests, determined my skill sets versus what's out in the job market and perhaps most importantly gave me access to their job library. Where I began to learn about all kinds of jobs I had never heard of.

Learned about insurance underwriting and went for it. Worked in that capacity for almost two decades.

I definitively need to search for one here!

 

[Sara3]

Thanks a lot everyone for your replies! They've been a great help.

 

[UberScout]

My advice: Don't bother. Settle for and apply for SSI. They send you a good amount of money every month and if you live with family, and everyone else has it, you'll be able to live off it.

 

[Sara3]

My advice: Don't bother. Settle for and apply for SSI. They send you a good amount of money every month and if you live with family, and everyone else has it, you'll be able to live off it.

Oh, we don't have SSI in our country.

 

[Aspie_With_Attitude]

I've done a YouTube video on "Autism & Employment" a couple of months ago.

 

[Cogs Of My Cranium]

I used to work as a teacher, but couldn't cope with the school environment and demands of the job, leading to a break down and diagnosis of Asperger's. Now I still teach, but not groups, only 1 to 1. I'm a language tutor. I worked in various jobs - a state school for a year (that was a disaster), a kindergarten, private language schools. I had lots of issues, both with the teaching and with fitting in with the other members of staff, and moved from job to job. Now I'm freelance, I work from home and part time. Edit: I teach out of necessity because there simply isn't anything else I can do, and I need to earn money somehow. I would really much rather be in another job other than teaching. It's doable but I find the constant interaction very tiring.

I’m similar to this, in that I couldn’t handle being a tefl teacher in classroom and I’d like to do some one to one work but I have no network for it and don’t know how to build one up amidst fierce competition.

 

[Progster]

I’m similar to this, in that I couldn’t handle being a tefl teacher in classroom and I’d like to do some one to one work but I have no network for it and don’t know how to build one up amidst fierce competition.

I had a lucky break - the mother of one of my students supported me when I was going through a rough patch and when I had to leave the school, agreed to continue the private lessons we were having via Skype. This worked well. Parents often prefer this method, as they are very busy and it means that they don't have to spend time taking their kids to their courses or teacher. She then passed on my contact details to other people, so I didn't have to do anything to build up the network, the network already exists through the parents and they spread bring more students through word of mouth.

An ad in local online newspapers or market platforms is a good place to start. Do some research to see which countries have a deficit of language teachers - I mean, countries which are not popular destinations for TEFL teachers. Eastern Europe is a good place perhaps, somewhere like Serbia or Croatia. Also, research the local market - see how much private lessons usually go for. You might not be able to earn as much in Eastern Europe as you would in Germany, but you should be able to get around 12 euros/hour, or more. It can take time but once you have one, more should follow.