How did you know which job you would go on to do?

[Gracey]

How and when did you know what you were going to do?
Was it a family tradition? Grandparents, parents being Doctors, scientists and so on?
Was it a diagnosis helping you to understand your particular strengths and where you excel?
Was it born from a special interest?

Is there anyone on site that knew; through school, what they were going to do?

 

[The Penguin]

It was just based what interest me. In my case, working on IT. My friend have some influence as he taught me how to fix and build computers. As I build interest in web development, he showed me software to make development easier. From there I taken a computer programming class in high school and after finishing the class, that the trade I decided to go.

 

[VenomousAlbino]

I dropped out of 6th form and Sainsbury's was the closest place to where I lived.

 

[Streetwise]

How and when did you know what you were going to do?
Was it a family tradition? Grandparents, parents being Doctors, scientists and so on?
Was it a diagnosis helping you to understand your particular strengths and where you excel?
Was it born from a special interest?

Is there anyone on site that knew; through school, what they were going to do?

i think if you are 30 or over school was just unbearable even though we excel at memory recall
communication is still a reminder that nts will always rely on their neurological singularity to control who is considered worthy of respect

 

[Streetwise]

what is more important is something that lasts longer than a career
learning not to do what will hurt you severely for the remainder of your life ,helping(working) is good but not to the degree it makes you mentally unbalanced .
just putting a lot!!!!!! of energy into any persons career causes irreparable damage

How and when did you know what you were going to do?
Was it a family tradition? Grandparents, parents being Doctors, scientists and so on?
Was it a diagnosis helping you to understand your particular strengths and where you excel?
Was it born from a special interest?

Is there anyone on site that knew; through school, what they were going to do?

 

[Katleya]

I'm past 30 and still trying to figure it out...
Went by special interest the first few dozen times, but it doesn't look like it's the best approach

 

[Nitro]

I used my special interests for employment my entire life.

Most of my career path was followed in the footsteps of my relatives who were machinists,mechanical engineers and mechanics.
My diagnosis came very late in life,so there was never any support involved from that aspect.

 

[Gracey]

Thanks Katleya,

I think this is the reason I'm asking. I've spoken with many others (not on site) who generally seem to have had their vocation in life planned from inspiration and passion in their younger years.
They believe in and are really enthusiastic about what they've worked hard and trained to do.
Like there's no uncertainty or doubt in their minds. They never imagined themselves doing anything else.

I seem to be curious about most things, get really excited at the prospect of learning something new. Have this assumption that I will be able to research, learn and adapt to fit into a role, rather than knowing wholeheartedly and without doubt where my direction in work lies.

 

[Ambi]

How and when did you know what you were going to do?
Was it a family tradition? Grandparents, parents being Doctors, scientists and so on?
Was it a diagnosis helping you to understand your particular strengths and where you excel?
Was it born from a special interest?

Is there anyone on site that knew; through school, what they were going to do?

My special interest offered a very low chance at employment - and my parents were against it, so that was out. I then floundered and floundered for years. I am still floundering, about to apply for a new job - not sure if it will work out, if I'll be hired, if I'll get fired, etc. But what I have finally come to is simply what I am at all likely to be hired for just based on my resume (which was kind of random how I wound up with the jobs I did), and which also will hopefully aggravate my aspie side the least, and which my aspieness will detrimentally affect the least. For me it has had to become about working around my weaknesses rather than playing up my strengths. Right now I'm so burned out that I'm not even sure what my strengths are, anyway. Maybe that approach is the natural result of trying and failing so many times.

I do actually believe in the work I am looking into, though, and I do find it somewhat interesting - I do not think I could stick with a job that I found utterly boring or that I disagreed with.

 

[SomeRandomAspie]

How and when did you know what you were going to do?
Was it a family tradition? Grandparents, parents being Doctors, scientists and so on?
Was it a diagnosis helping you to understand your particular strengths and where you excel?
Was it born from a special interest?

Is there anyone on site that knew; through school, what they were going to do?

I don't know career I will do, but I do know what I'm good at and want to do. I want to go into upper management (i.e. Executive positions) because my dad has taught me a lot about it.

 

[The Penguin]

I've had over 70 jobs, so that should tell you something. I finally found the one for which I'm suited and it doesn't task my AS too bad. The work is good, but I absolutely hate the place I work at. As I've said, the circus is being run by the clowns and I'm a sideshow attraction.

Kinda similar for me. From graduation in IT in 2004, I did endless general labour jobs until 2011 when I got my first job in my trade. There times I was registered with 5 temp agencies at once.

The first job I got in my trade is some what understanding of my LD.

My current job is more understanding of my LD and the first job I had in my life I'm aloud to make most decisions for the company. I value an employer accepts my judgment instead of me being penalized for having an LD. I do like the place I work but I know in the future I want to work for myself after I pay off my debts and able to find enough people into my services.

 

[Full Steam]

I chose to get into IT as I liked computers then I moved from job to job doing IT support and mostly hating it for many years. I find that I take on people's problems and I find it very stressful.

Due to lack of career options I eventually set up my own support business, and hated support still.

I then started doing web design and found I loved it.

Added in digital marketing and loved that.

I learned business strategy over 7 years running a business, research and helping other businesses, and love that.

Business strategy and marketing strategy are my favs at the moment, and I want to set up a NFP next.

I get business ideas that grow into mental 3d strategy maps faster than I could ever build them.

 

[abby normal]

what I did for 22 years I stumbled into. I did not intend to work in an operating room, it was the furthest thing from my mind, but life is what happens when you've made other plans.

 

[Momo]

I've just kind of decided to go with the flow, take every opportunity placed in front of me and see where that leads... Maybe military, maybe university, who knows?

 

[@liamod]

I have wanted to be a scientist (preferably an astronomer) since I was 4 when I read a 200 page book about the planets. Still on that career path...

 

[abby normal]

the military IMHO was a BIG jump, from the frying pan of homelessness to the fire of uncle sam's army.

 

[Jerome]

I have been either blessed or lucky in the employment field. I went to vocational high school and after graduation landed a job in my chosen field, graphic arts. I wasn't looking for a job. My friend kidnapped me and took on a job hunt. I thought we were going for donuts. I got the job. He didn't.
After 5 years I quit that job and went to college full time & studied journalism. While in college I landed a part time job in the mailroom at Bristol Myers. One day while delivering an extra stop on my route because my boss wanted to punish me by giving me extra work, I walked into FedEx and the manager looked at me and asked me if I wanted a job. I have been here for the past 34 years. The key was I just wanted to make a living and didn't care what I did for a living. I grew up poor so I could tolerate just about any work situation so long as I got paid.

 

[OlLiE]

never have, in school and jobs, i've always just got on with things and never really compared to others, and as such i have never really known what i was good at or what i would like to do,

my ability to adapt and just get on have really not helped, i've moved from job to job without ever really enjoying any of them, opportunities that others would have better used than i have,

my country you van get 4 hrs of free career counselling, so i'm hoping an outside view will help

 

[Mr Allen]

Apparently Sainbury's are good for taking on the disabled, but without being snobbish, I don't want to be a £7 an hour "Trolley Attendant", I did that for free back in 1994 when I was on placement from the College in Grimsby, England.

Also, the only local big Sainsbury's is at Wadsley Bridge, which isn't on the Tram route.

 

[Judge]

Sounds like Generation X question. As a Baby Boomer I went into a completely dysfunctional job market in the late 70s. So much for any aspirations of getting the job I wanted right out of college.

For all the specific government agencies I applied to, it wasn't until four years later one of them contacted me. I went through a series of interviews, but the work they envisioned me doing was something very different than that which I had contemplated many years before. Besides, I was already moving up the ladder in insurance. So much for what I wanted to do as opposed to the work I actually found. A definite sign of the times back then, even if one was technically "qualified".