Is being underemployed or struggling to get into a career that pays enough to support oneself, common for people on the autism spectrum?

[Steelbookcollector217]

What are you doing to provide a secure future for yourself? What is your long-term plan for when your parents are gone?

to be honest i don't know, all that i'm doing at the moment, is that i'm attempting to pursue a different career path, in medical billing/coding, taking online classes, the keyword is "trying" to make it my future, but to be honest i don't know if that will lead to financial stability towards me, in some ways i feel i can relate to Tony in the job/employment aspect, what makes me different from Tony is that i've had plenty of jobs in my life, while 99 Tony has been unemployed for 99 percent of his life.

It's just i've only worked regular jobs in my life, not high end professional ones or high level corporate ones, while Tony has hardly ever worked any type of job in his life, even low skilled jobs such as a Janitor or cashier.

While i've had plenty of regular jobs, such as working at a restaurant, retail place such as Target, Grocery Store, Warehouse, which is where i'm still at.

 

[Mary Terry]

to be honest i don't know, all that i'm doing at the moment, is that i'm attempting to pursue a different career path, in medical billing/coding, taking online classes, the keyword is "trying" to make it my future, but to be honest i don't know if that will lead to financial stability towards me, in some ways i feel i can relate to Tony in the job/employment aspect, what makes me different from Tony is that i've had plenty of jobs in my life, while 99 Tony has been unemployed for 99 percent of his life.

It's just i've only worked regular jobs in my life, not high end professional ones or high level corporate ones, while Tony has hardly ever worked any type of job in his life, even low skilled jobs such as a Janitor or cashier.

While i've had plenty of regular jobs, such as working at a restaurant, retail place such as Target, Grocery Store, Warehouse, which is where i'm still at.

The vast majority of people have regular jobs, not high-end professional jobs that sometimes pay well. I'm glad you're employable - it gives you some stability and control over your economic future. I don't know what will happen to Tony and sincerely hope that he is talking to his parents about it.

 

[Steelbookcollector217]

The vast majority of people have regular jobs, not high-end professional jobs that sometimes pay well. I'm glad you're employable - it gives you some stability and control over your economic future. I don't know what will happen to Tony and sincerely hope that he is talking to his parents about it.

one way Tony is lucky is that his parents had him at a very young age, i remember he said that his parents were like 19 or 20 when they had him, so that means its possible Tony will still have his folks in his life by the time he reaches his 60s, not very many people still have folks or even one parent left in their life that later in life, but yes, Tony definetley needs to have a serious talk with his folks about that.

 

[Mary Terry]

one way Tony is lucky is that his parents had him at a very young age, i remember he said that his parents were like 19 or 20 when they had him, so that means its possible Tony will still have his folks in his life by the time he reaches his 60s, not very many people still have folks or even one parent left in their life that later in life, but yes, Tony definetley needs to have a serious talk with his folks about that.

I think Tony is 59 or 60 years old now. Time is wasting away.

 

[Outdated]

It's just i've only worked regular jobs in my life, not high end professional ones or high level corporate ones...

Although I had a trade it wasn't all that much different for me. Sometimes I was highly paid but I also had social problems and changed jobs a lot and sometimes I'd just take the first job that I found to get out of where I was. I even spent 3 months cleaning toilets in a large car factory once. The pay was crap quite often but I ended up with a wealth of experiences that many people will never get.

I never had much of a plan in life, instead I just saw my life as a series of stepping stones but I could never tell when the next stone would appear in front of me or where it would take me. I just went along for the ride and found fun where I could. I had a great time, but I was always a very independent spirit. Some people can't live like that, a rolling stone gathers no moss.

I've lived by myself since I was in my 20s and I don't think I could ever change now, I like it like that. I never needed much to get by in life either, whenever I was earning good money I always spent it all, but even when I was unemployed I never seemed to struggle to pay bills or feed myself and I never went in to debt at all.

My advice is to live the life that you feel suits you best and not bother "keeping up with the Jones's.". If you're comfortable and happy then I'd consider you to be successful.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I started my career with a three year diploma, after a five year high school diploma lots of math and science. Took my first position started adding related industry courses taking certificates like climbing ladder each time I changed positions I added new experience and skills Either way had no idea I was on spectrum. Just thought I was overcoming bad luck, Took quality courses after noticing I really enjoyed this area.

 

[Steelbookcollector217]

I think Tony is 59 or 60 years old now. Time is wasting away.

Tony was born in 1977, i remember he mentioned that, that would make him 48. But yes, i still worry about my future, but it makes me feel a little bit better knowing that the fact i've had plenty of jobs in my life, should show i am employable, even if they are not high end professional corporate jobs, yeah for a large portion of my life, i feel i have lacked motivation to succeed academically, never liked college, a huge reason or part of my lack of motivation is, due to having been unsatisfied in my social life and dating life, not having a fulfilling social/dating life makes it hard to have motivation to succeed in academics or work.

Sometimes it makes me angry and resentful that we live in a reality where its very hard to get into a stable career that provides a salary or paycheck that is enough to live on, without college education. After all, people say, college is not for everyone.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My frustration, was post secondary education plenty of experience, denial of promotion. so it more complicated than it looks on the surface. like in other areas it's how to use our skills set to benefit others, ask any musician. I was the first guy in my company to get a bonus two concurrent years for my contribution, nothing significant to me however what they got was much more significant. Now they are worried the advantage I gave then could go to a competitor. that's how life works.

 

[Markness]

I flunked out of college and only work part time at the age of 37. Apparently that isn’t a good thing.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

College up here is different, not university. Both wife and I have two college diplomas. Different system then what you are familiar with. Think outside the box. Choice here of two year technician in different areas or three year technogist, in different areas.she has accounting diploma and business administration diploma. I have three year chemical engineering technologist diploma, and two year chemical technician diploma. You mentioned you work in a library I have in the past seen library science diplomas. College up here is for high school graduates, university is for advanced students or/as in my case grade 13 graduates, which no longer exists.

 

[BloodyKun108]

To make a long story short, I've been working on and off since I was going on 16, mostly janitorial or dishwashing kind of work, not glamorous but not hard and not very competitive, mostly social issues that seem to permeate nearly any career out there. I thought things might get better, seemed they were but perhaps I only got better at masking, and though my last job was technically better on paper with more pay, hours, benefits, but it was just not worth the crazy increase in stress nor entitlement on part of the company to their employees time, both paid and unpaid with some extra social obligations, never mind outright lies from HR in order to cover up blatant safety violations. Mismanagement all around. It was enough to get me very sick at one point from burnout and to have me reevaluating whether I'll ever want to work again at all over a year after resigning.

I'd very much love to make art my job in some way or another, but have not found much luck so far. Not none at all, but so far infeasible, and again that's a bit of a social aspect of being able to market yourself. Now, I've never liked school, even after folks' decision to homeschool early on, so the idea of paying to go to college, especially for something as subjective as art, seems like a huge waste to me, and I don't see anything else that would be useful to me in any field I might have a small chance at fitting in well. On top of the skewed sense of loyalty jobs expect while they offer the bare minimum, never mind those that offer any benefits being utterly draining to the point you are not really living anymore, the quality of life is just not there. I should realize I am uniquely lucky to be able to live unemployed for now, even without receiving any support, but I wonder if I ought to seek it out now if I don't find any decent job soon. I just am not very hopeful for anything that doesn't suck as I only see the job market getting worse as more places incorporate garbage AI and treat actual employees as even more expendable.

For over a year I've been practicing at learning more programming with indie game jams and such, partly for fun but also with the idea in mind to eventually try and make some money selling my own games. Even with all the popular indie games now, it's still pretty rare among just how many there are, but maybe there's some hope in the AAA space continuously pricing most of their customers out as "premium products" and shooting themselves in the foot, making more indie games look much better in comparison. Now, I'm sure many on the spectrum can hold jobs, many have, even with the statistics we do have, but I feel if I go back to any standard job now it will only deteriorate both my mental and physical health in the long run and so I've had to make a choice. At the moment I'm technically babysitting my niece every week, more in the hopes I won't have to be kicked off the health insurance I currently have.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Both my wife and I got diplomas at night school, my first after graduating high school, She got hers after having two kids, both of us got second diplomas in mid thirties. A lot of employers will even pay the tuition. On condition of passing. or continued employment I paid for mine out of pocket, No promotion no stick around.

 

[RemyZee]

This a good subject for me right now--my program director keeps taking my ideas and doing them without giving me any credit, slowly removing the programs I am supposed to be responsible for. At same time: can't do my frigging time sheet. I am anticipating I will be fired.

 

[VictorR]

College up here is different, not university. Both wife and I have two college diplomas. Different system then what you are familiar with. Think outside the box. Choice here of two year technician in different areas or three year technogist, in different areas.she has accounting diploma and business administration diploma. I have three year chemical engineering technologist diploma, and two year chemical technician diploma. You mentioned you work in a library I have in the past seen library science diplomas. College up here is for high school graduates, university is for advanced students or/as in my case grade 13 graduates, which no longer exists.

To provide some additional context given forum readers are from around the world...

In the United States
"College" is a term that broadly applies to any post secondary educational institution.

In Canada
"College" is used to refer to a specific type of post secondary institute that traditionally offered 1-3 year vocational programs culminating in a certificate or diploma*, and/or limited academic courses in arts and sciences. The latter are ususlly recognized by universities for transfer credit towards 1st and 2nd year courses in an undergraduate degree program.

Many Canadian colleges have expanded their offerings in recent decades, and many now offer multiple bachelor degree programs as well, though usually applied in nature (e.g. business). Some college programs are well known and have highly competitive entry.

*Note: A Canadian 2 year diploma in the US academic system would usually be called an associate degree

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

A former boss did this to me once did not bother me as he had no idea how I did it, told him a year from now all our colour issues would go away, So he told his boss this for year end review. His boss called me at year end, told me he knew who really fixed all the colour, laughing at the stupidity of my immediate supervisor. The bigger boss left the company a few years later. After a larger company bought ours Then when they could not transfer the technology over to sister plants for controlling ink colour They assumed he knew how to do it gave him an offer to return. New title, large pay hike His condition to come back was that I report directly to him. What He did not know was that I had told the company I was retiring at end of year as I was turning 65. One of the new manager approached me a few weeks later. And said I understand your the real genius, Asked how I did it showed him some of my Stuff. Kept it low key did not want to get involved with internal politics between two vice presidents. After retirement I put a paper guide line on how to control colour on a coil coating line, Next day I was threatened with a lawsuit. That's how things go down. As far as I know still unable to transfer technology to sister plants. ASTM even offered me chairmanship of commitee printing on coil coating line. When in hospital Russian PHD And chinese chatting to wife asking for documentation on how to do it. Wife said sorry he had stroke. I would love to teach an understudy.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

The coating courses I took are now offered on the internet, at certificate level. Great add on If you already have technical background. As somebody told me years ago look around everything is painted. Interestingly found out yesterday a friend of ours position is ending do to tariffs. AsKed her what he did she told me he worked at a factory painting furniture. Told her send me his resume. I have connections with all the paint companies who in turn service all the paint shops. Maybe I can help.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I flunked out of college and only work part time at the age of 37. Apparently that isn’t a good thing.

Do not confuse , modest achievement with underachievement, 68 % of population are modest achievers combine that with any special skills you may have due to your autism gives you an edge University graduation typically requires you be at the 1 sigma level or greater which is only 19 % of the population qualifies at, So you set the bar a little high, I happen to be at sigma 2 yet competed with sigma 3 or greater due to my special skills. Even Einstein was only sigma 4 still beat all his peers who were sigma 5 level or higher.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Various IQ sigma levels. See over mean.

 

[Mary Terry]

@Markness - If it bothers you that you didn't finish college, you could take some community college adult education classes or some online classes. Figure out something that you're interested in or would simply enjoy doing. You might even make some friends through your increased social connections and sharing an interest with other people.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

keep in mind your special skill may be more than 2 sigma, which can be parlayed into specialized employment.
My special skill was at 5 sigma level or better served me well.