Observation on common job recomendations for aspies

[pelecanus87]

I've come across dozens of articles regarding various jobs that suit aspies well. I have observed that a lot of the articles act as though having Asperger's somehow means that you will automatically be superior in dealing with numbers, organization, attention to detail, and things like this.

Though unfortunate, I do not consider myself superior in any of these areas. If a given Aspie IS superior in such areas, they can go forward with the hope that while co-workers may not like or understand them, their unique abilities will win them the benefit of the doubt in the long-run. I've even seen this very scenario play out. A particular aspie/autistic was seen as "weird" at my previous place of employment, but he was so detail-oriented and accurate that people seemed willing to overlook it. Good for him, but I highly doubt this could ever be the case with me.

It is very frustrating for me to read such articles. I do not have any special skills and I work very hard just to function properly at my current job.

I don't need to receive recommendations that are written from the perspective that I will have special skills just for having Asperger's. I just need practical advice in this area.

 

[Gritches]

I hear you. If one more person suggests I go to "computer school" I'm going to...be somewhat hostile, aggressive, and generally a little bit harsh with them. One of so many reasons I don't disclose unless absolutely necessary.

Maybe this will help, at least a little bit: I've had the good fortune of meeting a few wildly successful people in my life. I asked what the key to success was, and each time the answer was the same: follow your passion. Of course, they explained, and I'll try to sum it up thusly:

The very first step is to identify what you feel passionately about. This doesn't mean what you like to do, it means whatever in the world you really truly give a **** about, ideally something that moves you emotionally. The point behind all that sappy sounding crap is to find your purpose for being on this earth. Further, the point of that is to provide you with an ample supply of motivation to make the technical details happen. Once you have that abundance of motivation all you need is a bit of guidance to turn whatever purpose you've found into a career. Any ******** (school, etc) that stands between points A and B will seem trivial, as opposed to the miserable and difficult slog and grind experienced by those whose only motivators are shallow and petty such as the promise of money and/or power, the fear of disappointing parents, or my failure of a motivator at age 16: "because you're supposed to go to college".

Trust me on this one, it's not easy to figure out and you may not have found it yet, but finding your purpose is step one. Don't worry about what jobs you think you will or won't be good at, because that's something you can't know or at least can't fully appreciate the realities thereof without actually experiencing those jobs first hand, so you're just going to run yourself in circles if that's your step one in deciding what to do with your life. It'll be a very steep uphill battle, anyway.

As for advice on how to find your purpose: this is kind of Aspie-specific but it holds just as true for NT's - broaden your horizons, by which I mean expose yourself to as many new ideas and novel information as possible. Everyone here is using a probably-black rectangle by which we can access much of the collective knowledge of humanity - put that fact to work for you. Hell, even just surfing Wikipedia and clicking through the links is sufficient for this purpose, the purpose of finding what can give you purpose.

I took the advice of those successful people, and now not only am I successful, I'm actually happy. I guess they knew what they were talking about.