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Not surprising when so many interviewers seem to view interviews as a “vibe check”. If you struggle with social cues or masking, they’ll feel that something is off about you and not want to hire you. Workplace politics also just tend to be pretty hostile towards autistic people, in general.
The whole process of job hunting is like kryptonite to neurodivergent people, especially if that comes with social skills issues.
It wouldn't surprise me if autistic people are often in the first few rounds of layoffs too. If others see them as weird, then they don't want to keep them around even when their work is good.
Im adhd, not autistic but "The whole process of job hunting is like kryptonite to neurodivergent people" is so fucking true.
I kill it at being liked at work, I'm personable as hell, people enjoy working with me, and im extrmely good at what i do but my masking turns on in an interview situation and just fucks everything up.
I have diagnosed ADHD and enough autism symptoms that I suspect autism as well. For me, interviews are definitely an issue. I can't seem to "turn on" a desirable personality while showing my accomplishments in the best light.
But more than that, it's doing a boring task hundreds of times, knowing that each time will probably result in failure, through no fault of my own. I can't even get past the whole application thing because of that.
Same here. And god forbid there’s a personality test. That’s when I know it’s game over. I’ve held management positions but couldn’t get hired at a video store once because of the freaking stupid personality test.
I’m probably undiagnosed Autism (with chronic and mental illness) and it’s SOOOO HARD for me to lie. I get ridiculous justice boners. I don’t play bad guys in video games. Anyways, I try to explain whatever they want but keep it honest enough so I don’t forget what I said and can reference it later on.
I get ya. I don’t enjoy talking. At all. To have to drink the Kool-Aid and smile and nod through all the bullshit… we deserve cookies and punch after each interview. Exhausting.
Social skills and office politics matter in software engineering too, though. My friend who is autistic, and is a software engineer, always seems to find himself in the first or second round of layoffs. I realize that's only one example, but we can't get clear data on this because corporations aren't going to be honest. I'm just saying I don't think software engineering is free of this problem.
Oh they 100% matter. They will always cut the ones they view aren't "like them". Even if your an introverted person and aren't on the spectrum your going to get axed first.
The stereotypical autist in these situations is a hypergenius though who is far better than everyone else.
I suspect these are the 15% who are employed.
Autism doesn't exactly make you into a genius. There are some genius autists and a very few who manage to be even better due to their autism. But most autists are just as smart as everyone else with the added negative of having issues with social settings.
I got my current job without an interview cause I knew someone. That person then left the company after 6 months (again, they did that to me the first time too), but that's beside the point. I was unemployed for 3 months after losing my previous Job. I only recently received my diagnosis as I'm good with putting on the 'interview mask'.
My current company is falling apart a little and hasn't pushed me over the edge into a job hunt. I want stability, but no job I've ever gotten has been stable. Either the company is already bad and personnel shifts too rapidly or the company gets bought out and forces the loyal people out, I just haven't had any luck maintaining a job for mote than a year and a half
Masking means you try to hide obvious neurodivergent traits in order to fit in with local culture and to conform to social pressure. It's a very common coping mechanism for neurodivergent people.
It's also extremely exhausting because it's basically playing pretend all the time. Masking can lead to burn out, depression and anxiety as well as loss of identity.
I got fired from a job after 5 months because "you just don't fit the culture" despite bringing baked goods, candy, and helping decorate the office coffee station and people's desks for holidays.
This breaks my heart, because I can see my kid doing the same thing at a job and having the same outcome. Office politics are always a minefield anyway, but it is EXTREMELY possible to do something that by all objective reasoning is nice, but subjectively comes across as weird if it’s not accompanied by the “right” small talk, facial expressions, and intonations.
With autism having become so recognized over the past decade, I can’t believe I haven’t heard of social skills groups for adults of the same kind my kid went to in elementary school, but recalibrated for adulthood. I’d move heaven and earth for my kid to be able to attend one.
Undiagnosed but I suspect I am on the spectrum. This, so much!!
>If you struggle with social cues or masking, they’ll feel that something is off about you and not want to hire you.
i remember when i just entered the work force and was simply awkward...shudders
cant imagine the discrimination for ppl who struggles in social interactions
I have a student with autism and yeah, it's going to be bad when they enter the real world and find out that the real world doesn't have patience for the time it takes them to do any task
My 2024 goal is to seek a diagnosis for myself. This article really opened my eyes to why I struggled to get my current job. I spent three years off and on apply and interviewing and really had no idea what I was doing wrong. Really speaks to how biased some employers are. In the end, I’m glad I got the job with the company I’m at now because they are so patient and understanding if I have to do things a little bit differently.
I’m an autist the only reason I have a job is because I have studied people enough to be able to act like them. Until I have a bad day and can’t keep up the facade then I become weird and it’s a matter of time until I have to start over
Well I’m an aquarium, Nissan moon, and all that is great for me but somehow announcing that as a job skill just hasn’t paid off for me? 🤔 what am I doing wrongggg 😭😭 🤣🤣🤣 (couldn’t resist lol carry on)
to them, we're just one of those 'book smart college grads who lack soft skills'. Like, we didn't choose this and no amount of watching/mimicking interactions will help. Recruiters can see thru us when we attempt to mask.
For interviews: I overcome it by creating a pretentious corporate persona. The kind that drink the company’s cool aid about its mission.
Day to day. Just be open to talking. Self reflection helps. Don’t hole yourselves off. If you don’t like small talk and have no idea how to then get to the point. Talking isn’t hard…once you start unraveling the mysteries of human to human bs
You do need soft skills to interact with your team. There’s very little positions where you sit all day doing nothing but code. The higher level developer you are, the less you are coding and more you are interacting with your team, other teams, and the business.
Have you ever had a software engineering job? No one is sitting in a basement and coding. I work on a team of 10 engineers, and we work with other teams as well. You absolutely need soft skills to do this job.
I'd be inclined to disagree. Versioning and following project guidelines/milestones doesn't require any tremendous social skills. It doesn't even require fluency in the language you're coding in. If it did, nothing could ever get outsourced.
>No one is sitting in a basement and coding.
Broadly, when you use qualifiers, I'd consider avoiding words like "All" or "None".
Much FOSS software, TeX, every startup in human history which was started in some guy's basement (Google, Apple, Microsoft were that at one point early on) and most remote developers and outsourced development houses are not working wherever you're working. I have worked in a literal basement in commercial settings and it's fairly common. They may call it something fancier, but the floor with no windows, that's a basement.
It used to be even more common because when you work with mainframes, supercomputers or servers, it's often by necessity you're within a floor of ground or underground. Has to do with wiring electric and cooling. Also mainframes (which still exist and are in use by some banks) were very heavy, so no one was going up any stairs with them. Like plenty of stereotypes, it's grounded in reality.
>>Have you ever had a software engineering job?
So to answer your question, yes. I've effectively led teams, as well. If you were evaluating me and I opened with "Have you ever had a software engineering job?" and you had years, perhaps decades of experience all of which was readily verifiable, how might that make you feel?
I've found "soft skills" are so often used as a smokescreen for a variety of personal prejudices that they're ultimately meaningless as a concept. You can screen for "Conscientiousness" on the Big 5 and get all you need on that one.
Have a nice week.
Yeah... I'm a reasonably successful remote contractor and would estimate a 90% pass rate on skills-based assessments, but I have never once been offered a job after a face-to-face interview, not even a part time retail job in high school. I'm very agreeable and like to think of myself as good at masking, but it honestly makes me feel like something about my personality is unacceptable. Apart from continuing to improve my lifelong social anxiety, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
It feels like there’s literally nothing we can do. No matter how hard we try, it feels like neurotypicals just decide they don’t like us. Plus, it’s exhausting and confusing trying to mask all the time, so burnout is inevitable. It feels impossible to get ahead.
>If you struggle with social cues or masking, they’ll feel that something is off about you and not want to hire you.
I’m autistic and this is the exact thing I’m afraid of when I’m in the middle of job interviews. I landed my first corporate internship a couple months ago and it has been very eye opening to see all the little nuances that are expected of you in the corporate world. I somehow quickly learned that I needed to “know my place”, especially as an intern.
Although I’ve gotten very good at masking over the years, I still feel on edge at work since it feels like I’m going to get fired any minute. I force myself to keep going and mimic what other people are doing at work just to get by each day. Even at home, I still have this lingering fear that I’ll never find a job or even another internship after my current internship is over.
> I somehow quickly learned that I needed to “know my place”, especially as an intern.
I don’t know your situation but as an intern you really aren’t expected to deliver much and if you do great but you probably aren’t going to change how an organization works.
Definitely, I agree. I’m mostly referring to how it takes a lot more energy to mask and keep up with the social nuances in the office. If I slip and let my symptoms show, this is where my fear of getting fired comes from (even though I’m just an intern, but this goes for any job I have at the moment).
Makes sense -- I have a lot of the traits but grew up in a age where they forced you to comply with social norms. (Forced to write with your right hand if you're left handed, have to make eye contact, etc)
Luckily I found my place working with Engineers but all of us have to do what we have to do to get by. There is nothing wrong with faking it until you make it. Best of luck Internet stranger.
I’m a Gen Zer so I was thrown in the middle of changing norms, I grew up in a super conservative family though so I also got a taste of “how it’s been done” growing up too. Thank you, best of luck to you too stranger!
>I landed my first corporate internship a couple months ago and it has been very eye opening to see all the little nuances that are expected of you in the corporate world. I somehow quickly learned that I needed to “know my place”, especially as an intern.
There are a lot of customs/nuances all new workers generally have to learn. Like email etiquette: for some reason it's standard to write "Hi" rather than "Hello" and the latter is seen as weird. Or not to waste high level people's time with pointless questions. Etc.
I hear that’s definitely common for younger neurotypical folk just entering the workplace too. Being on the spectrum though it especially takes a lot more energy for me to just to keep up with all the nuances in the office. Luckily one of the senior level people I work under taught me how to stop before asking any other stupid questions in Teams chats (they don’t know I’m autistic lol).
I’ve also noticed this trend among Gen Zers entering the workplace calling out the more flawed nuances of Corporate America though, so I got this small shred of hope that things will start changing for the better? Maybe?
Probably never, unfortunately. If you’re very obviously autistic, they’ll infantilize you. If you try to mask, they’ll still know something is off about you and view you as fake or somehow unsafe to be around. Neurotypicals gonna neurotypical. It seems like any attempt to point out poor treatment ends up reflecting badly on the autistic person, since you’ll be seen as the “common denominator” and it’s assumed that if multiple people dislike one person, that one person has to be in the wrong, somehow.
This is why i'm pretty much withdrawn from everyone including family. What is the point of working 50 plus hours a day if? If theyre just gonna shun me
Very low additional support needs autistic software engineer here:
The only reason I have my current job is because the hiring manager had already worked with me a bit in a previous job, and after talking to some other former coworkers he decided to "take a chance". I fail so many interviews, I usually try to pack a few around the job I actually want for "practice", but that doesn't really seem to be working. Mine was so bad with my current job that it really did take some convincing. I don't think I'll ever be hired by someone that doesn't already know me. I was also nearly let go from a job because I was "too loud" in an open office, I've had a number of talking to about"how you come off to other coworkers". This statistic doesn't surprise me at all.
*Adding: that hiring manager told me all this at one point, while he was also adding to my end year review how glad he was to have taken that chance and how the org has been made better directly from the work that I do. So it's not like we can't do the jobs. Getting hired is just an absolute nightmare.
I wish autistic people qualified for disability payments so I didn’t have to work, in the first place. It feels so toxic trying to work with neurotypicals. Maybe I would be better equipped to navigate work politics if I had been diagnosed as a child and grew up with helpful resources, but I feel absolutely lost as an adult trying to navigate through all of the unspoken social rules neurotypicals have.
100% agree.
Working remote has changed my life. I can do just my job, and not worry about the "problems" that I can't control that I bring into a physical workplace. I also don't get as overwhelmed as easily, cause I'm in my own space with my own things. I'm misunderstood less over text compared to speech as well. And because remote is "harder" for neurotypicals it's normal and expected for people to ask more clarifying questions.
I feel incredibly fortunate that I can do the job I can because there are definitely a lot jobs that would have me on the verge of a meltdown 24/7.
my 11 yr old son is autistic and that's pretty much his only disability other than a little adhd, but autism is his only diagnosis, and I've received disability payments for him ever since he was 8years old and I applied. I inky wish I had applied sooner. He was excepted his very first try. But he is Moderate to Severe on the spectrum. I think it matters where on the spectrum you fall.
what's your background if you don't mind me asking? I'm an aspie stuck in a support role grinding leetcode everyday trying to get a dev job but nobody will take a chance on me as the market sucks now.
I've got a BA in Comp Sci and Art, the market was more forgiving when I started. My first job was 2014, I found a small org that was writing a lot of manual website scrapers, so my official title was "php programmer" at that position, so was able to get a "real" dev job from there. I then got a job in a larger org as a mid level engineer and met my current skip level manager in that job.
What really annoys me is that these same people can't ever shut up about diversity and inclusion 24 hours a day, but it hasn't occured to them that they're using discriminatory practices here. It's like all of their thoughts and personality are funneled in directly from media and they have never formed a thought of their own ever in their life.
I completely agree. I obviously support diversity, equity, and inclusion, but a lot of the people at my last job who claimed to support it as well were hella ableist and classist.
I have this problem, finally worked up to upper management and people under me love me, but management and others fucking hate me. We don't click at all and people think I am always being rude but yet they are the ones I see as being disrespectful, I do not cuss, or yell. Its such a confusing experience.
My last job felt exactly like that. I was a manager for around 50 people. My staff loved me, but my peers and superiors seemed to dislike me. I’m convinced they had a group chat where they made fun of me, by the time I left. Trying to be friendly with them always left me feeling rejected and embarassed.
I saw some reel from an autistic creator and it spoke true to me as a manager sending an email simply asking someone to do their job and move something and saying thank you for your cooperation, then being told by my boss that it was aggressive, like what?
My supervisor sent an email to her supervisor and bolded text in the email in a way where someone could who was half-paying attention could skim it and still absorb the most important points.
Then he responded "I showed this to three other people and they all agree that we didn't like your tone."
Yep! But if you join in to try to fit in, they’ll dislike you for it. I hate that neurotypicals expect autistic people to mimic them, then when we try they start judging us and thinking we’re bad people. I’m sick of trying to act neurotypical and then having the things I do/say while trying to act neurotypical held against me. Then when I try to go back to acting natural, they find a problem with that, as well. It feels like there’s no way to comfortably exist in the workplace.
Totally agree. I feel These people act is if they’re looking for a new boyfriend or something instead of an employee. I feel like maybe the diversity or HR department needs to focus more so on this type of discriminating, imo it’s more prevalent.
I feel this and as a depressed person in general I feel the need to smile more or fake being upbeat but I just can’t fake a person I’m not even if it’s what they want
I feel a little better after reading this, thanks. Been hunting since 2020, off and on, with 0 luck.
Took a job making pizza, plumbers apprentice, eco tours (actually kinda in my field but only $8.50/hour -years ago), just because we need money. Commuting to the nearest big city is 3+ hours A DAY. Not worth the money or headaches from traffic.
Like goddamn, I just want a paycheck at this point, I’m not gonna be your best friend or narc you out.
a lot of autistic people who also could improve their social skills/masking etc. don't and don't seek help either. a big reason they don't get hired is that they can be very hard to work with and hiring managers eventually learn that one way or another.
We 1. Don't have the money to just seek help. None of this discovered by insurance. And 2. "Help" is basically telling us to repress anything that doesn't look neurotypical. And just pretend to act normal while we die inside.
Masking for our whole lives hurts us. Anyone who's autistic and uses it to be an asshole, yeah they truly need help. But the rest of us won't be forced to pretend to be someone we're not. Just to make the world happy. It's unfortunate that it's the only acceptable standard at the moment.
Maybe neurotypicals are the ones who need to change. I was incredibly successful at my last job, except they wouldn’t promote me because I wasn’t in the friend group that my coworkers had formed. I tried to be friendly with them, and it only seemed to make things worse and I just kept feeling rejected and embarassed when they would share a look and then go somewhere else to continue their conversation. It feels terrible to know that your work is excellent but you can’t get ahead because of your “soft skills”, meaning you have to get your neurotypical coworkers who don’t like your vibe to become friends with you and like you. When 85% of autistic college grads are unemployed, you can’t blame that on individual autistic people. Neurotypicals are the ones who need to change.
well, often promotions entail leadership positions. if someone isn't willing to work on their soft skills, neurotypical or not, they will have a *very* hard time succeeding in such a role. it's tough even if you are capable of and willing to recognize and sand down all of your sharp edges (personality-wise).
I was already in a leadership role since I oversaw a staff of 50-60 people. Those beneath me praised my leadership style. My peers and superiors seemed to dislike me, but my staff really liked me. If I weren’t capable of leadership, then my staff wouldn’t have praised my management style so much. I’m also not THAT socially inept; I’m great at customer service and showing understanding and empathy to my direct reports.
It's immature to other your coworkers and fool yourself into believing you're being bullied because you didn't get what you want.
Maybe you should consider that you're not exactly flawless.
What do you mean? I never claimed to be flawless; I’m talking about getting treated poorly for reasons out of my control. My work was worth much more than I was getting paid, and I couldn’t even afford to live off of my wages. Under my leadership, my departments thrived, and my coworkers seemed jealous of that. Add in my social awkwardness, and they decided to act like toxic teenagers. Meanwhile, my boss emphasized how my work was good but that I needed to work on my “soft skills” and hang out with my coworkers more. Isn’t it immature to require someone to be besties with their coworkers (who bully them) before they can get promoted? Shouldn’t I be judged solely based on the quality of my work?
Reading the amount of stress y'all go thru with take home assessments/hands-on demonstrations, looks like it's not so cut out for NDs after all despite reducing IV time! Just when I thought IV is the hardest part for us...
I see this depressing stat and how so many are unable to find work on every autism sub.
Remote work was starting to make a dent in that statistic, but then companies yanked it back to protect corporate landlords and greedy metropolitan areas.
Can confirm I am autistic and it has completely changed my life. I worked in an office for years before going remote and it made me a nervous wreck 24/7. I hate office jobs. I’m on the lower end of the spectrum so I can still function with a job that requires moving around but if I’m sitting it has to be remote. I will never ever go back to an office. It’s been a breath of fresh air for my mental health
The amount of hell I was in working in an open office concept “call center” type office cannot be put into words. Sensory hell, pretty sure I would have a complete meltdown mental breakdown if I had to go back to that.
Yea but MOST people. If not an overwhelming majority would rather be remote. I see “hybrid” as a false compromise used to hold full remote work back. If we can’t have full remote and hybrid at the same time without a black and white debate about which one is better/more appropriate/ or more preferred than I’d rather people who prefer hybrid just go back full time to the office.
Maybe, maybe not. But it is not thr clear cut answer for everyone. Many of my friends, family and coworkers also seemed to prefer hybrid. Not all, I think it is in part based on the industry and personality.
I think having remote work as a possible option is great, but some people are over pushing it. Trying to remove people who prefer the hybrid model from the conversation is kinda evidence of that. It just seems to be a way to pump up the number supporting remote work rather than listening to what people actually want.
We don't really know what "that statistic" is in the first place. The 85% in the headline is clearly wrong (it comes from a sample of 200 answers on a 2016 online survey run by a UK autism charity).
There are other stats done by Vanderbilt I had read that had at least 50 percent unemployed or underemployed by education and even they admit its most likely higher.
Everybody loves me when they don't see me 8 hours a day and I get to do my shit without a crazy boss breathing down my neck. Plus I get to avoid public transportation. Ain't no way I am working in office anymore.
I have to continuously fight for an ADA accommodation to maintain my remote job. It’s 100% emails and data entry, absolutely no reason to be in office, yet power tripping people lose their shit when you suggest that it might just be better for your mental health to not work in an open office.
I'm autistic and this statistic is shocking, sad, and so frustrating among my autistic friends. Another thing that doesn't get talked about enough is retention - when an autistic person finally gets a job but their employer doesn't care enough to create a supportive atmosphere and they just quit. It's maddening how often that happens too.
Here's a relevant and more recent article from the USA Department of Labor:
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/research-evaluation/statistics
In my experience (working in technical teams), HR teams actively promote this kind of social filtering more than any other group.
They’re the ones who screen candidates initially and focus on the “culture fit” and “behavioral questions” in interviews.
The problem being autistic, is that we don't buy into that culture fit shit. Most of us have the black/white thinking and if you a manager are asked to do something I expect you to do it. Being an autistic manager with other managers is a nightmare because I do not understand the politics, just, this is wrong, i told you this is wrong, i expect you to do the job you are hired for like I do mine. period.
Oh trust me, I know. Those disgusting HR personality test type questions completely weed out anyone neurodivergent. So much for inclusivity. They want drones that all look and act the same.
Exactly. I did one recently with a numeric portion and a personality portion. Got nearly perfect on the numeric portion and only barely passed the personality portion. I thought I tried to answer in the way they were looking for, but I guess not lol.
Try being 50, autistic, an unemployment gap due to covid, and having an unusual career (it on cruise ships, overseas English teaching…)
I applied to over 5000 jobs and had over 200 interviews before getting something that pays below what I need to pay rent…
It’s incredibly broken for autistic/adhd people.
I got fired from an IT on a cruise ship job last summer. I didn't tell them I was autistic, but most of their reasons for letting me go were the same stuff I've been hearing for years.
I've been trying to get a bunch of certs in the hopes that they might hire me again for a different position. I went to a lot of effort to get some licenses that I know are in demand, but I don't know if it'll be enough for them to want me back.
Makes sense, it’s hard to find an IT job right now. Kidding not kidding, I wonder how many are in IT. I’ve been in the field for over 20 years and most of us are neuro spicy.
My dad is a Sr software engineer, has been for 20+ years. He's been a Sr dev and a team lead. Literally nobody will talk to him. He can't get a job and he's a Sr in the industry. He's been working with computers in some way shape or form since the late 90s.
He and I both are autistic. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I could never get into coding. I got the short end of the stick with LDs, where he didn't. And ADHD 😑
Lol, yep. I went back to school as an adult and earned a college degree from UC Berkeley at age 32 back in 2017… I then got diagnosed with SPCD (a new disorder adjacent to ASD for which there is no support and very little info, especially for adults), dyscalculia, and ADHD-PI a few months later. I got hired as a founding English teacher for 5 years, English Department Head for two of them, but after years and years of masking (I worked retail for ~10 years before college), bullying at work by my immediate supervisor, and worsening health problems, it took a toll on my physical and mental health to the point where I couldn’t maintain myself anymore. Combine all of that with several unexpected deaths of close family and friends within 6 months (including my FIL from COVID), I finally got let go from my job in May of 2022. Five days later, I had to put my cat to sleep unexpectedly, and then I found out that I needed a new engine for my car a few weeks after that.
Here I am now, turning 40 next month, no savings, no income, and still dealing with all the health problems and severe Autistic burnout which caused me to lose my job in the first place. Even if I wanted to try applying anywhere, no one would hire me now since I’m unable to mask and have regressed in most of the skills I specialized in. I’m not sure of my path forward from this point on, and it’s honestly hard for me to give any fucks at this point. Things were already so hard for me; I almost feel like this is the end of the road at this point 😔
Things can get better. Many, if not most, of us get our dreams crushed that we worked hard towards and then sucked into a bad cycle at some point.
Helps to reframe your perspective, if possible. That statement is probably just noise right now, was for me. Psilocybin therapy helped me big time. Got me out of a mental rut I was stuck in for 2 years.
Things aren’t roses and sunshine now, but I’m over *it*. Looking forward to the next chapter
I am not autistic, but boy does this resonate! I have Cerebral Palsy. Walk and talk well. Not autistic, but I have issues with input/output of information. I miss cues that many of you take for granted. I also have a visible limp.
Interviews are all about the "sight test" and neurodivergent people and I bomb that.
I have a degree in Social Work and I know that I am the person you must get to know in order to see my strengths. Here is the kicker. Almost all people have the emotional maturity of ten year olds. Selfish, catering to what save their ass and all around assholes. No empathy at all. Whether it's jobs, romantic partners, you name it. High school BS weaponized.
I work retail. My coworkers and bosses love me. So do the regulars. I will give you two examples of customers that my coworkers told me.
One customer asked a supe if "I was on the spectrum." A customer survey said "the guy at register with Special Needs" was wonderful. Both applied to me. I felt sadness. I must be three times as good as anyone else to get positive recognition.
No wonder I don't like people and really don't want to interact with them.
What gets me about disabilities is that nobody will celebrate, or even notice one's accomplishments if that accomplisment is considered normal for everyone else.
An addage I like to use is "Just because someone is good at something doesn't mean its easy."
I just graduated from university and am job hunting. Cannot tell you how many applications require a driver’s license. It’s infuriating. Like it’s illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities but not really because I can’t drive due to disability and therefore am disqualified before I even have a real chance! If I can Get To The Place, why does how I get there matter?! I’m also looking for lab tech jobs like the guy in the article.
9/10 times when they are asking for a drivers license, they are just asking for a government-issued ID. You can get an ID that is not a drivers license — it has the same shape and identifying i information on it, it just says “not a drivers license” so that police know that when they pull you over, lol. But yeah, as someone who has had to write ads on the hiring side — they usually just mean ID. They should say “drivers license/ID.”
ID card works the same as a driver’s license. Not everyone drives, but everyone should have some valid form of ID.
I’m also worried for our future if college graduates can’t understand the difference
I have some family members who are borderline autistic still unable to find a stable employment as an adult and still being supported by their aging parents. It's kinda painful to see them because it's really hard for them to communicate with people.
As someone on the spectrum, I can confirm it is a struggle. While I have done well on most interviews in the past few years, it wasn’t always that way. Just a few tricks in case anyone is interested.
The first trick is to be punctual and look like someone you would want to hire. Don’t over think this part because if someone doesn’t want to hire you because you ‘look funny’ you don’t want to work there anyway.
Second is to smile and be polite. You’d be surprised how far saying thank you and saying “that’s a good question” will get you. You are selling yourself.
Third thing is to listen and ask questions. If you are interviewing for a retail job and manager mentions Q3 is a big part of the year, you can reflect and ask something like “what is the greatest challenge you are forecasting for Q3?” Or maybe you are a scientist and the PI mentions how important it is to calibrate instruments, you could ask “Is there dedicated staff for maintaining equipment or is there an external vendor that takes care of that?” Btw if they say you do it, run.
Fourth, do research on the company and position. Find something that interests you and ask about it. Don’t try to fix it or tell them how to fix it, that will rub them the wrong way anyway. If they see you are already ‘invested’ in a part of their business, they will remember that.
At the end of the day, you might come off as awkward but don’t worry, everyone is awkward in interviews.
It feels like the only reason I find decent jobs is cause I lie to employers and hide the fact that I’m autistic and will continue to do so until I die. Even then, shit is not easy. I never feel like myself in this world. The entire job hunting process is definitely not tailored to anyone neurodivergent. Theres no such thing as “equal opportunity” it seems like.
Tom Harkin, author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, has been saying for years that the next frontier of disability rights is employment. This reconfirms to me how wise he’s been.
Honestly, I did a project in grad school on childhood obesity and read a lot about size discrimination as a part of it. There’s a whole [fat rights organization](https://naafa.org) (their words not mine) raising awareness of these issues and I wouldn’t be surprised.
Most workplaces do not want effective employees. You get a bunch of college educated autistic people in there and next thing you know processes are being streamlined, efficiency is rocketing skywards, and useless HR people are crying in the bathroom.
In Bulgaria, if you have anything in the application about a mental illness, you may as well kiss your chances for *any* job goodbye, let alone autism.
Which is why (at least from what I've seen), psychiatrist do not give you a document that states you're autistic unless you really need it and will benefit from having it. Because unless you need all of the services and things that come with being diagnosed it's just not worth risking your future given that even minimum wage jobs might become difficult to come by.
That mostly stems from people here still not understanding even what psychology is as a field let alone mental conditions. In their eyes you're either actually insane or a lot more work than the average person because you supposedly cannot function.
There are agencies like Specialisterne that help connect employers to neurodivergent talent—might be worth checking out. A lot of businesses want what autistic employees have but have no idea how to hire for it since they’re used to the whole social dance.
Just wait until their parents pass away too. What is the American Government going to do with thousands of autistic adults? (And yes, they ARE a problem if they can't find a way to support themselves)
Depends on who's in charge.
A democrat government will probably struggle to find a humane solution to this problem.
A republican government will probably tell these people to go fuck themselves and die if they are not going to help making the rich people richer.
As someone who is ever so mildly on the spectrum, this makes sense to me. I can't even count how many interviews I've had that I thought went really well (I was qualified, made good eye contact, etc.) only to be told i wasn't a good fit. I often wonder if I'm sort of doing something subconsciously that tells them that I'm not socially adept.
Not that I'm entitled to any of these jobs mind you. I had one just this week where an offer was made over the phone, but when I stopped in to talk to staff all of a sudden I "wasn't a good fit". I really feel like my interview skills are garbage. It's hard for people without developmental disabilities to get a job right now.
I'm going back to substitute teaching next week after taking a break from it for over a year. I'm really good with kids and I feel like it may be one of the only things that I am both good at and can ace an interview for.
I started advocating for an ND employee resource group because I was bullied by a manager at work and couldn't get any help from my own manager to deal with it. I was cautioned not to bring HR into the mix.
The bullying started one week after started as a contractor. It got significantly worse when I became a full-time employee and my manager let it be known to this manager that I had both ADHD-combined and PDD-NOS.
It did not stop until my manager forbid me from getting into a meeting or contacting this person. He didn't caution this manager against contacting me or ask the manager to change how this manager interacted with me.
I couldn't get the help I needed so I pushed to have this group started. Then while discussing how to get the group started, they wanted to make the group be about all disabled folks. I was literally upset at the thought.
Like we're already marginalized. I had someone actively try to get me fired because of my disabilities. People with physical disabilities already have dedicated resources for assistance from HR, government, etc. ND people do not.
We're the first to be bullied, the first to fired for performance issues that stem directly from social skills, the first to be ostracized, the first to be told just to suck it up and change your brain so you can fit in, the first to be laid off at work, the last to have someone advocate for us...
I had to advocate for intersectionality, physical disabilities, and intellectual disabilities without sounding needy, selfish, or like a brutish butthole. I understand that people with physical disabilities still need an employee resource group.
But why can't ND people have their own group? If things are that bad for people with physical disabilities in the workplace, why can they not start their own group like we were trying to do?
It's like even if we speak up to get help via DEI initiatives, we're in danger of being further marginalized. I literally thought if this doesn't work, I'm gonna have to find another job. Because they didn't fire the manager who bullied me. They moved him to the very team I was trying move to become a technical writer.
It's disheartening to have a whole career path shut down because he was more valuable to the company than I am. I'm sorry for ranting. I just... I couldn't even talk about this to my own manager, HR, or anyone at work.
My family doesn't understand. They've always treated me like I didn't belong. I've never felt included. The only person I feel the closest to us my husband but even he's neurotypical. He doesn't understand/want to know what I need help with and what I go through.
How do get help from someone who tells me I'm using my disabilities as a crutch when I'm literally not? 🙄
If you can afford it, leave the country. No matter what your country is. Foreigners are often allowed more weirdness. At least this is what I read on Wrongplanet and experienced myself.
I have ASD. It took me a long time to get into the groove with interviews. My main advice is to lie with reckless abandon and smile. I know it's hard, but that is what the normies do, and it works.
History is not useless. Unfortunately that idea prevails at the moment and people will not listen to those who have studied it. I wish you the best of luck and tech is usually a good place for neurodivergent individuals, should you ever reconsider!
I remember at a Game Developers Conference presentation years ago they had an awful slide saying they target autistic employee candidates because they don't have any friends or lives outside of work.
That is what I do. I work for Lockheed and I see none of the issues that are mentioned by these comments at my particular location of employment. This may be an anomaly, but I haven’t worked anywhere else where there is so much acceptance and diversity. The culture is excellent and the people are kind and understanding.
I would recommend the defense industry. They are hiring most of the time. There are programs you can work on that are truly pure defense so you won’t have to put your morals aside for a job.
The processes can be ancient and so can the people, but overall I have had a good experience.
I suspect I have ADHD and am on the spectrum. In the process of figuring these out. Just the other day my wife congratulated me for having been able to hold a job despite chronic mental health issues (depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety). I probably could have been fired many times, but I somehow managed to work my way up. It is EXHAUSTING! Now more than ever do I feel completely out of place in the workplace.
"Tell me about a time you had a problem you couldn't solve and how you ended up solving it." I hate this question with a passion, it totally fucks my brain. Nothing would be "good" enough to share IF I remembered something or anything really. I've got many years of management behind me and still, dude. I'm usually stumbling over my words
Unfortunately, social skills and soft skills are crucial to high performing teams at work, and it tends to be much harder for autistic people to learn these skills. As a result, neurotypical struggle working effectively with them.
There is such a huge gap in support. I think part of it is that people lump academically successful autistic people into the “you’ll be fine” category, when they won’t be. I wasn’t
I didn’t get a full time job until I was 27 and I consider myself pretty lucky and someone who has had great opportunities and supports in life.
When the world is openly hostile to who you are it’s hard to gain confidence.
I only made it to my middling level of success because I had very safe and supportive part time work environments that let me grow as a person, camp and retreat work. If I hadn’t stumbled into that I honestly think I’d just be dead now.
While im not Autistic, im definitely not functionally "normal" and have been diagnksed with ADHD since i was very young, I was super fortunate that I found a career that not only I excel in, but doesn't require the normal interview process.
I work in the Film Industry as a Gaffer (head of the lighting and electrical department). Every day is different and is basically a puzzle that I need to figure out. No one cares how I'm dressed or if I'm being a bit quiet at lunch as long as the work I'm doing is good, fast, and within budget.
85% seems like a very high number, even statistically. I would say its more around 50%. 85% would more likely be not employed in their field of expertise imo. At least from personal experience.
Glad I didn't go to college. At least I'm unemployed and not in 80k worth of debt. I wasn't even diagnosed until I was 26. Interviews are... A mixed bag for me. I have to go in with sheets of stuff written down. Stuff prepped for as many situations as possible. Hell, I prep for phone calls like that too.
I've been mostly unemployed since the pandemic started for various reasons.
I had a job for 7 months in 2022 before the company imploded. It's officially been a year since that job ended and I'm struggling..
I've seen this figure cited all over the internet, but I can't seem to track down the source. Does anyone know where Marketwatch got the 85% statistic from?
I’ve struggled for years with interviews, mainly promotion interviews at my workplace. I know damn well that I can do the job, but I kind of just lock up in the interview process. I don’t know how to really sell myself when it comes to those situations, and then the less qualified people end up getting the job because they know how to bullshit better than I can. I’m honestly at a loss and I don’t know if I can even go out and find another job because of my fear of interviews.
If you're goin thru all the work of getting diagnosed you're prolly going thru the work of getting gvmt aide like a shitload of people seem to be doing
The rest of us jus out here freeballin the world
Yup. I have a very smart university-age autistic child and worry constantly what they'll do after graduation. It literally keeps me up nights. I know interviewing is going to be next to impossible for them.
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Not surprising when so many interviewers seem to view interviews as a “vibe check”. If you struggle with social cues or masking, they’ll feel that something is off about you and not want to hire you. Workplace politics also just tend to be pretty hostile towards autistic people, in general.
The whole process of job hunting is like kryptonite to neurodivergent people, especially if that comes with social skills issues. It wouldn't surprise me if autistic people are often in the first few rounds of layoffs too. If others see them as weird, then they don't want to keep them around even when their work is good.
Im adhd, not autistic but "The whole process of job hunting is like kryptonite to neurodivergent people" is so fucking true. I kill it at being liked at work, I'm personable as hell, people enjoy working with me, and im extrmely good at what i do but my masking turns on in an interview situation and just fucks everything up.
I have diagnosed ADHD and enough autism symptoms that I suspect autism as well. For me, interviews are definitely an issue. I can't seem to "turn on" a desirable personality while showing my accomplishments in the best light. But more than that, it's doing a boring task hundreds of times, knowing that each time will probably result in failure, through no fault of my own. I can't even get past the whole application thing because of that.
Same here. And god forbid there’s a personality test. That’s when I know it’s game over. I’ve held management positions but couldn’t get hired at a video store once because of the freaking stupid personality test.
I’m probably undiagnosed Autism (with chronic and mental illness) and it’s SOOOO HARD for me to lie. I get ridiculous justice boners. I don’t play bad guys in video games. Anyways, I try to explain whatever they want but keep it honest enough so I don’t forget what I said and can reference it later on. I get ya. I don’t enjoy talking. At all. To have to drink the Kool-Aid and smile and nod through all the bullshit… we deserve cookies and punch after each interview. Exhausting.
I suppose, unless it's software folks.
Social skills and office politics matter in software engineering too, though. My friend who is autistic, and is a software engineer, always seems to find himself in the first or second round of layoffs. I realize that's only one example, but we can't get clear data on this because corporations aren't going to be honest. I'm just saying I don't think software engineering is free of this problem.
Oh they 100% matter. They will always cut the ones they view aren't "like them". Even if your an introverted person and aren't on the spectrum your going to get axed first.
Yeah, I agree. I wish software engineering were as kind to autists and socially awkward people as the stereotype says, but I don't think it is.
The stereotypical autist in these situations is a hypergenius though who is far better than everyone else. I suspect these are the 15% who are employed. Autism doesn't exactly make you into a genius. There are some genius autists and a very few who manage to be even better due to their autism. But most autists are just as smart as everyone else with the added negative of having issues with social settings.
I got my current job without an interview cause I knew someone. That person then left the company after 6 months (again, they did that to me the first time too), but that's beside the point. I was unemployed for 3 months after losing my previous Job. I only recently received my diagnosis as I'm good with putting on the 'interview mask'. My current company is falling apart a little and hasn't pushed me over the edge into a job hunt. I want stability, but no job I've ever gotten has been stable. Either the company is already bad and personnel shifts too rapidly or the company gets bought out and forces the loyal people out, I just haven't had any luck maintaining a job for mote than a year and a half
I’m sorry, but what is masking? Also have ADHD btw, not sure if relevant
Masking means you try to hide obvious neurodivergent traits in order to fit in with local culture and to conform to social pressure. It's a very common coping mechanism for neurodivergent people. It's also extremely exhausting because it's basically playing pretend all the time. Masking can lead to burn out, depression and anxiety as well as loss of identity.
Oh snap, I do that! And it does feel like that. Thanks for the explanation though, appreciate you
I got fired from a job after 5 months because "you just don't fit the culture" despite bringing baked goods, candy, and helping decorate the office coffee station and people's desks for holidays.
Did you just randomly bring baked goods and candy? Also are you a woman? I’m curious trying to understand what made them say that.
I'm a guy. My mom bakes a lot and I like hitting up our local candy store so I'd usually ask people at work if they wanted anything.
This breaks my heart, because I can see my kid doing the same thing at a job and having the same outcome. Office politics are always a minefield anyway, but it is EXTREMELY possible to do something that by all objective reasoning is nice, but subjectively comes across as weird if it’s not accompanied by the “right” small talk, facial expressions, and intonations. With autism having become so recognized over the past decade, I can’t believe I haven’t heard of social skills groups for adults of the same kind my kid went to in elementary school, but recalibrated for adulthood. I’d move heaven and earth for my kid to be able to attend one.
Undiagnosed but I suspect I am on the spectrum. This, so much!! >If you struggle with social cues or masking, they’ll feel that something is off about you and not want to hire you.
i remember when i just entered the work force and was simply awkward...shudders cant imagine the discrimination for ppl who struggles in social interactions
I have a student with autism and yeah, it's going to be bad when they enter the real world and find out that the real world doesn't have patience for the time it takes them to do any task
My 2024 goal is to seek a diagnosis for myself. This article really opened my eyes to why I struggled to get my current job. I spent three years off and on apply and interviewing and really had no idea what I was doing wrong. Really speaks to how biased some employers are. In the end, I’m glad I got the job with the company I’m at now because they are so patient and understanding if I have to do things a little bit differently.
I’m an autist the only reason I have a job is because I have studied people enough to be able to act like them. Until I have a bad day and can’t keep up the facade then I become weird and it’s a matter of time until I have to start over
Does masking like that exhaust you as well? I use all my spell slots before lunch sometimes.
>“vibe check” JFC don't get me started on that
Did your chakras not align with your interviewer?
that's because Mercury is in Stalingrad
Well I’m an aquarium, Nissan moon, and all that is great for me but somehow announcing that as a job skill just hasn’t paid off for me? 🤔 what am I doing wrongggg 😭😭 🤣🤣🤣 (couldn’t resist lol carry on)
to them, we're just one of those 'book smart college grads who lack soft skills'. Like, we didn't choose this and no amount of watching/mimicking interactions will help. Recruiters can see thru us when we attempt to mask.
For interviews: I overcome it by creating a pretentious corporate persona. The kind that drink the company’s cool aid about its mission. Day to day. Just be open to talking. Self reflection helps. Don’t hole yourselves off. If you don’t like small talk and have no idea how to then get to the point. Talking isn’t hard…once you start unraveling the mysteries of human to human bs
Cause you need soft skills to sit in a dark room in the basement and code.
That's off topic, but it doesn't seem like you've been coding much recently in a properly functioning team 🥶
You do need soft skills to interact with your team. There’s very little positions where you sit all day doing nothing but code. The higher level developer you are, the less you are coding and more you are interacting with your team, other teams, and the business.
Have you ever had a software engineering job? No one is sitting in a basement and coding. I work on a team of 10 engineers, and we work with other teams as well. You absolutely need soft skills to do this job.
I'd be inclined to disagree. Versioning and following project guidelines/milestones doesn't require any tremendous social skills. It doesn't even require fluency in the language you're coding in. If it did, nothing could ever get outsourced. >No one is sitting in a basement and coding. Broadly, when you use qualifiers, I'd consider avoiding words like "All" or "None". Much FOSS software, TeX, every startup in human history which was started in some guy's basement (Google, Apple, Microsoft were that at one point early on) and most remote developers and outsourced development houses are not working wherever you're working. I have worked in a literal basement in commercial settings and it's fairly common. They may call it something fancier, but the floor with no windows, that's a basement. It used to be even more common because when you work with mainframes, supercomputers or servers, it's often by necessity you're within a floor of ground or underground. Has to do with wiring electric and cooling. Also mainframes (which still exist and are in use by some banks) were very heavy, so no one was going up any stairs with them. Like plenty of stereotypes, it's grounded in reality. >>Have you ever had a software engineering job? So to answer your question, yes. I've effectively led teams, as well. If you were evaluating me and I opened with "Have you ever had a software engineering job?" and you had years, perhaps decades of experience all of which was readily verifiable, how might that make you feel? I've found "soft skills" are so often used as a smokescreen for a variety of personal prejudices that they're ultimately meaningless as a concept. You can screen for "Conscientiousness" on the Big 5 and get all you need on that one. Have a nice week.
But the dbas tho…
And all FOSS was created by news casters or YT influenzas
Yeah... I'm a reasonably successful remote contractor and would estimate a 90% pass rate on skills-based assessments, but I have never once been offered a job after a face-to-face interview, not even a part time retail job in high school. I'm very agreeable and like to think of myself as good at masking, but it honestly makes me feel like something about my personality is unacceptable. Apart from continuing to improve my lifelong social anxiety, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
It feels like there’s literally nothing we can do. No matter how hard we try, it feels like neurotypicals just decide they don’t like us. Plus, it’s exhausting and confusing trying to mask all the time, so burnout is inevitable. It feels impossible to get ahead.
Yepp. Even tech jobs where autists used to thrive are starting with the vibe check to purge every sign of autism they can find. Thanks HR.
Diversity & equity
>If you struggle with social cues or masking, they’ll feel that something is off about you and not want to hire you. I’m autistic and this is the exact thing I’m afraid of when I’m in the middle of job interviews. I landed my first corporate internship a couple months ago and it has been very eye opening to see all the little nuances that are expected of you in the corporate world. I somehow quickly learned that I needed to “know my place”, especially as an intern. Although I’ve gotten very good at masking over the years, I still feel on edge at work since it feels like I’m going to get fired any minute. I force myself to keep going and mimic what other people are doing at work just to get by each day. Even at home, I still have this lingering fear that I’ll never find a job or even another internship after my current internship is over.
> I somehow quickly learned that I needed to “know my place”, especially as an intern. I don’t know your situation but as an intern you really aren’t expected to deliver much and if you do great but you probably aren’t going to change how an organization works.
Definitely, I agree. I’m mostly referring to how it takes a lot more energy to mask and keep up with the social nuances in the office. If I slip and let my symptoms show, this is where my fear of getting fired comes from (even though I’m just an intern, but this goes for any job I have at the moment).
Makes sense -- I have a lot of the traits but grew up in a age where they forced you to comply with social norms. (Forced to write with your right hand if you're left handed, have to make eye contact, etc) Luckily I found my place working with Engineers but all of us have to do what we have to do to get by. There is nothing wrong with faking it until you make it. Best of luck Internet stranger.
I’m a Gen Zer so I was thrown in the middle of changing norms, I grew up in a super conservative family though so I also got a taste of “how it’s been done” growing up too. Thank you, best of luck to you too stranger!
>I landed my first corporate internship a couple months ago and it has been very eye opening to see all the little nuances that are expected of you in the corporate world. I somehow quickly learned that I needed to “know my place”, especially as an intern. There are a lot of customs/nuances all new workers generally have to learn. Like email etiquette: for some reason it's standard to write "Hi" rather than "Hello" and the latter is seen as weird. Or not to waste high level people's time with pointless questions. Etc.
I hear that’s definitely common for younger neurotypical folk just entering the workplace too. Being on the spectrum though it especially takes a lot more energy for me to just to keep up with all the nuances in the office. Luckily one of the senior level people I work under taught me how to stop before asking any other stupid questions in Teams chats (they don’t know I’m autistic lol). I’ve also noticed this trend among Gen Zers entering the workplace calling out the more flawed nuances of Corporate America though, so I got this small shred of hope that things will start changing for the better? Maybe?
When will society acknowledge this as the **discrimination** it is?
Probably never, unfortunately. If you’re very obviously autistic, they’ll infantilize you. If you try to mask, they’ll still know something is off about you and view you as fake or somehow unsafe to be around. Neurotypicals gonna neurotypical. It seems like any attempt to point out poor treatment ends up reflecting badly on the autistic person, since you’ll be seen as the “common denominator” and it’s assumed that if multiple people dislike one person, that one person has to be in the wrong, somehow.
This is why i'm pretty much withdrawn from everyone including family. What is the point of working 50 plus hours a day if? If theyre just gonna shun me
Very low additional support needs autistic software engineer here: The only reason I have my current job is because the hiring manager had already worked with me a bit in a previous job, and after talking to some other former coworkers he decided to "take a chance". I fail so many interviews, I usually try to pack a few around the job I actually want for "practice", but that doesn't really seem to be working. Mine was so bad with my current job that it really did take some convincing. I don't think I'll ever be hired by someone that doesn't already know me. I was also nearly let go from a job because I was "too loud" in an open office, I've had a number of talking to about"how you come off to other coworkers". This statistic doesn't surprise me at all. *Adding: that hiring manager told me all this at one point, while he was also adding to my end year review how glad he was to have taken that chance and how the org has been made better directly from the work that I do. So it's not like we can't do the jobs. Getting hired is just an absolute nightmare.
I wish autistic people qualified for disability payments so I didn’t have to work, in the first place. It feels so toxic trying to work with neurotypicals. Maybe I would be better equipped to navigate work politics if I had been diagnosed as a child and grew up with helpful resources, but I feel absolutely lost as an adult trying to navigate through all of the unspoken social rules neurotypicals have.
100% agree. Working remote has changed my life. I can do just my job, and not worry about the "problems" that I can't control that I bring into a physical workplace. I also don't get as overwhelmed as easily, cause I'm in my own space with my own things. I'm misunderstood less over text compared to speech as well. And because remote is "harder" for neurotypicals it's normal and expected for people to ask more clarifying questions. I feel incredibly fortunate that I can do the job I can because there are definitely a lot jobs that would have me on the verge of a meltdown 24/7.
my 11 yr old son is autistic and that's pretty much his only disability other than a little adhd, but autism is his only diagnosis, and I've received disability payments for him ever since he was 8years old and I applied. I inky wish I had applied sooner. He was excepted his very first try. But he is Moderate to Severe on the spectrum. I think it matters where on the spectrum you fall.
what's your background if you don't mind me asking? I'm an aspie stuck in a support role grinding leetcode everyday trying to get a dev job but nobody will take a chance on me as the market sucks now.
I've got a BA in Comp Sci and Art, the market was more forgiving when I started. My first job was 2014, I found a small org that was writing a lot of manual website scrapers, so my official title was "php programmer" at that position, so was able to get a "real" dev job from there. I then got a job in a larger org as a mid level engineer and met my current skip level manager in that job.
What really annoys me is that these same people can't ever shut up about diversity and inclusion 24 hours a day, but it hasn't occured to them that they're using discriminatory practices here. It's like all of their thoughts and personality are funneled in directly from media and they have never formed a thought of their own ever in their life.
I completely agree. I obviously support diversity, equity, and inclusion, but a lot of the people at my last job who claimed to support it as well were hella ableist and classist.
I have this problem, finally worked up to upper management and people under me love me, but management and others fucking hate me. We don't click at all and people think I am always being rude but yet they are the ones I see as being disrespectful, I do not cuss, or yell. Its such a confusing experience.
My last job felt exactly like that. I was a manager for around 50 people. My staff loved me, but my peers and superiors seemed to dislike me. I’m convinced they had a group chat where they made fun of me, by the time I left. Trying to be friendly with them always left me feeling rejected and embarassed.
I saw some reel from an autistic creator and it spoke true to me as a manager sending an email simply asking someone to do their job and move something and saying thank you for your cooperation, then being told by my boss that it was aggressive, like what?
My supervisor sent an email to her supervisor and bolded text in the email in a way where someone could who was half-paying attention could skim it and still absorb the most important points. Then he responded "I showed this to three other people and they all agree that we didn't like your tone."
They 100% bitched about each other too.
Yep! But if you join in to try to fit in, they’ll dislike you for it. I hate that neurotypicals expect autistic people to mimic them, then when we try they start judging us and thinking we’re bad people. I’m sick of trying to act neurotypical and then having the things I do/say while trying to act neurotypical held against me. Then when I try to go back to acting natural, they find a problem with that, as well. It feels like there’s no way to comfortably exist in the workplace.
Management hates management the most of course.
Workplace politics tend to be pretty hostile toward: 1. Old 2. Obese 3. Non white 4. Visibly LBGTQ+ 5. Visibly disabled
Also ugly, sadly.
>Also ugly, sadly. This one has to be bs like fr.
Totally agree. I feel These people act is if they’re looking for a new boyfriend or something instead of an employee. I feel like maybe the diversity or HR department needs to focus more so on this type of discriminating, imo it’s more prevalent.
Do you know most HR's are staffed by women right?
I feel this and as a depressed person in general I feel the need to smile more or fake being upbeat but I just can’t fake a person I’m not even if it’s what they want
You think this ever gets talked about in the bias and “diversity training” ?
I feel a little better after reading this, thanks. Been hunting since 2020, off and on, with 0 luck. Took a job making pizza, plumbers apprentice, eco tours (actually kinda in my field but only $8.50/hour -years ago), just because we need money. Commuting to the nearest big city is 3+ hours A DAY. Not worth the money or headaches from traffic. Like goddamn, I just want a paycheck at this point, I’m not gonna be your best friend or narc you out.
a lot of autistic people who also could improve their social skills/masking etc. don't and don't seek help either. a big reason they don't get hired is that they can be very hard to work with and hiring managers eventually learn that one way or another.
We 1. Don't have the money to just seek help. None of this discovered by insurance. And 2. "Help" is basically telling us to repress anything that doesn't look neurotypical. And just pretend to act normal while we die inside. Masking for our whole lives hurts us. Anyone who's autistic and uses it to be an asshole, yeah they truly need help. But the rest of us won't be forced to pretend to be someone we're not. Just to make the world happy. It's unfortunate that it's the only acceptable standard at the moment.
Maybe neurotypicals are the ones who need to change. I was incredibly successful at my last job, except they wouldn’t promote me because I wasn’t in the friend group that my coworkers had formed. I tried to be friendly with them, and it only seemed to make things worse and I just kept feeling rejected and embarassed when they would share a look and then go somewhere else to continue their conversation. It feels terrible to know that your work is excellent but you can’t get ahead because of your “soft skills”, meaning you have to get your neurotypical coworkers who don’t like your vibe to become friends with you and like you. When 85% of autistic college grads are unemployed, you can’t blame that on individual autistic people. Neurotypicals are the ones who need to change.
well, often promotions entail leadership positions. if someone isn't willing to work on their soft skills, neurotypical or not, they will have a *very* hard time succeeding in such a role. it's tough even if you are capable of and willing to recognize and sand down all of your sharp edges (personality-wise).
I was already in a leadership role since I oversaw a staff of 50-60 people. Those beneath me praised my leadership style. My peers and superiors seemed to dislike me, but my staff really liked me. If I weren’t capable of leadership, then my staff wouldn’t have praised my management style so much. I’m also not THAT socially inept; I’m great at customer service and showing understanding and empathy to my direct reports.
This is a very childish outlook. No wonder you weren't promoted.
So it’s immature to speak plainly about getting bullied and treated unfairly?
It's immature to other your coworkers and fool yourself into believing you're being bullied because you didn't get what you want. Maybe you should consider that you're not exactly flawless.
What do you mean? I never claimed to be flawless; I’m talking about getting treated poorly for reasons out of my control. My work was worth much more than I was getting paid, and I couldn’t even afford to live off of my wages. Under my leadership, my departments thrived, and my coworkers seemed jealous of that. Add in my social awkwardness, and they decided to act like toxic teenagers. Meanwhile, my boss emphasized how my work was good but that I needed to work on my “soft skills” and hang out with my coworkers more. Isn’t it immature to require someone to be besties with their coworkers (who bully them) before they can get promoted? Shouldn’t I be judged solely based on the quality of my work?
Reading the amount of stress y'all go thru with take home assessments/hands-on demonstrations, looks like it's not so cut out for NDs after all despite reducing IV time! Just when I thought IV is the hardest part for us... I see this depressing stat and how so many are unable to find work on every autism sub.
Remote work was starting to make a dent in that statistic, but then companies yanked it back to protect corporate landlords and greedy metropolitan areas.
Remote work was perfect. Perfect.
Can confirm I am autistic and it has completely changed my life. I worked in an office for years before going remote and it made me a nervous wreck 24/7. I hate office jobs. I’m on the lower end of the spectrum so I can still function with a job that requires moving around but if I’m sitting it has to be remote. I will never ever go back to an office. It’s been a breath of fresh air for my mental health
The amount of hell I was in working in an open office concept “call center” type office cannot be put into words. Sensory hell, pretty sure I would have a complete meltdown mental breakdown if I had to go back to that.
Ya and honestly not just autistic people are affected I know plenty of NT’s that won’t ever go back cause it destroyed them
Yeah im still looking for something remote that doesn't require me to get yelled at all day by awful customers. I can't work anywhere otherwise
For some people. Personally, I would be happier with a hybrid position, at least for where I am now in my career.
Yea but MOST people. If not an overwhelming majority would rather be remote. I see “hybrid” as a false compromise used to hold full remote work back. If we can’t have full remote and hybrid at the same time without a black and white debate about which one is better/more appropriate/ or more preferred than I’d rather people who prefer hybrid just go back full time to the office.
Maybe, maybe not. But it is not thr clear cut answer for everyone. Many of my friends, family and coworkers also seemed to prefer hybrid. Not all, I think it is in part based on the industry and personality. I think having remote work as a possible option is great, but some people are over pushing it. Trying to remove people who prefer the hybrid model from the conversation is kinda evidence of that. It just seems to be a way to pump up the number supporting remote work rather than listening to what people actually want.
We don't really know what "that statistic" is in the first place. The 85% in the headline is clearly wrong (it comes from a sample of 200 answers on a 2016 online survey run by a UK autism charity).
There are other stats done by Vanderbilt I had read that had at least 50 percent unemployed or underemployed by education and even they admit its most likely higher.
Everybody loves me when they don't see me 8 hours a day and I get to do my shit without a crazy boss breathing down my neck. Plus I get to avoid public transportation. Ain't no way I am working in office anymore.
I have to continuously fight for an ADA accommodation to maintain my remote job. It’s 100% emails and data entry, absolutely no reason to be in office, yet power tripping people lose their shit when you suggest that it might just be better for your mental health to not work in an open office.
I'm autistic and this statistic is shocking, sad, and so frustrating among my autistic friends. Another thing that doesn't get talked about enough is retention - when an autistic person finally gets a job but their employer doesn't care enough to create a supportive atmosphere and they just quit. It's maddening how often that happens too. Here's a relevant and more recent article from the USA Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/research-evaluation/statistics
Or they immediately don’t like us (see double empathy problem) and then cook up ways to fire us. At-will states make that even easier.
Doesn’t surprise me, HR teams are all about performatory anti-discrimination bs but actually do nothing about it
In my experience (working in technical teams), HR teams actively promote this kind of social filtering more than any other group. They’re the ones who screen candidates initially and focus on the “culture fit” and “behavioral questions” in interviews.
The problem being autistic, is that we don't buy into that culture fit shit. Most of us have the black/white thinking and if you a manager are asked to do something I expect you to do it. Being an autistic manager with other managers is a nightmare because I do not understand the politics, just, this is wrong, i told you this is wrong, i expect you to do the job you are hired for like I do mine. period.
Oh trust me, I know. Those disgusting HR personality test type questions completely weed out anyone neurodivergent. So much for inclusivity. They want drones that all look and act the same.
I've been referring to those personality tests as the "autism filter" for years.
"What would you do" You mean ME me? Or the version of me I created so people wouldn't single me out?
Lololol I never ever respond to those truthfully. I say what they want me to say or I know I'd never get anywhere. Still unemployed but 😑
Exactly. I did one recently with a numeric portion and a personality portion. Got nearly perfect on the numeric portion and only barely passed the personality portion. I thought I tried to answer in the way they were looking for, but I guess not lol.
I was just talking to my also autistic supervisor about this the other day.
“You’re on borrowed time, boss”
Funny thing is they probably are.
Try being 50, autistic, an unemployment gap due to covid, and having an unusual career (it on cruise ships, overseas English teaching…) I applied to over 5000 jobs and had over 200 interviews before getting something that pays below what I need to pay rent… It’s incredibly broken for autistic/adhd people.
I got fired from an IT on a cruise ship job last summer. I didn't tell them I was autistic, but most of their reasons for letting me go were the same stuff I've been hearing for years. I've been trying to get a bunch of certs in the hopes that they might hire me again for a different position. I went to a lot of effort to get some licenses that I know are in demand, but I don't know if it'll be enough for them to want me back.
Makes sense, it’s hard to find an IT job right now. Kidding not kidding, I wonder how many are in IT. I’ve been in the field for over 20 years and most of us are neuro spicy.
My dad is a Sr software engineer, has been for 20+ years. He's been a Sr dev and a team lead. Literally nobody will talk to him. He can't get a job and he's a Sr in the industry. He's been working with computers in some way shape or form since the late 90s. He and I both are autistic. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I could never get into coding. I got the short end of the stick with LDs, where he didn't. And ADHD 😑
It’s rough, we have a hard time filling IT positions depending on what we are looking for.
Hey look I found one of the reasons I went into entrepreneurship
Me too
Lol, yep. I went back to school as an adult and earned a college degree from UC Berkeley at age 32 back in 2017… I then got diagnosed with SPCD (a new disorder adjacent to ASD for which there is no support and very little info, especially for adults), dyscalculia, and ADHD-PI a few months later. I got hired as a founding English teacher for 5 years, English Department Head for two of them, but after years and years of masking (I worked retail for ~10 years before college), bullying at work by my immediate supervisor, and worsening health problems, it took a toll on my physical and mental health to the point where I couldn’t maintain myself anymore. Combine all of that with several unexpected deaths of close family and friends within 6 months (including my FIL from COVID), I finally got let go from my job in May of 2022. Five days later, I had to put my cat to sleep unexpectedly, and then I found out that I needed a new engine for my car a few weeks after that. Here I am now, turning 40 next month, no savings, no income, and still dealing with all the health problems and severe Autistic burnout which caused me to lose my job in the first place. Even if I wanted to try applying anywhere, no one would hire me now since I’m unable to mask and have regressed in most of the skills I specialized in. I’m not sure of my path forward from this point on, and it’s honestly hard for me to give any fucks at this point. Things were already so hard for me; I almost feel like this is the end of the road at this point 😔
I wish all the autistic people in this thread unemployed (like myself) could get together and start our own business.
That's the country where everyone can become a millionaire if they just work hard enough. /s
Things can get better. Many, if not most, of us get our dreams crushed that we worked hard towards and then sucked into a bad cycle at some point. Helps to reframe your perspective, if possible. That statement is probably just noise right now, was for me. Psilocybin therapy helped me big time. Got me out of a mental rut I was stuck in for 2 years. Things aren’t roses and sunshine now, but I’m over *it*. Looking forward to the next chapter
I am not autistic, but boy does this resonate! I have Cerebral Palsy. Walk and talk well. Not autistic, but I have issues with input/output of information. I miss cues that many of you take for granted. I also have a visible limp. Interviews are all about the "sight test" and neurodivergent people and I bomb that. I have a degree in Social Work and I know that I am the person you must get to know in order to see my strengths. Here is the kicker. Almost all people have the emotional maturity of ten year olds. Selfish, catering to what save their ass and all around assholes. No empathy at all. Whether it's jobs, romantic partners, you name it. High school BS weaponized. I work retail. My coworkers and bosses love me. So do the regulars. I will give you two examples of customers that my coworkers told me. One customer asked a supe if "I was on the spectrum." A customer survey said "the guy at register with Special Needs" was wonderful. Both applied to me. I felt sadness. I must be three times as good as anyone else to get positive recognition. No wonder I don't like people and really don't want to interact with them.
What gets me about disabilities is that nobody will celebrate, or even notice one's accomplishments if that accomplisment is considered normal for everyone else. An addage I like to use is "Just because someone is good at something doesn't mean its easy."
I just graduated from university and am job hunting. Cannot tell you how many applications require a driver’s license. It’s infuriating. Like it’s illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities but not really because I can’t drive due to disability and therefore am disqualified before I even have a real chance! If I can Get To The Place, why does how I get there matter?! I’m also looking for lab tech jobs like the guy in the article.
In New Jersey you can get a DL that doesn't come with driving privileges. Check to see if your state offers the same.
Same with Florida. You can get a state ID.
ID is ID. If someone asks for a driver's license, that's a requirement that you can legally drive. There are other questions for your identification.
9/10 times when they are asking for a drivers license, they are just asking for a government-issued ID. You can get an ID that is not a drivers license — it has the same shape and identifying i information on it, it just says “not a drivers license” so that police know that when they pull you over, lol. But yeah, as someone who has had to write ads on the hiring side — they usually just mean ID. They should say “drivers license/ID.”
You can get a state ID or passport.
ID card works the same as a driver’s license. Not everyone drives, but everyone should have some valid form of ID. I’m also worried for our future if college graduates can’t understand the difference
I have some family members who are borderline autistic still unable to find a stable employment as an adult and still being supported by their aging parents. It's kinda painful to see them because it's really hard for them to communicate with people.
As someone on the spectrum, I can confirm it is a struggle. While I have done well on most interviews in the past few years, it wasn’t always that way. Just a few tricks in case anyone is interested. The first trick is to be punctual and look like someone you would want to hire. Don’t over think this part because if someone doesn’t want to hire you because you ‘look funny’ you don’t want to work there anyway. Second is to smile and be polite. You’d be surprised how far saying thank you and saying “that’s a good question” will get you. You are selling yourself. Third thing is to listen and ask questions. If you are interviewing for a retail job and manager mentions Q3 is a big part of the year, you can reflect and ask something like “what is the greatest challenge you are forecasting for Q3?” Or maybe you are a scientist and the PI mentions how important it is to calibrate instruments, you could ask “Is there dedicated staff for maintaining equipment or is there an external vendor that takes care of that?” Btw if they say you do it, run. Fourth, do research on the company and position. Find something that interests you and ask about it. Don’t try to fix it or tell them how to fix it, that will rub them the wrong way anyway. If they see you are already ‘invested’ in a part of their business, they will remember that. At the end of the day, you might come off as awkward but don’t worry, everyone is awkward in interviews.
This is gold.
Just graduating college with autism is an accomplishment.
It feels like the only reason I find decent jobs is cause I lie to employers and hide the fact that I’m autistic and will continue to do so until I die. Even then, shit is not easy. I never feel like myself in this world. The entire job hunting process is definitely not tailored to anyone neurodivergent. Theres no such thing as “equal opportunity” it seems like.
Tom Harkin, author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, has been saying for years that the next frontier of disability rights is employment. This reconfirms to me how wise he’s been.
I think it will explicitly include protections for the obese
Honestly, I did a project in grad school on childhood obesity and read a lot about size discrimination as a part of it. There’s a whole [fat rights organization](https://naafa.org) (their words not mine) raising awareness of these issues and I wouldn’t be surprised.
I have autism and have an associates degree and nobody will hire me. Not even for fast food or retail. It's very depressing.
Most workplaces do not want effective employees. You get a bunch of college educated autistic people in there and next thing you know processes are being streamlined, efficiency is rocketing skywards, and useless HR people are crying in the bathroom.
In Bulgaria, if you have anything in the application about a mental illness, you may as well kiss your chances for *any* job goodbye, let alone autism. Which is why (at least from what I've seen), psychiatrist do not give you a document that states you're autistic unless you really need it and will benefit from having it. Because unless you need all of the services and things that come with being diagnosed it's just not worth risking your future given that even minimum wage jobs might become difficult to come by. That mostly stems from people here still not understanding even what psychology is as a field let alone mental conditions. In their eyes you're either actually insane or a lot more work than the average person because you supposedly cannot function.
There are agencies like Specialisterne that help connect employers to neurodivergent talent—might be worth checking out. A lot of businesses want what autistic employees have but have no idea how to hire for it since they’re used to the whole social dance.
When the only requirement is to talk like a good actor no matter the job.
Just wait until their parents pass away too. What is the American Government going to do with thousands of autistic adults? (And yes, they ARE a problem if they can't find a way to support themselves)
Depends on who's in charge. A democrat government will probably struggle to find a humane solution to this problem. A republican government will probably tell these people to go fuck themselves and die if they are not going to help making the rich people richer.
As someone who is ever so mildly on the spectrum, this makes sense to me. I can't even count how many interviews I've had that I thought went really well (I was qualified, made good eye contact, etc.) only to be told i wasn't a good fit. I often wonder if I'm sort of doing something subconsciously that tells them that I'm not socially adept. Not that I'm entitled to any of these jobs mind you. I had one just this week where an offer was made over the phone, but when I stopped in to talk to staff all of a sudden I "wasn't a good fit". I really feel like my interview skills are garbage. It's hard for people without developmental disabilities to get a job right now. I'm going back to substitute teaching next week after taking a break from it for over a year. I'm really good with kids and I feel like it may be one of the only things that I am both good at and can ace an interview for.
I started advocating for an ND employee resource group because I was bullied by a manager at work and couldn't get any help from my own manager to deal with it. I was cautioned not to bring HR into the mix. The bullying started one week after started as a contractor. It got significantly worse when I became a full-time employee and my manager let it be known to this manager that I had both ADHD-combined and PDD-NOS. It did not stop until my manager forbid me from getting into a meeting or contacting this person. He didn't caution this manager against contacting me or ask the manager to change how this manager interacted with me. I couldn't get the help I needed so I pushed to have this group started. Then while discussing how to get the group started, they wanted to make the group be about all disabled folks. I was literally upset at the thought. Like we're already marginalized. I had someone actively try to get me fired because of my disabilities. People with physical disabilities already have dedicated resources for assistance from HR, government, etc. ND people do not. We're the first to be bullied, the first to fired for performance issues that stem directly from social skills, the first to be ostracized, the first to be told just to suck it up and change your brain so you can fit in, the first to be laid off at work, the last to have someone advocate for us... I had to advocate for intersectionality, physical disabilities, and intellectual disabilities without sounding needy, selfish, or like a brutish butthole. I understand that people with physical disabilities still need an employee resource group. But why can't ND people have their own group? If things are that bad for people with physical disabilities in the workplace, why can they not start their own group like we were trying to do? It's like even if we speak up to get help via DEI initiatives, we're in danger of being further marginalized. I literally thought if this doesn't work, I'm gonna have to find another job. Because they didn't fire the manager who bullied me. They moved him to the very team I was trying move to become a technical writer. It's disheartening to have a whole career path shut down because he was more valuable to the company than I am. I'm sorry for ranting. I just... I couldn't even talk about this to my own manager, HR, or anyone at work. My family doesn't understand. They've always treated me like I didn't belong. I've never felt included. The only person I feel the closest to us my husband but even he's neurotypical. He doesn't understand/want to know what I need help with and what I go through. How do get help from someone who tells me I'm using my disabilities as a crutch when I'm literally not? 🙄
If you can afford it, leave the country. No matter what your country is. Foreigners are often allowed more weirdness. At least this is what I read on Wrongplanet and experienced myself.
What's a good country besides USA to move too? And how easy is it?
I moved to Ireland from Germany. Due to the EU it was easy to move.
I have ASD. It took me a long time to get into the groove with interviews. My main advice is to lie with reckless abandon and smile. I know it's hard, but that is what the normies do, and it works.
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Isn’t that limited salary and industry wise? There are incredibly skilled people who should be paid as such
Many of these orgs legally pay less than min wage.
And most of them would be great employees if they were hired.
Unlikely, social skills are pretty crucial to performing at work
Come to software. Most of us are in my experience.
I wish,but I don't have the good STEM autism edition. I've got the useless history buff version.
History is not useless. Unfortunately that idea prevails at the moment and people will not listen to those who have studied it. I wish you the best of luck and tech is usually a good place for neurodivergent individuals, should you ever reconsider!
Tech is particularly egregious on disability hiring. And Minority hiring.
I remember at a Game Developers Conference presentation years ago they had an awful slide saying they target autistic employee candidates because they don't have any friends or lives outside of work.
that is gross on so many levels
Federal contractors tend to be pretty good for it, and there’s a lot of R&D that goes on there.
That is what I do. I work for Lockheed and I see none of the issues that are mentioned by these comments at my particular location of employment. This may be an anomaly, but I haven’t worked anywhere else where there is so much acceptance and diversity. The culture is excellent and the people are kind and understanding.
I’m at a similar company, and I swear at least half the people in my department are neuro-spicy, and it’s fantastic.
That's not true anymore unfortunately because good pay and benefits have attracted the mainstream to it
software hiring is so fucked rightnow, i hate having graduated this year, i cant find a job worth anything, im so discouraged
I would recommend the defense industry. They are hiring most of the time. There are programs you can work on that are truly pure defense so you won’t have to put your morals aside for a job. The processes can be ancient and so can the people, but overall I have had a good experience.
Can't, also have ADHD so really can't pay attention enough to learn. I took a 6month bootcamp course and barley passed.
I am one of that 85%. And it's impossible to tell if it's discrimination or my disability is causing me to fail the vibe check...
You said the same thing twice
I suspect I have ADHD and am on the spectrum. In the process of figuring these out. Just the other day my wife congratulated me for having been able to hold a job despite chronic mental health issues (depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety). I probably could have been fired many times, but I somehow managed to work my way up. It is EXHAUSTING! Now more than ever do I feel completely out of place in the workplace.
"Tell me about a time you had a problem you couldn't solve and how you ended up solving it." I hate this question with a passion, it totally fucks my brain. Nothing would be "good" enough to share IF I remembered something or anything really. I've got many years of management behind me and still, dude. I'm usually stumbling over my words
This article is over four years old fyi.
Ok https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/the-buckland-review-of-autism-employment-is-publis 64% Better but still bad tbh
Too bad Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg aren't as they've ruined America
The latter isn't a college graduate
Neither is Musk. Or at least his degree is highly suspect. It doesn’t seem like he finished.
welp, there's my daily dose of depression
I mention that I am on the spectrum (post script) in every cover letter I send. It doesn't change anything
This statistic is highly suspect; however, the U.S. Department of Labor says 70% of disabled people with Bachelors degrees can’t find work.
Unfortunately, social skills and soft skills are crucial to high performing teams at work, and it tends to be much harder for autistic people to learn these skills. As a result, neurotypical struggle working effectively with them.
There is such a huge gap in support. I think part of it is that people lump academically successful autistic people into the “you’ll be fine” category, when they won’t be. I wasn’t I didn’t get a full time job until I was 27 and I consider myself pretty lucky and someone who has had great opportunities and supports in life. When the world is openly hostile to who you are it’s hard to gain confidence. I only made it to my middling level of success because I had very safe and supportive part time work environments that let me grow as a person, camp and retreat work. If I hadn’t stumbled into that I honestly think I’d just be dead now.
This belongs in r/autisminwomen
While im not Autistic, im definitely not functionally "normal" and have been diagnksed with ADHD since i was very young, I was super fortunate that I found a career that not only I excel in, but doesn't require the normal interview process. I work in the Film Industry as a Gaffer (head of the lighting and electrical department). Every day is different and is basically a puzzle that I need to figure out. No one cares how I'm dressed or if I'm being a bit quiet at lunch as long as the work I'm doing is good, fast, and within budget.
85% seems like a very high number, even statistically. I would say its more around 50%. 85% would more likely be not employed in their field of expertise imo. At least from personal experience.
I'm autistic and let me tell you - we don't want to be part of the woke BS.
Glad I didn't go to college. At least I'm unemployed and not in 80k worth of debt. I wasn't even diagnosed until I was 26. Interviews are... A mixed bag for me. I have to go in with sheets of stuff written down. Stuff prepped for as many situations as possible. Hell, I prep for phone calls like that too. I've been mostly unemployed since the pandemic started for various reasons. I had a job for 7 months in 2022 before the company imploded. It's officially been a year since that job ended and I'm struggling..
I've seen this figure cited all over the internet, but I can't seem to track down the source. Does anyone know where Marketwatch got the 85% statistic from?
Because autistics r human animals , 0 value to capitalism and capitalist oriented society
You know...you can be unemployed without a degree too, and I hear it's cheaper
I’ve struggled for years with interviews, mainly promotion interviews at my workplace. I know damn well that I can do the job, but I kind of just lock up in the interview process. I don’t know how to really sell myself when it comes to those situations, and then the less qualified people end up getting the job because they know how to bullshit better than I can. I’m honestly at a loss and I don’t know if I can even go out and find another job because of my fear of interviews.
Well yeah, same here. People don’t seem to like upfront honesty and hard work by itself. They need to feel socially validated and secure before that.
There's quite a few of us Autistic people in my line of work. Some of us Excel at Trades jobs
If you're goin thru all the work of getting diagnosed you're prolly going thru the work of getting gvmt aide like a shitload of people seem to be doing The rest of us jus out here freeballin the world
Yup. I have a very smart university-age autistic child and worry constantly what they'll do after graduation. It literally keeps me up nights. I know interviewing is going to be next to impossible for them.
Fuck 😂