Meeting and Preempting Challenges — Jobs to Avoid
Yes, I know: the struggles are real. After all, I’ve been there. Like others on the “autism spectrum”, I too, struggled for years to find a full-time job that took advantage of my skills and talents.
We on the autism spectrum are very good at doing lots of jobs (not all, but lots). Our downside is that our social skills are sometimes lacking. We don’t pick up on non-verbal cues. That makes interactions with potential co-workers awkward if not alienating. That even assumes you’re lucky enough to pass the job interview process and are offered such a job in the first place.
The best path for those of us “on the spectrum” to maximize our productivity boils down to acquiring the right kind of marketable skills that play to our strengths. Below is the beginning stage of guidance to ensure you won’t be out in the cold when it comes to finding a job that pays well and that allows for you to maximize your contributions to society.
Acknowledge your limitations.
There are many talents that those of us “on the spectrum” possess. Moreover, together, we offer a wealth of knowledge more massive and fantastic than that of any other group out there. But all that means nothing without having a decent job. To do that, you need to build up the skills necessary to land certain jobs.
But first you need to acknowledge your limitations by understanding what you cannot do. By so doing, it will not mean that you are a failure. Far from it. Instead, it will help you focus on your career choices so you can concentrate your energy on what is truly viable.
Many jobs sound great in theory. Far fewer work for us in practice. Let us first acknowledge what we cannot do.
- We already acknowledged the inability to pick up on nonverbal cues.
- Social awkwardness – misinterpreting the meaning of interactions with peers
- (This is the big one!) Information overload.
- Unable to process lots of information all at once
- Auditory processing problems
- Limited short-term memory
With these limitations in mind, here are some jobs for those of us on the autism spectrum to avoid. The limitation code references the list above. For example, “3” is general information overload; “6” is limited short-term memory.
- Cashier – (2; 3) making change quickly is too taxing on short-term memory. I made this mistake while stuck knocking around. It left me temporarily questioning my efficacy as an employee. The other reason is, you’re susceptible to dealing with potentially angry customers. Avoid it all costs.
- Casino dealer – (3) sounds like fun in theory, especially if you are a “Yellow” personality, according to Dr. Taylor Hartman’s “Color Code”. But those of us “on the spectrum” should avoid it – too many things to keep track of.
- Airline ticket agent – (2) dealing with angry customers pushed off flights or who have cancelled flights
- Receptionist and telephone operator – (3 overall) you’re in trouble once things get busy.
- Taxi dispatcher – (3; 5) again, like the casino dealer, too many things to keep track of.
- Short-order cook – (3; 6) again, too many things to keep track of (seeing a pattern yet?). In addition, too many things to do at the same time (4), as well as auditory processing problems (5).
- Waiter/waitress – (2; 3; 5; 6) almost impossible if you have to keep track of multiple tables; also there’s the risk of dealing with angry customers.
- Taking oral dictation – (3; 5) auditory processing problems make this unduly hard.
Okay, most of these are “grunt” or near-grunt jobs anyhow (notwithstanding taxi dispatcher). But what about jobs that require some higher levels of skill? Here are a couple to avoid:
- Air traffic controller – (3) yes, this is an in-demand job, and can pay six figures. Sounds great, right? Sadly, not for those of us “on the spectrum”. For one, it’s very stressful, and for another, there is severe information overload.
- Futures market trader – (3) too many contingencies and “what ifs” to keep track of, hence, totally impossible.
Notice that most of these jobs to avoid are in the service sector. That’s not to say that you should avoid working in the service sector – far from it, in fact. But you should avoid the front-line operations jobs within the sector. They’re simply not for us, and frankly, that’s for the better. To folks of our temperament, those jobs suck anyhow. Again, been there. Our strength is in jobs that are behind the front-lines, often in support roles, be they engineering, computers/IT, and in accounting. There are others as well, such as a number of technician and “trade” jobs. We’ll explore all of these and more in subsequent articles. But for now, know your limitations, and use them as a tool to focus your search on what will play to your strengths. This is the start of how we can all learn and grow together.