Jobs for young adult Aspies

Post Reply New Topic

Hello everyone... I'm an adult with a young adult (21 year old) Aspie brother. Lately I've been a little concerned with his transition to adulthood... if you'd like you can read about it over in the Parenting section (I would post the link but the forum won't allow it yet, the title is "Is my mom holding my brother back?") I would love to hear from other people if they have anything to add!!

My mom has never encouraged my brother to get a job. I am afraid she thinks that he can't "handle it." He has volunteered at an elementary school before and he really enjoyed it, and he attended community college classes for 2 years without incident. He's a strange guy, but he's intelligent and while he isn't always the most appropriate or polite person, he does have social skills. I don't see any reason why he can't at least try to get a job, and if it doesn't work out, try something different.....

Before I talk to my mom about perhaps encouraging him to get a part-time job, I was looking to hear from others about what sort of jobs they got that worked for them. It seems to me like food service wouldn't be the best choice because of the really overstimulate environment, but that's all I ever did, so what else is there that you've done? I think my mom is really scared for him and wants to protect him so perhaps reading other people's experiences will help her to let go. Thank you in advance for reading this!!

I'm an accountant, near your brother's age. But growing up, I've worked in labs, as a tutor, house cleaning, handing out flyers in the city, and various other jobs. It sounds like landscaping could be a good choice if he doesn't want to deal with people, if he wants to deal with ppl but feels 'awkward', retail places will give you a script to read off of.

Yes, your mom is holding him back. But that's a disability issue in general - parents holding kids back. They need to let go and give the the 'nudge' to get jobs and the like.

I train dogs. I like it because its not all dealing with people. When I really do have to deal with them is when I am teaching them. But its not exactly convoration stuff its more just telling them what to do, which can be fun

One thing that might help your brother is that Social Security even has a ticket to work program, plus he could take advantage of vocational rehabilitation or organizations that specialize in helping adults with disabilities to find and keep jobs. Getting your brother to volunteer would also be a good idea, since sometimes a volunteer position ends up with being hired as a permanent employee.

I've seen what happens to adults with disabilities whose parents sheltered them so much, they had an extremely difficult time adjusting to adult life. These were people I knew growing up, and they're severely underemployed, and their parents pay their rent and other bills. I even have an uncle who will be on the streets when my grandma dies, as she paid his rent his entire adult life, and only stopped when she had him move in as a caretaker. The main reason this uncle was held back was that he has bipolar disorder and as a result of that illness was never able to keep a job long enough to earn Social Security or other retirement income. While I've had to cut off contact with this uncle for my own safety and sanity, I still think the situation is really sad as if my grandma hadn't enabled him the way she did, he would have had retirement to live on after she dies.