Best non-degree level Jobs for Aspies.

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While it means some learning you can get a job programming or at least show enough technical skills that the hiring managers will overlook the lack of degree for QA.

Various websites have great tutorials that get you started. W3Schools has a number of on-line lessons for web technologies and those combined with starter pages at Open Designs can get you started on making web pages for people. Your first few (or several) will be freebies to sharpen skills, get your work out there and create reference sites.

In another vein Microsoft has developed dozens of tutorials around their C#/Net platform (search for "msdn silverlight tutorials" as an example) and Java tutorials abound on the web. Going through those and then working with an Open Source project (Codeplex, Sourceforge, Google Projects and Github are a few site to look for things that interest you) to gain experience again provide samples for potential employers. I often send my samples with my resume and it gets me noticed.

This is not a right away thing, it will take some time to build up your chops and portfolio but it can make a huge impact. After a couple of years you may find yourself specializing in a niche that can be quite lucrative. Also it can feed into an obsession well; a piece of software centered on an obsession may be in high demand.

I hope this helps. In the end the results you show will carry great weight. A degree implies that you will bring results; results show that you bring results.

I chose the trades. I am a journeyman tree trimmer, which is a 2 year apprenticeship here. You need a high school diploma, and proof of an algebra class to qualify. Not too much need for social skills on the job, and if you need to talk to someone it's usually about the work. I was a tree climber/arborist before that, and there are no qualifications to get started. Job hopping made me more skilled because I learned different skills at each employer. It was fairly easy to find side jobs for extra money, or choose to be self employed.

Ugh. Jobs.

I love working but I'm sick of going through "the process"--- application after application, interviews, rejection..... Generally I know I've been written off in the first 20 seconds of an interview when they look at me, then my application, and state "you're HOW old?" My youthful appearance does me in repeatedly I am assuming. I know I don't interview well as I tend to blurt out answers to the questions too fast at times, and I HATE it when they ask what I enjoy doing. I have a really difficult time knowing when to stop. I know that many probably assume I am on stimulants as I have had repeated experience (not in interviews) when people ask if I'm on drugs. ("no, but I probably SHOULD be...."). It doesn't help that I can't help but coming across as a know-it-all, either. Unfortunately the only temp agency where I'm at now is specific to manual day labor-- and having a debilitating back injury, I'm really not able to overly exert myself as I used to.

A previous post stated something about being a luthier-- I love playing music, love woodworking too, and I'm skilled with electronics-- all the aspects for that, but I haven't a clue as to how to pursue this. Any suggestions/ideas?

My Aspie partner has been a self employed dog walker for 3 years now. It does seem a perfect job for him. He gets to drive his car to pick up the dogs... he loves driving /cars. A lot of the clients are out at work, so rarely needs to speak that often to clients. After the initial consultation with clients he encourages contact by SMS, which most clients seem to prefer espically if they are at work themselves. Recently he had a client that got very angry with him and shouted at him for "bad communication". I wasn't around when this happened and have discussed what happened with my partner - he doesn't understand fully why she was angry with him and anyway does not want to have to speak to her again. I supported him in his decision to terminate the business relationship with the client. He decided that this client caused him too much stress. So again this is a plus point.. as if you are self employed you can choose the clients you are happy to work with up to a point. I help my partner run his business - however you could also get this type of help from an accountant.

Dog walker would be great as I have a high affinity with animals. I worked at a rescue at one point (there's a VERY LONG story in regards to that too) and have even appeared on the Animal Planet series "Pit Boss". I have a suspended drivers license which makes doing this unreasonable. I am a really good trainer.....
I've tried doing the self-employed thing several times over, doing the things I do well and enjoy but my setback is always finances-- I need to purchase supplies/tools in order to perform my services. I need to work to pay for such items. Everything takes money, and no one is willing to help with financing these things. I've applied for loans even, but I'm always rejected. Due to the way things are, I don't even have a checking account. I owe 2 banks money-- one $25 (they want me to travel half way across the country to pay it in person... GRRRRR) and while I was only overdrawn by less than five dollars in my last account, I owe them almost two hundred bucks.
I've tried posting "dog walker" "dog trainer" "auto mechanic", "handyman", etc... ads on craigslist (online classifieds) but very rarely get responses. Even the ones I get my potential customers constantly try to get me to drop my (very reasonable) prices to practically free. It doesn't help that I am easily manipulated or persuaded to "do them a favor"... every time. For instance--- I'll quote a price of $15 plus parts for changing a full set of brakes and they try to con me into a $20 price including parts (and the parts run over $25...) There's terms used to describe such people which I won't repeat here.....

My partner too has a high affinity with animals. We have two dogs, 3 cats and a snake.... we would have more animals if it was just up to him. I created my partner a web site for his dog walking business... I have also worked over time to get it up google results for searches that include our local area. I think people are attracted to the fact there is a website and we publish his phone number on it.

National park ranger... Being out alone for several days, in a guard tower... Occasional hikers coming by.. perfect!

work at an oil refinery/pulp mill/mine.

If you know what you are doing, having a degree or not is less of an issue than it may appear. I'm passionate about programming and I understand it to or beyond degree level in some areas (only learn that which interests me). With this level of understanding I had no trouble finding my current job. Actually I consider a degree to be a waste of time/money with the wide availability of information these days. Though obviously that depends very much on what profession you're interested in.

The Internet makes it possible to turn pretty much anything into a source of income. You could start a website about the areas of politics you are interested in, for example.

My ideal job would be building custom computers, but the problem with that would be the customers. I have ZERO patience for stupid questions, and they ALL seem to be stupid questions....