VR success stories?

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I hope Henry sleeps well.

Well the first day he must have shocked himself because he wasn't happy when I got home. But he must have figured it out because he's been fine since.

That meeting for WAT did not go well, I feel like I was lied to, now I am questioning the entire thing.

I'm sorry to hear that. What does WAT stand for?

Work adjustment training, basically I was suppose to get paid but I am not. My VR counselor either lied or made a terrible oversight but she told me I would be getting paid on numerous occasions. I'm not even sure what I want to do right now, I enjoy working with my instructor and if I didn't I would of quit right now. I'm going to call my counselor on Monday and if I don't like her response I am going to ask for someone else. It all makes me sick to my stomach, feel like I've been just strung a long purposely for months.

Well today I got a call from the director of a job placement agency he hinted he may have a job that could be "right for me" tho he kinda skirted around the issue when I asked him what type of job he gave me the basics so I did some research and found that it involves working in a warehouse stuffing news papers where I'd have to be constantly on my feed dealing with loud noises and dust from newspapers for just a dollar above min wage.... I'm not saying yes or no at this time but if this is the best they can do I may just walk.

I know this sucks....but you have to establish some sort of job history in order to attain full independence. Don't totally walk away.

Hey Gang,
OK just got off the phone with the director of the "job placement" agency,

He was very political in his choice of words he was trying to push me to take online courses for the subjects I am learning in college (however I have already tried that and it didn't work out for me) tho I did explain that I had already explored ALL aspects relating to my education and found that the best environment would be for me to be IN the class room rather then taking online courses and again he tried to dove tail around that by saying that online courses would be my best bet. The reason for that is because the job he "searched" for is an over night job 11pm-6am which I don't think I'd be able to do this job AND attend classes....and honestly for 8.50/hr for a warehouse job it's not worth it to me to sacrifice my education.

I have found out that the job he had "searched" for me was indeed the same job that I found last night by just doing a simple Google search more then likely he used key words to find the job listing, I kinda had a feeling when I met this person that smoke was being blown in my face..."Oh wow your a sharp person you appear to be highly educated & highly motivated, we can work around what you lack, I don't think we'd have an issue getting the type of job [i]you'd like to get[/i]" which is one of the reasons I have a hard time believing/trusting people I've heard these lines before I guess that's why I'm a little jaded and/or have cynicism towards people.

So I have a face to face meeting with this person this afternoon at a local library to talk more about this job as well as other (non) paying jobs and to see what (re)direction we'd need to take....So in other words to go through the motions.....

I truly wonder if I didn't have Autism if I'd be having the issues that I am having right now.

kraftiekortie,

I do have a resume full of job history which includes office exp as well as warehouse consumer retail etc. It's not like I haven't worked before, at this point in my life I don't want to do retail or warehouse job with little to no pay, benefits/job security.

I get you, Joel.

Do you have lots of RECENT experience?

If not, I might consider saying you had to take care of your father/mother for a while to account for the gaps.

You have to get lots of RECENT job experience under your belt. You really do, my friend.

yea I know all about the sick father/mother speech. Recent exp goes back to 2010? so there's been a gap but that gap shouldn't be a predetermine to the types of meaningful jobs that I would like to get at this point I'm willing to write off the whole broadcast thing (for now) it was a nice delusional thought that perhaps there was a small glimmer of hope I'm more then willing to work in an office answering phones run copies draft up letters things of that nature. Will that happen I dunno I don't want retail or warehousing I dunno why that's hard for these " placement specialists" to understand? I get the feeling that it's a game toss an Autistic any job and he'll take it because he doesn't know any better.
WARNING: long back story to follow.
When I was in middle school/HS they had us doing the most remedial self serving boring BS job within the community strictly because the class had ID issues (which I really didn't an issue with but people didn't know I had Autism at the it was just hinted) hell when I mainstreamed in HS they had me placed in a community skills group and they'd go to Motorola and instead of helping the IT guys or developers with anything they shoved us in a cafeteria and told us to wipe tables and vacuum the floors. one day I actually was taking to one of the tech eng whom was working on a cell phone line I walked up to him and started to ask questions because what he was doing sparked an interest he was more then willing to talk with me my teacher found out and YANKED me away from the person and scolded me by saying you are NOT to talk with those people I asked why I'm very interested in what HE is doing and the teacher kinda scoffed and blew it off by saying your in special ed for a reason it's not like your going to get THAT type of job now back to what you were doing (washing tables) now x years later I'm finding out that perhaps remedial jobs are best suited for high functioning Autistics like me maybe it is just a stereotype that (High functioning) Autistics can function in a office/computer environment.....

Right now this lyric is sitting in my head.
"Some days I have to give right in to the blues Despite how I try to keep fightin' It's a sure shot I'm going to lose/When troubles want to find me, I ain't hard to find They know where I am Like a hungry pack of wolves when it's feeding time They tear up a man"

I'm pressing on not giving up hey I still have an education in front of at least some progress that can't be argued with

You do have spirit----I think that's a virtue.

I can dig that you were pissed off when those idiots pulled you away from talking to that guy about electronic things. They didn't know you too well. I would use that as an inspiration to prove those idiots wrong.

There such thing as "useful" anger. Use it for something constructive.

"Non-constructive" anger only results in more failure. You see that all the time in people who have been oppressed by life in some way.

The anger is justified--but to let it rule you is useless.

2010 is a long time ago from the viewpoint of job interviewers. If it were two years--then maybe. But five years is too long. You have to account for that long a gap.

The voice of reason thanks kraftiekortie

I'll let you guys know how this meeting went.

Hey Gang,

Sorry for the delay I just wanted to post an update in regards to yesterday's meeting some of the topics that were touched on was education skill set and making eye contact/hand gestures (both of which I have issues with) as I don't really look at the person whom I am talking to and I tend to sit with my hands folded while I talk I don't "emote much" with my hands

As for the education aspect there's two routes 1: that I complete the courses I'm currently taken (slated to graduate in the fall/winter of this year) or 2: take "another route" which I think defeats the purpose of me taking these classes

Also the job placement person mentioned that the college that I go to should provide a tutor due to my various LDs and was kinda shocked at the minimum accommodations that were offered to me so he'll reach out to some people on my behalf to see what if anything can be done.

I've got a call to make later this week to a contact I made at a local TV station to see if there's any entry level jobs that he knows of that could help me get my foot into the door. So we'll see how that goes I'm not holding out much hopeI'm just going to continue on with what I am currently doing and hopefully soon I'll hit the lotto.

Good grief. Wether you get paid or not is kinda important. At least the instructor is helpful.


Sometimes the meaning comes out of just doing something. "Meaningful" is vague and illusory. And often meaning is found in unexpected places. However, there are some environments that are conducive to failure. I couldn't handle the warehouse environment either.

I worked in a warehouse a couple of times. I wasn't exactly a social butterfly.

I just did my job (even though I was weird enough to play baseball with rubber bands on my breaks).

Just doing the job makes the time go fast.

I hate to admit it, but I am finding this course to actually be affecting me in a positive way. It is making me reflect on some bad habits.