Is getting a job a real struggle for ASD folk

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My daughter was diagnosed when this was called aspergers, but she struggles even more with social anxiety so is really unemployable at the moment. She hasn't really even had a job, only the rare work experience sourced by a disability employment agency. She has no real talent as people infer because of being aspergers. This peeves me that people try to put autism in boxes. 'Oh, she must be really brainy' how thick can people be?

Kind of giving up hope that she will get a job. No one is giving her the opportunity. She goes recruiting with the disability employment officers.

Thanks for reading

What does she like to do? What’s she interested in?

Would it be possible for her to get training in something she enjoys?

You are in the right place.

How much capital do you have?

My sister has struggled with getting a job because no one will give her a chance. She has applied for jobs and talked to managers at several grocery stores in town. They will either lie about not hiring or they will say that they will call her, but they never do. People take one good look at her and quickly decide not to give her a chance. She talks weird like I do and she wears boy clothes and has short hair. It's very tough to get a job when you are on the spectrum because people are too quick to pass judgement on us and networking is really hard when you struggle with making friends. My sister can't get of her "friends" to help her get a job at one of the grocery stores she applied to and two of her "friends" work at that store.

Your sister's friends suck. Wish I could tell them that.

How about getting her own gig? Starting a business or something. That's effectively what I did when started day trading. I love day trading because I don't need anyone anyone's approval. Sure I trade with other people, but I never see them. I don't have to worry about eye contact, or the tone of voice I have, nailing a job interview, or even whether I ware clothes or not. I could be naked, no one would care. I just turn on my laptop and away I go.

Unfortunately, getting into day trading requires a lot of starting capital, but that doesn't mean she couldn't start some other business that's cheaper to get going.

In general, yes. But, it depends on one's functioning level.

When I was at my worst, getting a job was next to impossible.

Now? I turn down job offers all the time.

I'm currently waiting for a large scale contract to start up so I can be dispatched out to continue with my apprenticeship, but not interested in waiting to make more money.. so I've been working the last couple weekends & literally just now sent a FB messenger message to an acquaintance that manages a temp agency & am arranging additional stop-gap work for Monday morning just to make extra cash to blow on one hell of a party on Pride weekend next month. Time to kick things into 7 day a week mode so I can party & pay for motorcycle riding lessons and stuff like that w/o going backwards in the ol' bank achount.

So, there is no one size fits all answer for all autistic people. It depends on your functioning level, education, skill set, physical capabilities etc as well as outside factors like your local job market. I function extremely highly, have a business school education, have other employable skills, am physically fit & capable of working, and live in a bizarre part of the world where life is EXORBITANTLY expensive And jobs pay very little so people are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship and MANY jobs are going unfilled, soooo, if you have a pulse you can get a job doing something.

Yes it is.In fact 85% to 90% of AS/ASD people are unemployed .I'm the lucky 10 to 15% of AS/ASD people that is able to get job and lucky to have a high paying job,tho I'm thinking about living as a hermit.

I would say that there could be difficulties. For one thing, in the worlds of employment and of intimate relationships, there are no rules against discrimination and prejudice.

For another thing, if someone has been subjected to the abuses of being told that they suffer from ~Asperger's~ ~Autism~ or this ~Neurological Difference~ then they have been trained to be a doormat.

So they won't have gotten much chance to do things which show off their greatness. They will believe that they have earned the bad treatment.

I think we have to get beyond disability and difference labels, move from pity seeking to redress taking, and start building our own institutions.

Thanks for answering. My daughter loves chocolate not making but eating it. She does portion control but today is world chocolate day sooo... She has high social anxiety and rarely will speak in public, only if someone asks her something, but her conversations are really short with that. She loves everything 'Supernatural' the tv series, discovered them on Netflix. She likes reading and a bit of cooking. The disability employment agency are trying to get her work or work experience with data entry, filing and scanning. Repetitive work, that wont cause a great need to talking or conversation.

Sources please.

Were there certain subjects she was good at or enjoyed in school?

I would suggest something involving cooking or baking but many of those jobs can be pretty stressful. Sometimes I wish I would’ve went to culinary school to be a baker. Then I could be around chocolate all the time!

She could start out in a data entry position to see how she likes it and go from there.

How old is your daughter?
How much does she need to earn?
Is this about the money or about you/her wanting her to have more of a life, or both?
Do you have any money to invest in your daughter?

It's a good idea to have a think about what you want for your daughter, what does she want to do?. Do you want her to earn enough to live independently of you or do you want her to have the healthiest mental state that she can? If she ends up with a job and it takes all her energy to cope with it then she won't have a life, just a job that stresses her out.

Chocolate=data entry or did the disability agent go Asperger/autism=data entry

I'm not saying she shouldn't try it though, sometimes you don't know what will suit till you give it a go, I've had 26 different jobs. Would she have to stick it out if it was too much for her?

Yeah. The more I’ve thought about this the more I’m thinking about some culinary training and a career as a baker.

It’s hard to say, though, because I’m not quite sure how high functioning she is.

Finding a job that I liked was difficult.

I did office work, but felt like a drone and it was depressing - I think that was due to having to proofread obituaries though.

Retail is hell. I was able to manage a couple hours shift before, but recently did retail at a store where they had 7 hour shifts - on the third day I had a meltdown due to all of the stress about five minutes after I got out.

I worked as a delivery driver for a chemical company for a summer and I loved that job. The open road calms me and there was little interaction with customers.

I've found that freelancing work is best. I'm my own boss, I have my own hours. Just the difficulty is getting the right amount of work and sometimes my concentration. But, it has been the best job I've had.

I'd say freelancing or managing your own business would be best.