2 answers
Alyce
Student
North Little Rock, Arkansas
2
Questions
Asked
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Why is the job market so complicated?
As I said before, I am a non-traditional autistic college student trying to land my first paying job. Please help. Thank you.
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2 answers
Jennifer Bloomquist- CIPP/US/E, CIPM
Risk Specialist for Privacy and Confidentiality Impact Accessments
11
Answers
Clarksville, Tennessee
Updated
Jennifer’s Answer
Alyce,
As someone who is ASD L1, I resonate deeply with your question. It can be tough to navigate, especially because the process of getting a job in most situations is a person to person set of interactions rather than a repeatable process in which there's a set way to achieve a desired outcome. Answering the same interview question with the same answer at two different companies can be interpreted by the interviewers two different ways. What one company values in an employee can be at odds with what another company's values. There can also be a broad range with different employers regarding how educated their leaders and employees are with bridging the communication differences between autistic and allistic thinking, communication, and outputs.
Keeping a landed job is also its own minefield with hidden dangers (and treasures) along the way. It's not the question you asked, so I won't stick with this topic other than to express empathy if that is part of the background behind your question.
My advice is to try for remote jobs if you feel that would be a good fit for you. It removes some of the elements that can be challenging with working on a team and seeming to the other members of the team that a neurodiverse person is valuable. An example is eye contact being different on Zoom calls since having multiple monitors and not looking directly in one specific spot is the norm.
One career choice or job choice that can be a good fit for many autistic people is contact center work, especially working in chat support or email support. Phone support can also work well, especially if one's mind likes the repetition of troubleshooting the same technologies all day. AI is changing a lot about the support model in contact centers because a customer speaking/interacting with a live person is more more expensive than self-service options.
There can be challenges with navigating tone with customers as well as unexpected scheduling changes to meet customer volume in queue, so it might depend on if your autism profile is spikey in those two areas on whether or not you would enjoy contact center work.
The strategy that has worked best for me in the interview phase is finding a part of the interview to interject a little bit about how I think. I explain that I'm a bottom-up thinker, seeing details before I work out the big picture. I'd guess that a large majority of the overall population don't know if they are top-down thinkers or bottom-up thinkers. Articulating how one thinks in interviews, I believe, can make a person stand out from other applicants in a good way because I'm guessing not a lot of people do it. Writing how how one thinks in 4 sentences or less before the interview is helpful because in real-time it can be tempting to over-explain and use up too much interview time on the topic.
The 4 sentence per topic guidance I have created for myself has also been helpful with almost every other interview topic because I go down rabbit holes if I don't check myself. I'm very spikey in the area of being tangential. If I haven't given the interviewer enough information in those 4 sentences on a given topic, they usually ask for more information, so I know I have permission to explain more in-depth.
I wish you all the best!
Jennifer
As someone who is ASD L1, I resonate deeply with your question. It can be tough to navigate, especially because the process of getting a job in most situations is a person to person set of interactions rather than a repeatable process in which there's a set way to achieve a desired outcome. Answering the same interview question with the same answer at two different companies can be interpreted by the interviewers two different ways. What one company values in an employee can be at odds with what another company's values. There can also be a broad range with different employers regarding how educated their leaders and employees are with bridging the communication differences between autistic and allistic thinking, communication, and outputs.
Keeping a landed job is also its own minefield with hidden dangers (and treasures) along the way. It's not the question you asked, so I won't stick with this topic other than to express empathy if that is part of the background behind your question.
My advice is to try for remote jobs if you feel that would be a good fit for you. It removes some of the elements that can be challenging with working on a team and seeming to the other members of the team that a neurodiverse person is valuable. An example is eye contact being different on Zoom calls since having multiple monitors and not looking directly in one specific spot is the norm.
One career choice or job choice that can be a good fit for many autistic people is contact center work, especially working in chat support or email support. Phone support can also work well, especially if one's mind likes the repetition of troubleshooting the same technologies all day. AI is changing a lot about the support model in contact centers because a customer speaking/interacting with a live person is more more expensive than self-service options.
There can be challenges with navigating tone with customers as well as unexpected scheduling changes to meet customer volume in queue, so it might depend on if your autism profile is spikey in those two areas on whether or not you would enjoy contact center work.
The strategy that has worked best for me in the interview phase is finding a part of the interview to interject a little bit about how I think. I explain that I'm a bottom-up thinker, seeing details before I work out the big picture. I'd guess that a large majority of the overall population don't know if they are top-down thinkers or bottom-up thinkers. Articulating how one thinks in interviews, I believe, can make a person stand out from other applicants in a good way because I'm guessing not a lot of people do it. Writing how how one thinks in 4 sentences or less before the interview is helpful because in real-time it can be tempting to over-explain and use up too much interview time on the topic.
The 4 sentence per topic guidance I have created for myself has also been helpful with almost every other interview topic because I go down rabbit holes if I don't check myself. I'm very spikey in the area of being tangential. If I haven't given the interviewer enough information in those 4 sentences on a given topic, they usually ask for more information, so I know I have permission to explain more in-depth.
I wish you all the best!
Jennifer
David Gustafson
VP, Global Support
11
Answers
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Updated
David’s Answer
There's a complicated answer to this with all of the details... and then there's a simple one with how to navigate it. I like to fully understand and comprehend things that impact my life, especially something as personal and impactful as your careers. I'm drawn to complex problems, but I often approach them with a healthy amount of skepticism and doubt. However, the job market is like dating and relationships in that it's simply a coupling of two entities with thousands of possible interests and needs and likely some imperfections and incompatibilities even if they do match. There's even a metaphor in how long the two entities want or need to match for.
Companies are trying to find competent, curious, and skilled employees who are also compatible with their interests in the company. The various boards and postings and interview cycles are nuanced and confusing and not as direct as really anyone wants. Wouldn't it be great if every job had a meet-cute moment. But no, it's a noisy process with a lot of uncertainty.
At the end of the day, you won't be able to conquer it by fully understanding it. I recommend embracing that and accepting it and still moving forward without understanding every detail. This is the simple part of how to navigate it. Accept that you will do your best, that you will represent your skills as best as you can, and that you will find the company that is well suited to you - or at least close enough to be happy and do good work. Make sure you are available and persistent about who you are and your values.
Companies are trying to find competent, curious, and skilled employees who are also compatible with their interests in the company. The various boards and postings and interview cycles are nuanced and confusing and not as direct as really anyone wants. Wouldn't it be great if every job had a meet-cute moment. But no, it's a noisy process with a lot of uncertainty.
At the end of the day, you won't be able to conquer it by fully understanding it. I recommend embracing that and accepting it and still moving forward without understanding every detail. This is the simple part of how to navigate it. Accept that you will do your best, that you will represent your skills as best as you can, and that you will find the company that is well suited to you - or at least close enough to be happy and do good work. Make sure you are available and persistent about who you are and your values.