How I Avoided Unsuitable Job Roles

Join me on my latest episode, as I recount the start of my journey through the job market as an autistic individual. By focusing on my exceptional keyboard skills, I discovered roles like data entry where I not only thrived but also found a profound sense of fulfilment. This episode consists of personal insights and practical strategies to help you try and identify jobs that may suit your unique strengths, sidestepping the stress of positions demanding more in the way of social interaction.

Reflecting on what truly makes us excel, I encourage you to assess your own capabilities or those of someone who you may support. By doing this, I believe one can uncover their own paths to career success that are often overlooked. Share your stories and thoughts by texting my podcast, details of which you'll find in the episode's description on Buzzsprout. And don't miss out on future episodes—subscribe through the Stay in the Loop link at stephensevolution.com. In two weeks, I aim to tackle how to decode what I thought was vague language in job descriptions. Let's help to pave the way for a more inclusive and supportive work environment for everyone on the autism spectrum.

For more information on suitable job roles for those on the autism spectrum, see this earlier blog post of mine here.

Thanks for listening. You can find me on my website stephensevolution.com, or on twitter here. You can sign up to receive news of new episodes when they're released here.


Artwork produced by Elena Designe
Music composed by Nela Ruiz

Chapters

• 2:16 Why This Topic Matters to Me
• 5:03 Jobs I Considered Unsuitable & Why
• 9:03 Key Signs I Looked Out For
• 11:13 Identifying My Strengths
• 16:56 Leveraging Strengths for Career Success

Transcript

Introduction

Hi there, and welcome back to another episode of the Stephen's Evolution podcast. It is here where I share insights that are based on my lived experiences as an autistic individual. In this podcast I talk about a variety of topics, but this latest episode is going to be the first of five focussed on autism and the workplace.  Other topics that I’m passionate  about include education, and language and communication. And navigating the world of work can be seen as one of those crucial areas where these things can be relevant.

I hope these next five episodes are informative and help others in similar situations, who may support those on the autism spectrum, and those who are autistic themselves. I hope to offer a new perspective for anyone who may be interested in the challenges and solutions that autistic individuals can face in the job market. This particular episode is going to be all about what you can do, based on my lived experiences and knowledge and understanding, identifying and avoiding roles that may be unsuitable. So, let's get started.
 

Why This Topic Mattered to Me

Back in times gone by, trying to find a job where I could thrive without anxiety,
I saw, was very important on my part. As an autistic individual, what I had to do was try and identify some roles that simply wouldn't be suitable for me. These included jobs that particularly required more in terms of communication or interaction with other people. 

The aim for me would be to avoid roles that would require more in the way of social skills. What I would have to do is, focus on what my strengths were, what I was good at, and how they could allow me to put my energy into something that I would feel more confident about doing.  For example, jobs that would require more in terms of phone calls, or frequent customer interaction, I believed would be overwhelming for me. It would be the unpredictability in communication, which can be true, whenever one is dealing with different personalities. Some people might be irate on occasions, while others would be seen as more of a friendly nature, and others would be somewhere in between. So, you just never know what you might get.

The way I saw it was, such uncertainty would make it difficult for me to focus on a particular task I would be doing, and may easily become mentally exhausting. What I had to do was try and understand, and identify what roles would likely trigger anxiety. What my task was, it was to try and seek out, like identifying, positions that would allow me to focus more on my strengths, rather than struggling to meet the social demands of a job that wouldn't be suitable for me.


Jobs I Considered Unsuitable & Why 

And now I'm going to give you some examples from my own experiences. Early on, I already knew that jobs that would involve more in terms of social interaction with the general public, like sales, for instance, I would see as a no-go. Any role that would involve cold calling, or being persuasive on the phone, I just knew that such roles would be overwhelming for me.

Some examples here  would be like trying to sell kitchens, windows, anything to do with home improvements. I realised there was something about these kinds of high-pressure, unpredictable environments that I knew would be just simply too draining for me. In newspapers, and in job adverts, when I saw that some adverts emphasised good communication skills, good on the phone, good interpersonal skills, I would immediately decide such roles weren't for me. 

One obvious example I could think of that would be unsuitable for me would be a receptionist role. From previous observations, being out in places like leisure centres, I just knew constant interaction, and multitasking, like answering phone calls and constantly dealing with people walking in and out, would be mentally exhausting. 

Another one was accounting. Initially I thought such a role might be ideal for me since I was good with numbers. However, I very quickly realised it would be the stress of tight deadlines, long hours, and having to regularly advise clients. This would all feel like a recipe for burnout for me. There would be the extra pressures of regularly having to be up to date on relevant tax regulations, and knowing and understanding what to do in any particular situation. 

The legal profession I saw as another good example here.  While I never seriously considered becoming a lawyer, what I thought was, it would be the high pressure and fast-paced environments here, the need to meet client deadlines, and constantly advise them, and not to mention working long hours. All of this would seem like a nightmare to me, for me, anyway. 

A key takeaway for me that I realised and learned was to pay close attention to job titles. If I noticed words like customer, sales, or interpersonal skills,  I just knew straight away that roles with these words would likely involve more communication than I would be otherwise comfortable with.


Key Signs I Looked Out For

Phrases like good communication skills, or excellent interpersonal skills would be clear indicators that a particular job wasn't going to be right, as far as I was concerned. Anything mentioning the words either sales or commission would be immediate turn-offs, as I just simply knew that such roles would involve constant interaction with customers and there would be levels of unpredictability in such interactions that I felt I wouldn't be able to handle. 

Another warning sign, in other words, red flag, were job titles that included the word customer, whether it was customer service, customer advisor, customer support service, customer advisor, customer support or basically anything that was customer related. I knew it would mean dealing with people on a regular basis. A phrase like, ‘fast-paced environment’ made me cautious, as I liked to sometimes take pride in being accurate, and would therefore work slower to make sure that I was doing a particular task as accurately as I could.

One particular example from the past sticks out in my mind. I remember hearing a radio advert in one job. It was from a company that said, “If you're good on the phone, we'd like to hear from you,” or something along those lines. Just hearing the word ‘phone’, I just knew instantly it was not a job for me.


How I Identified My Strengths

And now I'm going to move on to the section about identifying my strengths, and focusing on what I was good at. When it came to deciding on what I was good at, instead of just me focusing on the things that I wasn't so good at, I decided to work out what were my strengths. For example, I knew I had fast and accurate keyboard skills, and I quickly knew that such roles would be more suitable for me, as they were aimed more at my abilities, data entry being an example of such a role. In fact, what I realised was my keyboard skills were in some ways  linked to my ability to play the piano. I would instinctively know where keys were on the piano without having to look, and that I could just simply apply this to when it came to typing on a keyboard.

One job I applied for before getting a data entry position was for a position of a filing clerk. In the application process, I disclosed my autism and still got an interview. They would even test my ability to see how I could organise and categorise files. Despite the fact that I didn't get the job, I impressed them enough for them to keep my details on file in case another position of a filing clerk came up. This made me feel very positive about this experience. 

Later on, when I applied for a role as a VDU operator, which I ended up getting, it was a job that would involve digitising hard copy documents and preparing data, which, to me, matched my skills in terms of my attention to detail and being good on computers. Later on in the role, I decided that I wanted to give some phone work a go, to which my manager was open to and comfortable with. It would be limited phone work. 

After I did my first one, I was pleasantly surprised at how painless it actually was, and how I managed to do it without too much trouble. It made me feel more confident about handling such calls in the future, which would involve taking messages and passing them on, and requests for certain records. Through these experiences, what I learned was that by sticking to my strengths, like data processing and attention to detail, the experiences helped me to avoid jobs that would otherwise have pushed me beyond limits, and out of my comfort zone in terms of how much social interaction I could deal with. 

I decided not to overemphasise my communication skills on my CV, as I was concerned that it could convince recruiters to put me forward for roles that would rely on those skills, and not rely on the skills that I was strong at.  

And one other thing I'd like to talk about here.  Communicating by email, I feel more comfortable with than speaking on the phone, or dealing with someone face to face. I find this easier, as I have more time, in order to phrase any ideas in a cohesive manner, and that is understandable to the recipient. There isn't the added burden of trying to work out what certain voice tones mean, or certain forms of body language and trying to work those out, well trying to suss out what other people may be thinking, and how they may be feeling about something.
 

Conclusion: Reflecting & Engaging Listeners

And now, as I conclude this episode, I hope I've given you enough of an insight into how I navigated the world of work as an autistic individual, in terms of learning how to avoid roles that wouldn't be suitable for me, and focusing more on my strengths instead. 

What I now encourage you to do is, reflect on your own experiences, and any experiences of those who you may support, and think about what kinds of roles may align with your strengths, or the strengths of those who you may support. If you've had similar experiences, including experiences, you can include experiences of those who you may support, or you may just want to share your own thoughts on this topic. You can do so by texting my podcast. Find the details in the episode description on my host, Buzzsprout.

 If you want to stay updated on future episodes and other podcast-related news, you can subscribe via a ‘Stay in the Loop’  link towards the footer of the homepage of my website, Stephen’s Evolution dot com. 

Join me in two weeks for the next episode on Autism and the Workplace, where I shall break down what I thought were vague job descriptions and terms like excellent communication skills, excellent interpersonal skills and sales and commission. Goodbye for now and thanks for listening.