Newsletter Archive

MARCH 2008

Choosing the Right Career
  
Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) have to look beyond aptitude, interests and skills to find the right career. Usually the work environment is equally if not more important than specific job tasks. Preferences for neurotypicals (low pressure atmosphere, quiet office, structure and routine) might be necessities for people with Asperger's or NLD.
 
Whether you are deciding on your first career or are interested in a job change, here are some ways to increase the likelihood of a good match.
 
Be certain that your area of interest matches your area of skill. Make an honest evaluation of your talents, skills as well as your limitations. One man who loves baseball wanted a job managing travel logistics for a team. He discovered that the position demanded multi-tasking and quick decision making and organizational abilities that he simply does not have. Be sure that your career evaluation includes criteria such as the level of social interaction required, frequency of interruptions during the day, pace, etc.   
 
Be flexible and creative with job choices. Research the broadest range of occupations that utilize your skills and interests. Teachers, for example, can work with children, adults or animals. People can teach in academic settings, trade schools, corporations, adult education programs and many other venues. Teaching skills are used to give verbal instruction in a classroom and to write instructional manuals or textbooks, and to explain technical products in sales situations. Brainstorm with a coach, mentor, family member or teacher about all of your options.
 
Learn about the work environment. This applies both to the industry and a particular company. Computer technology, for instance, is volatile. Start-up companies in particular are vulnerable to business failure or a merger/acquisition. A coaching client who places a high value on stability discovered that technical writing jobs are available in large corporations, not just with software firms. She learned that corporate jobs have less deadline pressures and that lay offs are infrequent.
 
Remember that the same job can be quite different depending on the company you work for. Corporate libraries, for instance, are not anywhere near as hectic as public libraries in large cities. News reporters for daily papers write on much shorter deadlines than feature writers for magazines. Serving customers at the post office is much more structured and routine than serving customers at a busy restaurant.
 
Know the job outlook. I've had more than one frustrated coaching client with a degree (or two) in highly competitive fields with few job openings and low or no projected growth. Before investing in education, evaluate how realistic it will be to find employment in your chosen field. Two excellent resources for researching the employment outlook (and much more) for thousands of jobs are The Occupational Outlook Handbook (www.bls.gov/oco/) and O*Net (Occupational Information Network) OnLine (http://online.onecenter.org).
 
Don't rely on a single information source. Visit the Web sites of trade associations. Nearly every industry has at least one and you'll likely find them by Googling "trade association for [name of industry]." Visit major job boards like Monster and read job openings to see what skills employers emphasize. Go on informational interviews and talk to people who are actually doing the job that you're considering (visit the Newsletter Archive section of my Web site for a free copy of Networking Strategies for the Socially Challenged with step-by-step instructions on informational interviewing).
  
© 2008 by Barbara Bissonnette, Forward Motion Coaching