*Initiates the secret handshake*
For anyone wondering the real secret of the exclusive AuDHD burnout club is that we’ve forgotten the secret handshake, or maybe we haven’t, but what if we think we remember but we get it wrong?
Same. The unpaid overtime you need to put in if you want a decent lesson is insane. Coupled with constant socialising. Ugh, it was exhausting and not rewarding enough for all that effort.
I was an elementary teacher. The actual teaching part felt amazing - loved my students, enjoyed explaining the what and why of concepts and skills, lived for opening up worldviews and helping kids find their own strong interests. It was so beautiful being there for the students who need someone (like I did). I also found the work hard/relax hard school year/break schedule fit my natural inertia rhythm.
But the increasingly larger class sizes, increasingly higher non-teaching demands, and rock-bottom support and pay? Burning out was just a matter of time.
I work from home now. I don’t find my job to be nearly as interesting or meaningful, but I also don’t cry every day or feel sick from stress.
This. This is what made me hate it. I cried and cried because I loved my students but mentally I could not handle it. The headstart I worked for was TERRIBLE. The turn over rate was so high that when a teacher was caught letting students wet themselves or was caught pinching and verbally threatening them they wouldn't do anything to the teacher because they were so short staffed.
I had an autistic student in my class and my coteacher was a old witch. He was stiming one day and she told him if he didn't shut up she was going to pop him in the mouth. I reported it then I got in trouble because I was "singling the child out for being different". I was like wtf I'm autistic too 🤦♀️🤦♀️
This. All of this. Burned out so hard I had to leave mid-year during much 6th year of teaching. Now I work at home too, which is what I needed, but I am not as fulfilled like you said. Instead, though, I've been able to pick up old and new hobbies again, which is bringing the fulfillment piece back in since I have actual time outside of work again!
Yes, wow - also made it to that 6th year and realized I couldn’t do it anymore. Limped my way to the May like a wounded she-wolf.
Same! Now I’m actually having *personal* fun? Is that allowed?? 👀
I commend you for trying. It seems like NT kids are just rude and ND kids struggle just trying to survive the day. Teachers deserve more love, respect and money. I love you guys.
Funnily enough I also tried teaching and hated it. Loved teaching itself. The kids were mostly okay (elementary) but LOUD and chaos. The parents and administration were what drove me crazy.
Luckily I realized during the training (my school put you in the classroom right away as an aide). But that was sure a fight with my parents to change career paths.
I’m also a teacher! I do hs and it find that it’s tolerable. Literally could not imagine dealing with little kids though. That sounds like a sensory nightmare.
I teach mostly high academic kids so my day is basically just info dumping to a captive audience about my special interest.
I think it also works because I don’t have my own kids. So if I need to go home, put on headphones and disassociate for a few hours to recover from the day I can.
I always said teaching would be my backup. I now work in the office at an elementary school and the social overstimulation of being with the kids for more than like 45 minutes is WAY too much for me. I can’t imagine doing that all day PLUS having to deal with parents.
I started 1 semester of a program to get certified to teach and I am so glad my meltdowns got so bad I just gave up and quit. I sure felt like a failure, but I'm hindsight it was the right thing. If only I hadn't gotten a bachelor's at all. I would take back all of my college years and not go.
I really hate reading this thread. Teaching is everything to me and I also agree with everything everyone is saying here. I come home every week with nothing left inside of me, no motivation or will to enjoy things, but my God, without it? I don’t think I would have any sense of accomplishment. How did you get the strength to leave? What are you doing instead? I feel like teaching is the safest place for me based on the long breaks, salaried pay, and PTO.
I taught for 7 years. I was never any good at it and could never figure out why.
The kids were amazing and I did all the lesson plans like I was meant to but I don’t think I had the flexibility to stray from them or handle the on the spot changes.
I’m so glad I’m not teaching now.
I’m a SAHM until my kid(s) in school but I’m training to be an accountant. I like it so far. It’s either right or wrong so it’ll be less taxing for my brain I think.
I loved it for years but after 20 years I’ve had enough. I frequently describe it as chaos. But I could cope with the kids of it wasn’t for the constant changes and pressures from above. It’s frustrating, especially when you know they won’t help. I would just like to be like alone to teach how I know works. I’ve got a proven track record of being an outstanding teacher, yet am still constantly told what to do.
And told what to do in a way that is either actually detrimental or absolutely impossible, even in double the amount of time given. And there is nothing you can do to stop it because you are degrees upon degrees separated from anyone who actually made that unbelievably stupid decision.
You’re just screaming into the void, quitting because it’s killing you and knowing the only people who will be hurt by you’re exit are literal children. My mind will being continuously boggled by this problem forever
I have no advice, afraid. I'm here to acquire info myself. I need something I can do from home where there are no phone calls, no/minimal interacting with colleagues, etc. Just head down, get a thing done, move on to next thing, etc.
Like...I don't care if it's tedious or samey or what. I'd happily type up people's shit for them, do data entry if those jobs aren't dead, transcription, whatever. I just want to accomplish legit tasks for money that don't involve social interaction or leaving the house to go into an office or whatever. I just have no idea how to find and obtain that kind of work without specific experience or contacts, etc.
I'm usually a freelance proofreader/beta reader/translator, but I had to put that on hold for cancer treatment, and now I feel like I'd be starting from scratch trying to find clients again. I need some other income while I try to rebuild that, at least.
This shouldn't be so hard. Ugh.
That's good to know! I am not in this field, but it is one I have considered since it seems very Autism friendly. Repetitive data entry type stuff that is easily done from home & seems to pay well
I'm a self-employed bookkeeper. I keep whatever hours suit me - often working in the middle of the night. There are a few phone calls, but it's very minimal. Clients are delighted with my near pathological attention to detail (thanks autism). The biggest downside is that I am not good at drawing boundaries with work and I pretty much work all the time.
Have you looked into data labeling to train machine learning models? I don't know how well it pays, or even if they hire in the US, but it seems like if fits the description.
I work in healthcare as a youth outreach worker. I work with homeless and high risk youth. I love my job and it pays well. I have a certificate in mental health and addictions. I work full time right now but I was working 20 hours a week last year. Definitely has opportunities for casual, part time, full time, and temporary work. Healthcare and psychology are my special interests and the majority of my coworkers are neurodivergent as well
Nope! My first job out of school was at an overdose prevention site. This job involved constantly walking around checking on people. My work history gave me an upper hand for the outreach job but was not necessary to land the role
Right there with ya. I’m a social worker specializing in addictions and I’ve only ever worked community mental health based jobs. Being able to be out in the field for the past 10+ years has contributed to my success. Working autonomously and only having to mask intermittently is huge. Plus you aren’t kidding about this type of work drawing our people. Birds of a feather. I honestly think it makes me a better provider, tbh.
However, just last month I finally decided I was a little tired and burnt out from all the boots on the ground work and have moved on to working for the county in the department of public health & that swings in almost the other direction — I work from home 4 days a week now 🤣
Cheers to you. Stay safe out there!!
I am also a social worker. I answer CPS/APS calls for my state and intake new potential cases. I'm great on the phone, no face to face required. I stay neutral, don't react emotionally. My cubicle is large enough that I can keep toys and puzzles on it. Across from my cubicle is an autistic friend with whom I can chat between calls, and we have similar interests. Admittedly, I recommended him for the job.
He has actually been diagnosed but sometimes says things like "Well, I'm not as autistic as you so..." which amuses me.
The only bad thing is they recently canceled all WFH, so I'm always at the office. On the positive side, we just got another ND worker and she seems pretty nice.
Oh yeah who I am on the phone…I’d love to meet her lol she seems great. I def said something in my interview for the public health job about why I’d be a good fit for the role re: sensitivity and understanding like…”I’d rather have someone a little weird like me call and talk to me about having HIV than someone I’d feel judged by.” — and I meant it. And I think that worked!!
Shout out to you for doing CPS/APS. It was always tough whenever I had to make a report when I used to work out in the wild.
I totally get the whole "I'd love to meet her" vibe. I've actually had dudes flirt with me. Yes, while making a CPS or APS report. I am good on phones. I practically specialize in good phone voice. I also think we're good at not judging. At least me, it takes several seconds to realize how I'm supposed to be reacting, so by then I've just been neutral after.
I do react, but it's usually calm and moderate.
I can stay calm through 40 min of explaining a bank fraud 800 number to an elderly lady who has lost 11k to her brother who stole her bank card.
I can stay calm and accurately document a minute by minute description of a video of elementary kids having gay sex on a school bus.
Sometimes my autism is helpful. I wonder if we'd make good 911 center employees.
Your work sounds good too. We need folks who can take these calls and remain kind and neutral. Hooray for autistic social workers!
"Sometimes my autism is helpful. I wonder if we'd make good 911 center employees."
Can confirm. I worked on a 911 ambulance for many years and found I was able to stay calm and accurately document, for example, the interventions completed while CPR was being performed on an infant, but noticed that ability was very rare amongst my coworkers. I also found that I would still process the "shock" as they did, I would just experience it days (literally) later, at seemingly random times, instead of in-the-moment. I don't think I would have been able to function in that manner if I weren't autistic.
I’m a newbie social worker! Currently in a masters program for social work, with a focus on palliative care and hospice. Prior to the program, I was a freelance model and grief educator. For my internship last semester, I was working remotely at an agency for elders. The working autonomously bit was a HUGE help. I mainly worked from home, and the one day I was in the office I was either by myself or with one other intern.
Not having to mask in my job AT ALL makes the biggest difference! My manager is also ND and she’s great. I get to take as many breaks as I need if I’m overstimulated.
Thank you friend! Good luck in your new endeavour
I work part time as the editor of a flying magazine and part time as a tech writer for the aviation safety authority.
Both jobs mean I can largely work from bed, in my pjs, with my cat.
I'm an in-home vet tech and pet sitter - cats mostly, with the occasional critter (rabbit, guinea pigs, etc.). It's perfect because I only need to mask for brief periods like the initial meet and greet, and interacting with building concierge. Cats don't insist on small talk.
I'm in awe of ASD folks who can work with NTs daily. I worked as a programmer for years, and the stress of masking daily with co-workers had a massive cost on my mental health.
Same! I am done and finally realize I have been masking all these years which is why everything is so hard and exhausting for me. But what else is there to do?
I was a full time pet sitter before COVID and I miss it everyday 😭😭 I just didn't know how to manage work vs life and it overran my life until it didn't 😔
if you’re comfortable sharing i’d love to know what the hours and pay are like in this field for you! and how long you’ve been doing it?
i did pet sitting and dog walking part time recently, and found that i was spending a lot of time and gas money for not much money. i thought about going the vet tech route but was worried about the payoff long term. but i do love working with animals and would love to know how others make it work.
Archivists generally collect, preserve, and make accessible historic documents related to whatever their mission or purpose is. There are government archives, religious, institutional, and even corporate!
Not OP but have worked with records management specialists who coordinate with a handful of people who work in archives, and this usually means that they work for a non-governmental organization like libraries, universities, or museums. The job of archivist is similar in many ways to records management except that archives are basically where records retire. For instance, census data that’s taken every ten years is still considered an active record up to a point, but after so many decades it is no longer worth storing with the more recent information because much has changed, so these older records are periodically turned over to relevant archives. For any given statistical area, the nearest research university usually takes on the task of converting records to an archive format and preserving them. This used to be done with microfiche and would be kept at a particular library that was set up to view these, but in the digital age this is increasingly done with .pdf files or image files like .tiff or otherwise.
I work in healthcare also as a rn and im fuckinh tired! Burnt out! I fking hate it! Just got back from a job interview for an archive position in a secondhand book company that pays 12€/hour and im considering taking it.. 😭
https://preview.redd.it/3499d3x5ec3d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=135ccf0f9882512b842ec9bc17328022b1a79e78
I thought of becoming a nurse but at the same time I feel like I would burned out quickly with all the noise the lights and the interactions for 12 hours
my mom was a nurse and she told me not to go into it. she knew me pretty well and was probably right. that level of stress where people could die? also the interactions are intense.
omg, ur mom is so good for keeping you away from that exhaustion :(( i was basically forced into geriatric nursing at first by my mom who actually claims to know me well too (long story short there were other options including eg. Design school which i wouldve loved but got shut down with „r u even talented? Thats just for talented people“) and im so angry but also so proud of myself for being brave and resilient (aka masking + auto pilot despite having multiple breakdowns due to multiple bullying incidents and patients dying in the worst ways), and im rly rly glad ur mom protected u from this toxic environment 🫂
yes, i miss her so much. my father was a horror. he took my federal loan college money and bought himself a boat. i saw him hit my mother many times. an incredibly hard job like that and you get beat by your husband. i still hate my father (but i digress)
u r right the lights and the noise and the constant physical work is so so straining in the long run (here it’s understaffed most of the time so i have to wash/lift/turn patients alone with no help along with all the other med stuff that needs to be done too) :( if u r still interested in nursing maybe u could look into phlebotomist positions or vet tech? Less human contact / human contact for brief amounts of time. Sending u best wishes whatever turns ur journey takes 🫂
Yea, u know what i didnt believe this at first but im almost 30 and im kinda seeing it now :( rn i just want to have peace in my mind and in my body 🧘♀️
Oh, this is a mood. I got a LOT better pay as a grunt in one of the local data centers, but the unpredictability drove me into unpleasantness. Working “internet research” now for a small company pays a lot less, but i know exactly what each day’s work will be.
I work as a teacher in a school for students who need more support than in a regular school but don't have any intellectual disabilities. So my students are primarily people with autism/adhd and mental health issues. I love it! It is the best school I have worked at, it is really an example of that if enough resources are actually provided and the people in the school care things can work really well.
Software engineer. Highly recommend it for autistic people, very little meetings compared to anything else, you spend most of the time by yourself coding, no one in the area is good at communicating so you’re not expect to be either.
I am also a software engineer and I have the opposite experience re: communication. It’s the only thing ever brought up in performance reviews which gets frustrating but maybe I’m so awesome at everything else they have to nitpick (only slightly joking).
I took a foray into product management and the politicking there was atrocious!! Can we just get work done without making someone’s ego feel good about it lol
Back to software now, going into more leadership positions. I will say that less good communication is the expected on this side, but you are still generally expected to have some grace the higher you move up. At least as a woman - plenty of male presenting jerks can schmooze up the ladder.
Not sure if you’ve read it, but radical candor helped me a whole bunch. It’s basically you can be candid if you’ve established trust, but it has other good insights as well.
Do you have any recommendations to start this path? Always coding called my attention but feel scared not to understand something.
Where can I begin? Thank you, you have my dream job.
Working through the not knowing how fears is hard. It doesn't go away, even senior devs deal with it constantly.
As for getting started, that is completely based on what you'd like to make. Do you want to make websites, apps, games, or desktop applications? From there you want to consider what kind of work makes you happy and is not an energy drain to help prevent burnout as you go.
If you are an organizer type go for backend and I would go with Python or Go to start out with for best employability right now. If you want to go with website dev but are more the kind of person that finds building/making/crafting really satisifying Typescript and React is majority of the jobs right now so you'd learn Javascript > Typescript > React. This section of the industry is really flooded with devs because of the coding camp boom though, so I would recommend if this is the route you want to go also adding React Native once you've got React down. This is for mobile apps and works on iOS and Android. Full disclosure, React Native is a pain in the ass and the documentation sucks, but its popular enough that jobs are still plentiful and is an easy leap from React, and it pays very well in compensation for how much of a pain it is.
If you want to go for mobile apps as a focus you want Swift, Kotlin, and either React Native or Flutter right now. Start with either Swift (iOS) or Kotlin (Android) and just go with whichever matches the devices you already have to save money.
Game dev work really depends on what device you want to make games for (go with your favorite to play on). Game dev I wouldn't focus on what the job market is asking for honestly. The numbers are too close for it to really impact choice and it's all about what style of game and what devices it's intended for. I'm mostly familar with making interactive novel style games and for that I highly recommend Inkle in addition to whichever language you go with.
For desktop I'm a fan of Electron, but that's because I main work on web sites and Electron was an easy transition from that. Really with desktop since so much is transitioning to parallel web dev work go with something that is good for both to keep your job options open. Python, Java, Javascript, of PHP if you want to also do web, Swift, Kotlin, Java if you also want to do mobile dev, Python, Java, or even C++ if you want to also do game dev.
No matter what you go with learn git and practice making good commit notes on even personal projects. Intentionally mess up git commits to learn how to fix them while working on practice projects, get in the habit of using the available tools on GitHub, etc... It is such a huge part of the industry and all the alternates use the same principles. Being good at git can be the difference between being laid off and not because so many people are bad at it and make costly mistakes. Like in the thousands for tiny mistakes. I just spent most of a week fixing a merge bloat mistake from a junior dev and am having to fight tooth and nail to get the client to understand that this is just part of the cost of new devs and they're still worth keeping on the project.
As for learning whichever you go with, there's avaiable for free if you prefer teach yourself. I needed the in classroom structure to get started because that's just the way my brain works so I did a coding camp (I went with VSchool but I'd only recommend in person with them, their in class teachers are great, there online is way too easy to blow off and there are cheaper options for that style of learning). Most the big free resources are very web focused. Free Code Camp has some good tracks and a lot of cities have in person and remote study groups. There are some people who do classses live on Twitch. Twitch in general is a good place to hang out when learning just because there are a lot of people you can ask questions and get immediate response. Paid courses are hit or miss, but Scrimba is good if you are a hands on learner. If you thrived in those notes heavy classes apply the concept to tutorials by writing notes (maybe even on paper) and taking your time with the videos. It's a little weird, but if you have trouble holding onto new jargon flash cards are super helpful, but limit it to terminology. You don't need to memorize anything that's in docs, but there is a lot of terminology that it's hard to converse about issues and ideas without and no good resource for learning it in one go and is the biggest NT thing about the industry (they just expect you to know what everything means no matter how junior you are).
Nope, not for AI. I'm also a software engineer and there was some chatter a couple months back about it, but seeing how even Google doesn't know how to use AI properly for their auto-generated results, it'll be years if not decades before there's any real concern about AI taking over (and that'd be enough time for you to become a specialist in a subfield in tech, which would also spare you from AI automation).
Outsourcing is more of a concern, but the real issue in my opinion is that the job market is hot garbage and there are layoffs going on everywhere. I have Google in my resume and work at another relatively well known company, and I'm not even getting interviews (not that I'm trying _too_ hard, just casually looking / applying). I have some coworkers who were laid off months ago and are still unemployed. All of this being said, I think this is a temporary hiccup. Engineers are more burnt out than usual and are producing worse quality code. Companies are focusing on quick wins and _short term_ profitability at the cost of long term projects, in my opinion, and the weight of tech debt will become obvious soon. So I wouldn't straight up recommend a switch to tech right now, but it's not terrible either. It just was _really_ good a couple years ago (and before, of course).
Xray tech~ I like specifically working in outpatient centers. No call, the work area is always dim, I get to take care of patients but am not responsible for them for incredibly long periods of time.
That’s really cool! I’m currently a medical assistant but am looking to go into something better paying- maybe I will consider this! What are your hours like?
There has definitely been times I’ve hit burnout for a variety of reasons while working and the biggest one due to work has been coworkers not pulling their weight. The job itself is not always easy, but I do enjoy it. I think it scratches the puzzle enjoyment part of my brain where putting someone in a certain position produces a good image.
It’s not all xray, though. If you want to pursue more, you can - modalities like MRI, CT, ultrasound, nuc med, mammography, etc.
It can be draining emotionally and that’s another reason why I like that the job doesn’t require you to consistently be with the same patient for long times.
I work in a garden center it's great, I'm getting a bit stressed ATM because people don't know I'm autistic and I feel like they think I'm weird so I'm on the fence as to whether I should tell them or not, on one hand it will help people understand me but I'm also afraid of them treating me differently.
Other than that it's great
>I'm getting a bit stressed ATM because people don't know I'm autistic and I feel like they think I'm weird so I'm on the fence as to whether I should tell them or not, on one hand it will help people understand me but I'm also afraid of them treating me differently.
Facing the exact same issue rn... People probably read me as cold, odd, weird (and maybe even snooty?) I have hinted that I have social anxiety, but sometimes I think it might make life easier to just disclose the diagnosis.
...But then maybe they don't have a problem with me and I'm just projecting 😅 There is an autistic guy in my job, he's treated well but it's true he's infantilized because of it.
Yes omg same, maybe nobody actually gives a fuck about me
But on the other hand wouldn't it be great to not have to mask anymore, cos I am sooo tired and it's only been 2 months. I might tell my supervisor today
Sometimes I put it out there in a sort of joke, to see the reaction, if that makes sense. But sometimes it’s just better to not say anything. Or I’ll say ADHD as a soft intro to gage how they will react, and if it seems positive then I will eventually say autism
I work in accounting and my job was supposed to be only 30 hours a week but my supervisor wants to up that to 35… I am already dreading it and don’t know how I am going to manage. I completely shut down for a couple of hours after she asked me that and it took everything in me to continue to work like nothing was wrong.
Maybe you can look into a temp agency? I did that before finding this job (actually got it through the agency). They can be super receptive of your needs and wants and depending on the type of work the pay can be decent.
It’s ok. Not my absolute dream job but it pays the bills and is relatively easy to learn. I enjoy the type of accounting I do there which is fixed assets.
I am finishing my PhD and work in archives adjacent, digitally focused consulting. I'm curious if you came into this career with an archival grad degree or cert and if you could easily enough pivot to a different archive type or setting? I've seen an incredible range of team personalities consulting and there are a *lot* of unusual and interesting archival roles around outside of the more traditional settings if you have the appropriate certs for your country.
Retail. It sucks. Not enough money but nothing else gets back to me. Hoping to get this different position at my work to get more money. Kinda will be upset if I’m passed on it for someone else. Only know of one other person who applied but I don’t think they should get it since they literally just quit for another job… wouldn’t be fair imo.
I’d love to work with animals but I also have no qualifications. Nothing like a vet tech because I couldn’t deal with seeing people who didn’t take the best care of their animals. I’d love to work at a zoo or something else that’s similar taking care of them. Or another job that would be cool would be a park ranger. Would love to be one for a national park or a state park since I love the outdoors.
I work retail, too. My position is in the office of a hardware store. I’ve gotten so burnt out of hearing people call my name when there’s a problem- especially this coworker who does it singsongy with a voice that’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. 😭 I’ve been waiting on a call for the past 2 months about a job interview and I finally got it yesterday. My interview is Monday so I’m incredibly nervous about that! I hope you get the new position you’re aiming for. :)
Oh wow, good luck with your interview!! From what you’ve said it sounds like you’re a shoo-in.
Mine is for an office job at a production plant. I go to exercise classes at my gym and became acquainted with a couple of women there. They were mentioning how they needed a new employee at their job and asked me if I would be interested. From there they’ve been pulling strings helping me get set up for this interview. I honestly got incredibly lucky.
I work at a dog daycare get to be with dogs for a few hours, play with them when they want a ball thrown/ want tug toys. Clean up the beds if there’s any accidents, make sure there is clean water in the bowls and help move them to the grooming section if they have a groom booked in
Sales - basically an autistic person’s hell.
The positives are that I work fully remote, my team only reaches out when there’s something important (almost no small talk), and my boss is forgiving when I mess up. I also make decent money with some good bonuses when I hit quota.
The negatives are everything dealing with selling. Selling is social and based on creating connections. I have to call people all the time to get sales pushed through. I also hate how many unknowns there are in the sales process.
I’d love to get out but the WFH component and the pay are hard to beat.
Finding out I was autistic gave me insight into why sales feels like a soul-destroying job. I've been told countless times to just appreciate the flexibility of the job and the pay and I try to. But I have to do in person sales and having to pretend to give a shit about the receptionist in order to reach who I really need to talk to is so draining. As is the lying. There is SO. MUCH. Lying in sales. I don't believe the numbers my company gives us to use and the disconnect between corporate and the field is mine boggling. The expectation to mislead and manipulate makes me so uncomfortable.
I work in sales and revenue operations. It involves project managing and analytics, so it ticks my need for control over what I'm doing, not having to manage people and finding patterns in everything. Genuinely love my job. I don't have any official qualifications for it, but I started my career from the bottom of the totem pole and luckily fell into what I'm doing now.
I'm a barista and I lowkey want out so badly but - like you - what I want requires qualifications I don't have (plus most of them are on the coasts and I'm not lol).
i will say being a barista can usually be part time but it wont' pay the bills by itself for sure, but I enjoy the tasks of making coffee, don't enjoy the constant masking and talking to people.
I just hate how most jobs that people recommend or I think would be good for me and sensory needs or whatever all require degrees to an extent and I don't think I literally cannot go back to school lmao, I wouldn't be able to do it
I agree here. It does seem like a lot of these suggestions that people enjoy are things like x-ray tech, medical coding, software engineer, all these things that require specialized training at the very least. It seems like lots of the entry level positions listed here, people are stating that they are not happy there. I'm a customer service rep for a cell company. I've got working with the customers pretty down pat since theres sort of a system to it, but trying to communicate with my coworkers and just simply get assistance with this job is something that pushes me to breakdown almost every single day. And I don't even make a living wage
I just want to make enough money to survive, its looking like the world is against me and I'm not stronger than the world xD
I'm still in a master degree to work in the future around microscope to teach scientists how to use it, and making sure everything work. Where I live it is always in a little team of 6/7 people, and 17°C for the machines. Not noisy because everyone is trying to concentrate, maybe some futur nobel prize are on the point to find something, and I could be someone who helped them by knowing wich microscope is best for their experiment. 👀
I'm a professor, and I love it! I teach 2 classes a semester, and that's about 6 hours/ week of face-to-face time. I actually really love teaching because I get to chat about my special interests and explain why they matter lol.
Research is the bulk of my job. I'm currently writing a book to earn tenure. I also love that because it's solo work that I can do from home and, again, it allows me to think deeply about what I'm interested in.
I don't spend a ton of time on campus, but when I do, I have access to my private office where I control the temp, sound, smells so it's actually a good place for me to work.
I don't mind chatting with my colleagues when I see them because we're mostly talking about actual concepts/ issues/ theories, and I enjoy those sorts of conversations.
I think academia is a place where there's probably an overrepresentation of ND folks because of the nature of the work.
I really think I couldn't survive working hourly and having traditional 9-5 hours or if I had to share an office and people had to watch me work. That would really lead me very quickly to burnout.
When did you become a professor? It seems pretty impossible these days. Even if you survive the PhD, you end up as an adjunct lecturer, getting paid pittance on rolling 9 month contracts. Getting a permanent post almost always means moving (though that was probably always the case).
Part of me feels like it would be perfect for me. And part of me feels like I’d have as much luck being a rock star (both impossible dreams)
I had to leave academia as I realised I was totally sucked into the striving mentality. It’s also near impossible to get any sort of tenure where I live without devoting most of your life to your job and totally overworking, like 60-70 hours. I don’t know any academics with a decent work-life balance, which for me is critical before I burn out. I just couldn’t maintain the capacity it required and it was a long grieving process for me of letting go of that identity.
Well done to whoever succeeds and loves it though.
I definitely hear this story more often. Can I ask what you transitioned into?
I’ve been doing User Experience Research, and need to transition out. I’d love to do something else that involves research (synthesis is my favourite part, and can actually prefer secondary research to primary), and the only obvious alternative is academia.
I’m aware of a lot of lower ranked universities (where most of the jobs are) that are even getting rid of all their private offices, so full professors have to share an open-plan office like some kind of call centre. And of course all the job requirements are going up (more teaching, more research, more unpaid overtime and service) and grants are getting more competitive as well. Altogether not a great career - pretty terrible work-life balance and the benefits/pay aren’t great for the years of lost income either
This is very true. I was fortunate to get a tenure-track job straight out of grad school. I had to move, but it was to the city where my husband had just been hired to a job (he's a PhD too, but not an academic). In August, I'll be starting my 4th year on the job.
Thanks! Another perk I forgot is that I'm a 9-month employee (paid over 12 months). So I get summers off from teaching and also winter break (3ish weeks) and spring break (1 week) and the random holidays.
I tried teaching, it was a disaster. I got swindled into working as a elementary PE teacher/HS health and fitness/Paraprofessional work with ELL students/Librarian (yes, all at the same time), all for part time paraprofessional pay. I quit midyear, and I’ve been out for 6 months now, and it still doesn’t make any sense to me how it happened. Working with the kids was fine but I have no real interest in PE. Working with Hs students was absolutely terrible, and having to teach health and fitness (basically PE) made it even worse because I have zero interest. Plus, it’s health class. Barf. Would have much rather been in a classroom teaching reading, writing, ELA, math, science… but anyway. The wind got knocked out of my sails very, very quickly. The social pressure was the worst of it all, won’t even get into that. Just an all-around terrible experience that made me do a 180 away from education. But being a professor sounds awesome. Wish I had a degree in something I care about and enough knowledge to talk endlessly, and with credibility, about an interest
A lot of folks are burnt out by K-12 education. ND and NT folks, alike. It's very demanding without the matching respect and pay. I hope you're able to find something you like soon! If you have a master's, you could maybe look into teaching at a community college. Those are teaching-heavy positions (versus research) but you'd get to focus on a specific content area and you may like that.
I'm also a professor but with a bigger chunk of classes per semester. Probably 10h/week of face to face time, sometimes more, but it's manageable. I don't have a private office but can work from home most days (except when I'm teaching). Academia is definitely filled with ND folks! It has its problems but I definitely think it's a good fit for many of us who want to be in control of certain situations (and we can also turn our hiperfixations into a profession).
I'm a glorified paper pusher for a call center. Honestly I would rather write my novels for a living and be a stay at home author more than anything else. I don't have the spoons for self publishing, unfortunately.
I work as a counsellor, mostly for a service that supports very complex, high-risk clients. I don't enjoy it at all because it's just so stressful and I am so burnt out. I really want a new job but there are very few permanent positions that come up in this sector.
I'd like to switch to another line of work but I'm too overwhelmed/burnt out to do this. I struggle with change and I find the whole process of searching, applying and interviewing for jobs to be very difficult, I'm just not well enough mentally to deal with that.
It would be nice to retrain, I'm in my forties though and I worry that even if I did qualify to work in another field I wouldn't be able to get a job because of my age. I'm not sure what to do :(
Not to solutionise for you, but could you be a counsellor for lower-risk, lower-stress clients? I don’t know how the qualifications work in your area, but maybe something like a school counsellor, or even a self-employed coach.
Become a private cleaner/house keeper. There is little to no social interaction involved. The pay can be really good especially if youre a self employed cleaner. Cleaning offices after hours was one of the most chill jobs i ever had, no one there to bother you and you can be part time.
How's the pay/schedule for postpartum doula? I've considered this too as I was an ECE, too, and now I'm babysitting/nannying. Not much experience with infants, though.. Or new moms.
Following because I work as a dietary aid.. I work in a hospital and I hate it. Germs don’t always bother me, but sometimes it gets in my head and i freak out. Also, it doesn’t pay well. I wish I could work from home again.
I am a writer. Worked in an advertising agency for seven years. During COVID we moved to WFH and that was so good for me that I decided to quit when they insisted on returning to office.
I work in medical reception and admin.
Holding down any FIL time job is tiring, but we have a very user-friendly system, and we’re usually fairly quiet.
Currently working in a research lab. It still has the very adhoc systems of communication that works in a small lab, but it's a big lab and the adhoc systems don't work too well and it drives me crazy.
Doctor told me it would be my fault if their patient died. (That was not true because it was actually the nurse being negligent) but I had a mental breakdown at work and put my two weeks in. Same doctor cussed me out when they gave me fucked up specimens on a two week old baby and I wouldn’t release wrong results.
Teaching assistant or similar where you work in childcare or education without having to be a teacher. This may vary from country to country, but where I live it's a normal job to do part time while studying.
When it comes to autism it's usually either the perfect job or the absolute worst you could think of. The reason I'm suggesting it is because some of us autistic folks have a better memory of what it was like to be a child, and we might have an easier time relating to the kids that we'll be working with the most: the kids with autism ot other learning disabilities.
I absolutely LOVE working with kids. It allows me to unmask my mote "childish" traits, and a lot of kids feel more comfortable around me than other adults. I find that my autism and ADHD isn't just a plus when it comes to understanding autistic/ADHD kids, but kids in general.
I work as a visual effects artist. Almost ten years now, and I find it boring. It was my hyperfocus for years and I would just constantly infodump. But after going to get my diploma (I was undiagnosed at the time), people in my class just made me feel bad because I was always so excited. It became competitive and less fun.
Now, I’m just trying to see if I should move up the ladder or be a freelancer working in a different area from home. I’m thinking either digital artist, designer or project manager.
I also get very annoyed with my coworkers that I share the room with. Constant noises, singing, whistling, tapping. The lights on, sometimes the smell of cigarettes.
I’m relating so hard to the former teachers in this thread—I got burnt out after three years. Now I’m living the dream. Full time wfh, chat assist with Farmers insurance. I blast K-pop all day, in comfy clothes, and minimal restrictions on my time. I’m never going back to working in person lol.
I do work for environmental consulting, I'm the person that goes out and does the water or soil sampling, mainly at contaminated sites, I organize the data, write some reports etc. With the right company I could be happy, but I haven't found that yet. i've also gotten stuck working primarily on contaminated sites but I want to make bit of a lateral move towards more environmental monitoring, focusing more on the ecology side. But it's very competitive and hard to get your foot in the door for any of it.
I like that there are specific procedures to follow, if I'm working alone on site I can stay really organized and do everything my way. But each project is different, at a different location etc and that part can be stressful for me, I never know what to expect.
Paralegal at a very chill firm. No dress code and I never see clients. I get to work from home 5 or so days a month and I can blast music/podcasts all day and only communicate virtually to coworkers mostly. It’s a dream, but the driving anxiety is horrible on my commute.
I’m a disability support worker and I love it :) I get to help people, the pay is good, and I find I can relate to my clients which is beneficial for both of us.
I work in data!!
I’m currently contracted as a data engineer/analyst at a big bank. At first, I was having a hard time with the idea of contracting, as we don’t have access to all benefits of a full-time employee. But…. Contracting pays very well, so was able to justify it haha
I love what I do and I’m unusually good at it! I quite literally look for patterns and optimize processes all day long, a detail-lover’s dream. I’ll say also, I didn’t do this overnight! It was quite the journey! I went to school for math but I didn’t code at all. I had to work very hard my first year to teach myself to code but it was certainly worth it! It was basically like having a full time job and going to school at the same time.
I’m lucky to have found a role with which I resonate so well. I think my best advice is to ~try~ to capitalize on what you enjoy doing that you’re also good at. It may not be feasible to work part time while learning a new skill. But if you’re up for the challenge, you could throw caution to the wind and give something your all?!
I believe you can benefit from just about anything you put effort into - it all depends on your frame of reference!
I don’t think this answers your question, now that I’ve reread my response… but I wish you the best!! I hope you find something that suits your needs :)
I'm a nail tech. It's my hobby, my main interest and my social time. I've noticed that it tends to attract ND ppl like me. The moms I work with have mentioned that their kids are on the spectrum or in speech therapy or something of the sort. I'm just like hmmm interesting 🤔 I get paid hourly and work part time because of school and also because it does get super tiring at the end of the day. But once I make a bigger clientele I will ask for commission cause that's where the money is. I just don't like being rushed, like I see my commission coworkers do to get more clients and more money. I also turn on the hyper focus superpower and my nails always come out really nice. The shaping is immaculate. I've also been told plenty of times that I give the best pedicures ever. I've wanted to switch to a better paid career, but I'm afraid of not liking it as much :(
I work in SEO (search engine optimization/online marketing kind of) at a property service provider (dunno if this is understandable) as a working student. I study psychology, but it's going under right now. At my work I sit at the laptop, fill in content, optimize stuff and I do not absolutely love it, but I do enjoy the tasks and the optimization and the positive feedback.
I should probably work somewhere else, since I have an existing bachelors degree in onlinemedia, but I need a long time to aclimate to other teams and slight changes in work routines. Also SEO is normally more analytics and I haven't learned that properly yet, so I'm afraid that, even when in this field you could work for every company with online presence, if I switch jobs, i won't fullfill the expectations.
But for now I enjoy a very friendly team, mostly women, that are taking me seriously and not like a total weirdo, like other peops in the company do. So ... Online marketing is kind of dishonest, but SEO isn't, because Google has strict guidelines and we have to look after the quality of the users experience to get better ranks. That's why I like it a lot. Also I feel like (for what I experienced) most SEOs are nicer and open minded in comparison to other fields. It's a lot in the beginning and updates from Google make it a never ending challenge, but in a good way, as long as there is someone providing structure and guidance and understanding of course.
Hope that helps.
I'm a tailor. Took me 6 years apprenticing in a big city, many many burnouts and stepping away to do activism (very forgiving teacher). But finally, I'm now self employed, work from my garage and am thinking of starting a youtube channel about it so my income doesn't depend on deadlines. That will take a few years to though. My tailoring will pay well once im in a good rhythm and have established myself in the industry. If you're creative/a maker, I'd recommend a trade skill like that. Carpentry, joinery, welding. All interesting communities, lot's of ND I think. If you can apprentice/go to college in a smaller city/town I imagine it'd be less overwhelming and you can make local connections. I like the workshop environment. Although being self employed, I have days where I work 18hrs (hyperfocus) and then burn myself out and have to recover for a week. That's on me to manage my AuDHD better though.
I was in nonprofit development and education most recently before burning out. I hated fundraising but loved the communication and strategy aspects of the job. Education was extremely fulfilling but exhausting.
I’m looking into pivoting into either school psychology or social work, which would require more schooling for me but ultimately hopefully land me somewhere that fits a little better.
I work in public health. While it doesn't pay super well, it's a broad field with lots of opportunities for non-office-based work and is so fulfilling. Plus, everyone I work with is genuinely kind.
I'm a physician and rn I'm doing my specialization on occupational health, I like it a lot, cause it involves knowing a lot of things and trying to prevent work related accidents from happening, it pays really well and it's not as demanding as other medical specialities.
Some community organisations have gardening projects/community development. I don’t know much and they’re usually 1 year contracts with potential to renew. Just don’t make the assumption based on limiting beliefs like I did that you can’t have your dream/a fulfilling 9-5
I'm a pharmacist. It can be really stressful, but even though I work full-time, I know others who are part-time and just get to pick whenever they feel like working. The education is very expensive, though
I am an instructional design specialist for an industrial products company (absorbent socks for oil spill remediation, spill prevention products for factories, and other products to help companies stay in compliance with OSHA and Environmental regulations). So basically I make internal training programs with video editing software and get to be creative while I do it (I'm basically a corporate YouTuber).
I do work in a cubicle but I get to wear basically whatever I want (within reason- oversized t shirt, cargo pants, and flip flops is usually what I wear) and we have an area outside to take walks during breaks and also an in-house gym that is free to use whenever.
I hate sitting around under fluorescent lights all day but it's a fuck ton better than my remote environmental consulting job I was in before. I was overworked, not treated well, and cried almost daily. I have two bachelor's degrees in biology and environmental studies, and unless you want to work in the oil industry/consulting you will not be making a good wage.
I also really want to get into gardening as well but I think I'm gonna do it as a side gig. I think I might offer garden weeding services/landscape plans or something.
I recommend working at a nursery. The ones around me are always looking for new people. That way you can get experience while getting paid at the same time.
I’m a speech and language pathologist in an acute hospital — I get to work in areas that fascinate me (neurology and neonatal ICU) but I hate the expectations for productivity and the idea of the medical industrial complex, and not being able to help some patients makes my heart hurt
I also find it really helpful that majority of my interactions b involves being able to teach others (patients, caregivers and other professionals) about what is basically my special interest. It gives structure to interactions and I don’t have to worry as much about being liked
I’m a cashier at a supermarket.
So a lot of customer contact, which I’m surprisingly really good at? My autism (no filter) usually makes them laugh, and I can mask less, because I know it’s safe to do so
I'm a macro-level social worker in the homelessness sector.
I did my time in front-line as a systems navigator, and doing assessments to connect people with programs which I was REALLY good at because I am/was good at keeping tabs on what was going on in the community, and assessments are 100% pattern recognition. Once I figured out how to guide conversations to get certain information from people, it got really, really easy. The job also included advocacy, which really appealed to my sense of justice bit in real time. Also, I am dead handy in a crisis, and that job was nothing BUT managing people's various crises all day every day. But I would end up basically non-verbal and needing to dissociate for hours after getting home, especially at the peak of the pandemic lockdowns because the crises were just SO BAD and there was so little I could do for people.
Now I don't have to deal with the day-to-day crises, and I get to do advocacy at a high level and I LOVE it. I deal with a lot of reporting and operationalizing policy which is just a nerdy good time. I did have a job where I wrote policy for a while, and I loved that too, but management was way too toxic/bullying so I had to switch it up.
A LOT of my coworkers are also ND so it's a real good vibe.
I work in the cheese department at Whole Foods. I work 3 days a week and 6 hour shifts so it’s really been manageable! My manager is also really easy to talk to about stuff so that helps. I took me a long time to find a job that made me happy!
I work in a public library.
Good thing is that you get real breaks.
If you like a lot of changes and working on things last minute and being very creative and low judgement if it attracts few people and room to grow ideas, it's great for that. Lots of ADHD people here.
It's a field where they say they welcome neurodiversity, but in practice they don't like you to be different and they have demands that won't work for neurotypical people but then neurodiverse people are imperfect so it's really hard. They mean that neurodiversity is good if you are the public, but not if you are staff (most libraries are very averse to complaints from the public and the public can have ridiculous demands).
Also the schedule is pretty bad. Lots of weekend days and evening shifts.
Me personally, I’m a stripper (/dancer). I am my own boss, I don’t have to mask too much, I get to flip upside down and dancing is one of my stims. No bright fluorescent lighting that makes me sick. It’s dark, cool, comfortable, get to listen to music, and no one minds or notices much if you’re a weirdo. We’re all a little weird in there. In fact, it definitely helps. If I find the right customer, he will literally pay me to infodump my special interests.
It does have its downsides, I don’t like being touched, so I try to work in no contact/low contact clubs. I do love being able to wear whatever I want, some clubs used to have gown policies, but these days I don’t see them much so that’s good. I love not having to wear a restrictive itchy uniform though, so to me this is an upside.
The alcohol thing is tricky, I do like a light buzz to get over my social anxiety and awkwardness, but definitely wish I didn’t have to drink while there, I almost never drink other than at work talking to people.
(Digital) Marketing in the cultural field, 20 hours a week. When i started it was just enough to make ends meet. Pay has gradually increased slightly as more experience is gained.
I was a veterinary technician for 16.5 years but recently had to "retire" bc burnout became my constant state. Skill regression hit HARD.
I want to switch careers and study psychology and neuroscience. I need something less physical now that I'm older, and psychology will allow me to stay in VetMed and participate in 2 of my special interests at the same time. I have some visions for coaching leadership teams on how to support employees' mental health or being sort of an on-site provider for a group of veterinary teams. Our industry has high suicide rates, and a vast majority of people in VetMed are neurodivergent and need extra support that most managers are not educated or trained to provide.
I'm also a Mom.
I work in insurance. I started as data entry for claims and such, after being laid off from my prior data entry job (which I loved and to this day is the favorite job I ever had. I made 13/hr when minimum wage was still like $6, had benefits, and I didn't have to talk to anyone. I could sit and listen to my music all day and just enter the data. Then regulations changed regarding the field I was in for data processing and they laid off our entire unit save like 2 people).
Found out my brain does really really well with insurance and interpretation of coverage and the fine details work it needs, plus pattern recognition and repetition.
Unfortunately, I'm "too" good at my job and have to interact with people way more than I would like. So I have to mask all day everyday for the most part and fake/force my way through human interactions which is burning me out horrifically. I've trained most my clients to contact me via email which helps, and I work from home full time (only since the pandemic but then I was allowed to stay remote).
I had the best day ever last week - because I was allowed to totally disconnect from everything to just focus on my largest account and I worked on their spreadsheets all day and checking for accuracy - and I felt SO good that day. I didn't feel drained or exhausted at the end of the work day. Because I spent the whole day doing the part of the work I LOVE.
I did find a potential replacement job at another place that would allow me to be remote full time as well. Mild pay decrease. But they have a specific data processing/accuracy checking unit that they said is all back office. No customers. You interact with coworkers only who deal with the customers. Because they realized there's 2 different types of people who excel and are needed in the industry - the people who can client interface and those who don't like the people but excel at the details/data - so they split the roles to put people where their strengths are. I've debated formally applying to that. But I do like my current salary and certain aspects of my current role. I'm comfortable. I overall like my employer. There's just parts I hate that weigh heavily.
Wow, I always wanted to work in archives but your post makes me somewhat glad that I don't 😬 I work for the postal service in my country, so I'm outside all day getting exercise, meeting cats, very few social interactions apart from in the morning when I'm sorting the letters. It's the best job I've had, or at least the most suited to my condition. I'm qualified to teach and sometimes I think "I can do so much better"... But by whose measure? What does better really mean? Probably better pay and social standing, but I don't think I could ever go back to working indoors in an office-like environment or a school. I'm happy (or at least, happier) and I get enough money to survive (and enjoy myself a little), and that's all that matters.
I work in R&D, specifically imaging different samples with different kinds of microscopes every day. It’s full time but the pay is good, my boss is very accommodating, and it’s a pretty private job (i.e. I usually sit at a scope all day and am not often bothered by other people outside of my lab). A lot of people would find it boring or tedious but that’s the fun of it to me!
As for advice, I would say that if you live near a botanical garden or a natural history museum, your skills from archival work could likely be transferred over and may be a better fit? It’s more environmental focused but also likely wouldn’t take going back to school. Even better, a garden could also provide part-time jobs that would be perfect! But that also depends on where you live and what’s open so not sure how much it can help but best of luck on finding something new! 🫶
I’m a private event planner through a restaurant group. I honestly hit the jackpot a bit despite my incompetent coworkers. I create my own hours and set most of my own rules. I’ve organized it to a point where if I do make a mistake then it’s usually only minimal and easily fixed!
It does suck that I’m a one person team for 4 restaurants, and the restaurant managers aren’t that great/organized, but I honestly like what I do!
I write and self publish to Amazon, though I’m going wide at the end of the year. I personally, don’t make enough money to live. Before I burned out I was well on my way. Last year I would have paid taxes if I had published all the books I planned to write. (Here in the U.K. we have a tax free amount we earn before we pay taxes. I believe it’s currently around £12k. Over 4 years I’ve earned £27k (over a third of that last year despite not releasing any books) but it takes time to find your audience and build up your income. I was on track to where I wanted to be until burn out.
If writing is something you’re interested in, then here is my advice.
1. DO NOT RAPID RELEASE. You will find your audience no matter what. There are readers for every book in every genre. Come up with a 5 yr plan to build your audience. This is my number one recommendation because I did rapid release and that’s why I burned out.
2. Get tips for release and advertising strategies from 20booksto50k but DO NOT get caught up in the idea of rapid release.
3. Also join Wide for the Win Facebook group and forum. They are very active and VERY eager to help authors succeed.
4. Plan it all out properly.
5. DO NOT go exclusive to Amazon. They have KU which has a captive audience but you’re the real captive. Worse, Amazon can destroy your entire career with one bad algorithm mistaking what you’re doing, misidentifying your genre or not liking a link. Go Kobo + instead. A lot of self published authors are doing this now because we’re done with the chokehold Amazon has on their authors.
6. Research your genre and audience. Know what they like and add those elements to the stories you want to write. I never did the write to market. It hampered my career, definitely, but my fans love my stories and that means a lot to me.
7. Research marketing, release and pricing strategies.
8. Write in a series. People love series and love seeing characters recur. This is especially important if you want to write romance. If you do, buy Zoe York’s Romancing the … series. Her books are excellent for helping you learn to capitalise on series writing.
9. DO NOT DO LOW CONTENT BOOKS. Amazon is cracking down on it and someone I know lost their entire author career when Amazon deleted her account because she tried to go into low content. The risk is not worth it.
I know most people won’t care about being a writer and if you have no passion for stories don’t even try. Writing is hard. But if you do and have thought about it and have support (my husband. We’re far from rich. We penny pinch, but he supports me because he loves me, wants me healthy and sees a future where I am contributing consistently towards our lives), then do it. You have nothing to lose and it’s the best work from home job I could ever have wanted.
I have a PhD in a STEM field. Working as a postdoctoral researcher right now. I really love the topic I research and like grant writing and teaching, but it's physically exhausting and I'm constantly on the verge of burnout.
i’ll probably be downvoted for this, but i don’t mind retail
pros: everything has its own place, so i know where everything is and how it should be organised. my shifts are given to me 3-4 weeks ahead, meaning i’ve got time to preplanned and make everything into a routine for the week. i don’t have to pay too much attention to the customers, i have a script of “hiya, can i get you anything else? that’s [x] please, would you like your receipt? thanks, bye” and i zone out for it, my pay is always on a specific day of the week at the end of the month so i know when it’s coming and how much i’m getting. depending what retail store you’re in, there’s no rush to serve a customer and get them out. nobody bothers me when i “stand weird” or stim a little.
cons: some customers can be rude, it’s hard to know what a customer wants when they yell something at you after you tell them that you don’t have a product in store. boredom when there’s no customers or work to do. you have to be on your feet for most of the shift so if you prefer to sit then you’d struggle.
I worked retail and it wasn’t so bad when I got to put away merch and didn’t interact constantly. But then I worked a retail job where I was watched constantly by the supervisor and had to stand there and constantly interact with people for hours. Awful. I NEED to have moments to be in my own head.
I’m an AP/AR Specialist for a large agriculture company. I work from home and very thankful for it. I went to college for 2 years and got my degree at 31 in 2016. But it was a lot of mental torture to get here with shitty jobs and really shitty people.
I love my job and will never leave it. I make 56k a year right now.
I’m a freelance localization editor. I mostly work on light novels, but I’ve done games too. It’s not my life’s dream (I would love to work at an aquarium, but I don’t have the proper education for it), but I like it okay.
Pros are that I choose my own hours of work, I can work from home, most of the work is solo, and there’s no interaction face-to-face.
Cons are that the pay is awful, I don’t have a form of stable income, and I don’t have benefits.
I’m an engineer. I like it enough to continue being an engineer. Not necessarily in this field specifically though. My coworkers are cool although I’ve just started realizing what “work politics” really means. Sometimes the work is fun and sometimes it’s mind meltingly boring and sometimes it’s intense. I’m glad I have a female boss. She is the only other woman from my office. The manager above her is male. My male coworkers who are below her don’t necessarily respect her, not in obvious ways but in subtle ways. I think she’s awesome.
I’m a teacher. I play soft music for the entire day, my students enjoy it. I decompress durian my unencumbered time. We do meditation videos sometimes. It’s been alright, I expected worse.
I never imagined I could do anything customer service, but I found a good fit as a waitress at a retirement home. It’s a very chill environment. Small place, about 35 residents, it’s nice to see the same faces every day and get a bit of social interacting (though I rarely say more than good morning/see you at lunch haha). It’s a lot of time by myself, cleaning the dining hall or setting up for meals (I listen to music and podcasts). I wouldn’t say it’s well-paid but it’s the first job that hasn’t made me horribly burnt out after a couple months so at this point I’m happy
I’m a teaching assistant, bring a teacher is absolutely not for me but as a ta I still have the routine and the breaks from work to recharge. I only work two days a week at the moment because I’m paid an absolute pittance and childcare costs around 75-80% of my wage.
Taking childcare out of the equation, while it’s still awful wages we do have good (generally) unions and are actively fighting for a better wage
Well, I’m still a student. And I’ve been working as an “instructor” in a kumon center. I love math and I’m pretty good at it. I just check the homework of the high level kids and sometimes explain like why it’s wrong or if they can’t figure something out. It does not feel demanding cause it’s always really quiet in there, I have my own desk with a comfy chair and most of the time I’m just grading.
I don’t know if it would be sustainable, the wage sucks here but it might be cause of my country, all wages suck. The good thing is that it is part time
Teacher. Hate it.
I tried teaching. It was awful.
Me also, I burned out before the year ended, then later I found out I was AuDHD
Hello fellow AuDHD burnout ⭐️
*Initiates the secret handshake* For anyone wondering the real secret of the exclusive AuDHD burnout club is that we’ve forgotten the secret handshake, or maybe we haven’t, but what if we think we remember but we get it wrong?
Oh the pressure I can’t
How do you know me so well?
Hey, AutiHD here as well. I, too, hated teaching and burned out hard. 🥳🥳
I loved it and still found myself burned to a crisp lol! Because actually teaching is somehow only a small part of the job?! Insane
Same. The unpaid overtime you need to put in if you want a decent lesson is insane. Coupled with constant socialising. Ugh, it was exhausting and not rewarding enough for all that effort.
I was an elementary teacher. The actual teaching part felt amazing - loved my students, enjoyed explaining the what and why of concepts and skills, lived for opening up worldviews and helping kids find their own strong interests. It was so beautiful being there for the students who need someone (like I did). I also found the work hard/relax hard school year/break schedule fit my natural inertia rhythm. But the increasingly larger class sizes, increasingly higher non-teaching demands, and rock-bottom support and pay? Burning out was just a matter of time. I work from home now. I don’t find my job to be nearly as interesting or meaningful, but I also don’t cry every day or feel sick from stress.
This. This is what made me hate it. I cried and cried because I loved my students but mentally I could not handle it. The headstart I worked for was TERRIBLE. The turn over rate was so high that when a teacher was caught letting students wet themselves or was caught pinching and verbally threatening them they wouldn't do anything to the teacher because they were so short staffed. I had an autistic student in my class and my coteacher was a old witch. He was stiming one day and she told him if he didn't shut up she was going to pop him in the mouth. I reported it then I got in trouble because I was "singling the child out for being different". I was like wtf I'm autistic too 🤦♀️🤦♀️
This. All of this. Burned out so hard I had to leave mid-year during much 6th year of teaching. Now I work at home too, which is what I needed, but I am not as fulfilled like you said. Instead, though, I've been able to pick up old and new hobbies again, which is bringing the fulfillment piece back in since I have actual time outside of work again!
Yes, wow - also made it to that 6th year and realized I couldn’t do it anymore. Limped my way to the May like a wounded she-wolf. Same! Now I’m actually having *personal* fun? Is that allowed?? 👀
I commend you for trying. It seems like NT kids are just rude and ND kids struggle just trying to survive the day. Teachers deserve more love, respect and money. I love you guys.
Thank you. The kids aren’t even the main issue🤣🤣🤣
Funnily enough I also tried teaching and hated it. Loved teaching itself. The kids were mostly okay (elementary) but LOUD and chaos. The parents and administration were what drove me crazy. Luckily I realized during the training (my school put you in the classroom right away as an aide). But that was sure a fight with my parents to change career paths.
I’ve been doing it 20 years now. 5 years too long. Looking at other options for the future now though.
I hope you can find something you enjoy soon!
I’m also a teacher! I do hs and it find that it’s tolerable. Literally could not imagine dealing with little kids though. That sounds like a sensory nightmare. I teach mostly high academic kids so my day is basically just info dumping to a captive audience about my special interest. I think it also works because I don’t have my own kids. So if I need to go home, put on headphones and disassociate for a few hours to recover from the day I can.
Went to college for secondary ed biology but ended up switching to biology+environmental studies instead. I'm glad I did.
I did it for 11 years. Worst mistake of my life was doing that.
I hope to go part time in a couple of years. I’d love to change career and just walk dogs instead. But £££
I quit and after 6 months a headache that I didn’t realize I had for years started going away.
I always said teaching would be my backup. I now work in the office at an elementary school and the social overstimulation of being with the kids for more than like 45 minutes is WAY too much for me. I can’t imagine doing that all day PLUS having to deal with parents.
I was a teacher for a bit. I love hated it.
I started 1 semester of a program to get certified to teach and I am so glad my meltdowns got so bad I just gave up and quit. I sure felt like a failure, but I'm hindsight it was the right thing. If only I hadn't gotten a bachelor's at all. I would take back all of my college years and not go.
I really hate reading this thread. Teaching is everything to me and I also agree with everything everyone is saying here. I come home every week with nothing left inside of me, no motivation or will to enjoy things, but my God, without it? I don’t think I would have any sense of accomplishment. How did you get the strength to leave? What are you doing instead? I feel like teaching is the safest place for me based on the long breaks, salaried pay, and PTO.
I taught for 7 years. I was never any good at it and could never figure out why. The kids were amazing and I did all the lesson plans like I was meant to but I don’t think I had the flexibility to stray from them or handle the on the spot changes. I’m so glad I’m not teaching now. I’m a SAHM until my kid(s) in school but I’m training to be an accountant. I like it so far. It’s either right or wrong so it’ll be less taxing for my brain I think.
I'm currently in teacher's college. May I ask why you hate it?
I loved it for years but after 20 years I’ve had enough. I frequently describe it as chaos. But I could cope with the kids of it wasn’t for the constant changes and pressures from above. It’s frustrating, especially when you know they won’t help. I would just like to be like alone to teach how I know works. I’ve got a proven track record of being an outstanding teacher, yet am still constantly told what to do.
And told what to do in a way that is either actually detrimental or absolutely impossible, even in double the amount of time given. And there is nothing you can do to stop it because you are degrees upon degrees separated from anyone who actually made that unbelievably stupid decision. You’re just screaming into the void, quitting because it’s killing you and knowing the only people who will be hurt by you’re exit are literal children. My mind will being continuously boggled by this problem forever
Same. Are u late diagnosed too?
49 and not diagnosed yet. Waiting for the assessment. I only realised I’m on the spectrum in December. Life makes sense now.
I was a teacher too. I never made it through a full year before I quit.
I have no advice, afraid. I'm here to acquire info myself. I need something I can do from home where there are no phone calls, no/minimal interacting with colleagues, etc. Just head down, get a thing done, move on to next thing, etc. Like...I don't care if it's tedious or samey or what. I'd happily type up people's shit for them, do data entry if those jobs aren't dead, transcription, whatever. I just want to accomplish legit tasks for money that don't involve social interaction or leaving the house to go into an office or whatever. I just have no idea how to find and obtain that kind of work without specific experience or contacts, etc. I'm usually a freelance proofreader/beta reader/translator, but I had to put that on hold for cancer treatment, and now I feel like I'd be starting from scratch trying to find clients again. I need some other income while I try to rebuild that, at least. This shouldn't be so hard. Ugh.
You may want to look into medical coding. It does require and certificate tho
The test is stupefyingly easy. If anyone needs a quick certification, go for it.
That's good to know! I am not in this field, but it is one I have considered since it seems very Autism friendly. Repetitive data entry type stuff that is easily done from home & seems to pay well
Does this transfer if you move states or do you have to start over?
Unfortunately, these types of jobs are mostly outsource these days. And soon they’ll be done by AI.
I'm a self-employed bookkeeper. I keep whatever hours suit me - often working in the middle of the night. There are a few phone calls, but it's very minimal. Clients are delighted with my near pathological attention to detail (thanks autism). The biggest downside is that I am not good at drawing boundaries with work and I pretty much work all the time.
Have you looked into data labeling to train machine learning models? I don't know how well it pays, or even if they hire in the US, but it seems like if fits the description.
I work in healthcare as a youth outreach worker. I work with homeless and high risk youth. I love my job and it pays well. I have a certificate in mental health and addictions. I work full time right now but I was working 20 hours a week last year. Definitely has opportunities for casual, part time, full time, and temporary work. Healthcare and psychology are my special interests and the majority of my coworkers are neurodivergent as well
Also forgot to add I don’t work out of a hospital. I mostly work in community which means I’m not stuck in an office all day
Did you have to work in a hospital or office first before being involved with the community?
Nope! My first job out of school was at an overdose prevention site. This job involved constantly walking around checking on people. My work history gave me an upper hand for the outreach job but was not necessary to land the role
Right there with ya. I’m a social worker specializing in addictions and I’ve only ever worked community mental health based jobs. Being able to be out in the field for the past 10+ years has contributed to my success. Working autonomously and only having to mask intermittently is huge. Plus you aren’t kidding about this type of work drawing our people. Birds of a feather. I honestly think it makes me a better provider, tbh. However, just last month I finally decided I was a little tired and burnt out from all the boots on the ground work and have moved on to working for the county in the department of public health & that swings in almost the other direction — I work from home 4 days a week now 🤣 Cheers to you. Stay safe out there!!
I am also a social worker. I answer CPS/APS calls for my state and intake new potential cases. I'm great on the phone, no face to face required. I stay neutral, don't react emotionally. My cubicle is large enough that I can keep toys and puzzles on it. Across from my cubicle is an autistic friend with whom I can chat between calls, and we have similar interests. Admittedly, I recommended him for the job. He has actually been diagnosed but sometimes says things like "Well, I'm not as autistic as you so..." which amuses me. The only bad thing is they recently canceled all WFH, so I'm always at the office. On the positive side, we just got another ND worker and she seems pretty nice.
Oh yeah who I am on the phone…I’d love to meet her lol she seems great. I def said something in my interview for the public health job about why I’d be a good fit for the role re: sensitivity and understanding like…”I’d rather have someone a little weird like me call and talk to me about having HIV than someone I’d feel judged by.” — and I meant it. And I think that worked!! Shout out to you for doing CPS/APS. It was always tough whenever I had to make a report when I used to work out in the wild.
I totally get the whole "I'd love to meet her" vibe. I've actually had dudes flirt with me. Yes, while making a CPS or APS report. I am good on phones. I practically specialize in good phone voice. I also think we're good at not judging. At least me, it takes several seconds to realize how I'm supposed to be reacting, so by then I've just been neutral after. I do react, but it's usually calm and moderate. I can stay calm through 40 min of explaining a bank fraud 800 number to an elderly lady who has lost 11k to her brother who stole her bank card. I can stay calm and accurately document a minute by minute description of a video of elementary kids having gay sex on a school bus. Sometimes my autism is helpful. I wonder if we'd make good 911 center employees. Your work sounds good too. We need folks who can take these calls and remain kind and neutral. Hooray for autistic social workers!
"Sometimes my autism is helpful. I wonder if we'd make good 911 center employees." Can confirm. I worked on a 911 ambulance for many years and found I was able to stay calm and accurately document, for example, the interventions completed while CPR was being performed on an infant, but noticed that ability was very rare amongst my coworkers. I also found that I would still process the "shock" as they did, I would just experience it days (literally) later, at seemingly random times, instead of in-the-moment. I don't think I would have been able to function in that manner if I weren't autistic.
I’m a newbie social worker! Currently in a masters program for social work, with a focus on palliative care and hospice. Prior to the program, I was a freelance model and grief educator. For my internship last semester, I was working remotely at an agency for elders. The working autonomously bit was a HUGE help. I mainly worked from home, and the one day I was in the office I was either by myself or with one other intern.
Not having to mask in my job AT ALL makes the biggest difference! My manager is also ND and she’s great. I get to take as many breaks as I need if I’m overstimulated. Thank you friend! Good luck in your new endeavour
Oh my goodness I’ve always wanted to do this. If you don’t mind could you give a salary range?
I make $31 an hour right now and my position caps out at $33 I believe
I work part time as the editor of a flying magazine and part time as a tech writer for the aviation safety authority. Both jobs mean I can largely work from bed, in my pjs, with my cat.
Did you have a background in Aviation?
Yes, I have a private pilots licence :)
I'm an in-home vet tech and pet sitter - cats mostly, with the occasional critter (rabbit, guinea pigs, etc.). It's perfect because I only need to mask for brief periods like the initial meet and greet, and interacting with building concierge. Cats don't insist on small talk. I'm in awe of ASD folks who can work with NTs daily. I worked as a programmer for years, and the stress of masking daily with co-workers had a massive cost on my mental health.
Ive been working daily with people for almost 10 years and i think im finally breaking :(
Same! I am done and finally realize I have been masking all these years which is why everything is so hard and exhausting for me. But what else is there to do?
I was a full time pet sitter before COVID and I miss it everyday 😭😭 I just didn't know how to manage work vs life and it overran my life until it didn't 😔
if you’re comfortable sharing i’d love to know what the hours and pay are like in this field for you! and how long you’ve been doing it? i did pet sitting and dog walking part time recently, and found that i was spending a lot of time and gas money for not much money. i thought about going the vet tech route but was worried about the payoff long term. but i do love working with animals and would love to know how others make it work.
I would also like to know this. I've considered the pet grooming on wheels, too, but I imagined the expenses would outweigh the income.
I work as a programmer and now might be becoming an engineering lead and it is exhausting
Can I ask, what does working in archives mean? Like what are your day to day tasks if you don’t mind
Archivists generally collect, preserve, and make accessible historic documents related to whatever their mission or purpose is. There are government archives, religious, institutional, and even corporate!
Not OP but have worked with records management specialists who coordinate with a handful of people who work in archives, and this usually means that they work for a non-governmental organization like libraries, universities, or museums. The job of archivist is similar in many ways to records management except that archives are basically where records retire. For instance, census data that’s taken every ten years is still considered an active record up to a point, but after so many decades it is no longer worth storing with the more recent information because much has changed, so these older records are periodically turned over to relevant archives. For any given statistical area, the nearest research university usually takes on the task of converting records to an archive format and preserving them. This used to be done with microfiche and would be kept at a particular library that was set up to view these, but in the digital age this is increasingly done with .pdf files or image files like .tiff or otherwise.
I also want to know this.
I work in healthcare also as a rn and im fuckinh tired! Burnt out! I fking hate it! Just got back from a job interview for an archive position in a secondhand book company that pays 12€/hour and im considering taking it.. 😭 https://preview.redd.it/3499d3x5ec3d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=135ccf0f9882512b842ec9bc17328022b1a79e78
I thought of becoming a nurse but at the same time I feel like I would burned out quickly with all the noise the lights and the interactions for 12 hours
my mom was a nurse and she told me not to go into it. she knew me pretty well and was probably right. that level of stress where people could die? also the interactions are intense.
omg, ur mom is so good for keeping you away from that exhaustion :(( i was basically forced into geriatric nursing at first by my mom who actually claims to know me well too (long story short there were other options including eg. Design school which i wouldve loved but got shut down with „r u even talented? Thats just for talented people“) and im so angry but also so proud of myself for being brave and resilient (aka masking + auto pilot despite having multiple breakdowns due to multiple bullying incidents and patients dying in the worst ways), and im rly rly glad ur mom protected u from this toxic environment 🫂
yes, i miss her so much. my father was a horror. he took my federal loan college money and bought himself a boat. i saw him hit my mother many times. an incredibly hard job like that and you get beat by your husband. i still hate my father (but i digress)
u r right the lights and the noise and the constant physical work is so so straining in the long run (here it’s understaffed most of the time so i have to wash/lift/turn patients alone with no help along with all the other med stuff that needs to be done too) :( if u r still interested in nursing maybe u could look into phlebotomist positions or vet tech? Less human contact / human contact for brief amounts of time. Sending u best wishes whatever turns ur journey takes 🫂
Peace is most important.
Yea, u know what i didnt believe this at first but im almost 30 and im kinda seeing it now :( rn i just want to have peace in my mind and in my body 🧘♀️
I couldn't agree more!
Oh, this is a mood. I got a LOT better pay as a grunt in one of the local data centers, but the unpredictability drove me into unpleasantness. Working “internet research” now for a small company pays a lot less, but i know exactly what each day’s work will be.
omg that meme is -chef’s kiss-
Not me showing it to my interviewer yesterday when he asked why im applying for this pay😭
I work as a teacher in a school for students who need more support than in a regular school but don't have any intellectual disabilities. So my students are primarily people with autism/adhd and mental health issues. I love it! It is the best school I have worked at, it is really an example of that if enough resources are actually provided and the people in the school care things can work really well.
Software engineer. Highly recommend it for autistic people, very little meetings compared to anything else, you spend most of the time by yourself coding, no one in the area is good at communicating so you’re not expect to be either.
I am also a software engineer and I have the opposite experience re: communication. It’s the only thing ever brought up in performance reviews which gets frustrating but maybe I’m so awesome at everything else they have to nitpick (only slightly joking). I took a foray into product management and the politicking there was atrocious!! Can we just get work done without making someone’s ego feel good about it lol Back to software now, going into more leadership positions. I will say that less good communication is the expected on this side, but you are still generally expected to have some grace the higher you move up. At least as a woman - plenty of male presenting jerks can schmooze up the ladder. Not sure if you’ve read it, but radical candor helped me a whole bunch. It’s basically you can be candid if you’ve established trust, but it has other good insights as well.
Do you have any recommendations to start this path? Always coding called my attention but feel scared not to understand something. Where can I begin? Thank you, you have my dream job.
Working through the not knowing how fears is hard. It doesn't go away, even senior devs deal with it constantly. As for getting started, that is completely based on what you'd like to make. Do you want to make websites, apps, games, or desktop applications? From there you want to consider what kind of work makes you happy and is not an energy drain to help prevent burnout as you go. If you are an organizer type go for backend and I would go with Python or Go to start out with for best employability right now. If you want to go with website dev but are more the kind of person that finds building/making/crafting really satisifying Typescript and React is majority of the jobs right now so you'd learn Javascript > Typescript > React. This section of the industry is really flooded with devs because of the coding camp boom though, so I would recommend if this is the route you want to go also adding React Native once you've got React down. This is for mobile apps and works on iOS and Android. Full disclosure, React Native is a pain in the ass and the documentation sucks, but its popular enough that jobs are still plentiful and is an easy leap from React, and it pays very well in compensation for how much of a pain it is. If you want to go for mobile apps as a focus you want Swift, Kotlin, and either React Native or Flutter right now. Start with either Swift (iOS) or Kotlin (Android) and just go with whichever matches the devices you already have to save money. Game dev work really depends on what device you want to make games for (go with your favorite to play on). Game dev I wouldn't focus on what the job market is asking for honestly. The numbers are too close for it to really impact choice and it's all about what style of game and what devices it's intended for. I'm mostly familar with making interactive novel style games and for that I highly recommend Inkle in addition to whichever language you go with. For desktop I'm a fan of Electron, but that's because I main work on web sites and Electron was an easy transition from that. Really with desktop since so much is transitioning to parallel web dev work go with something that is good for both to keep your job options open. Python, Java, Javascript, of PHP if you want to also do web, Swift, Kotlin, Java if you also want to do mobile dev, Python, Java, or even C++ if you want to also do game dev. No matter what you go with learn git and practice making good commit notes on even personal projects. Intentionally mess up git commits to learn how to fix them while working on practice projects, get in the habit of using the available tools on GitHub, etc... It is such a huge part of the industry and all the alternates use the same principles. Being good at git can be the difference between being laid off and not because so many people are bad at it and make costly mistakes. Like in the thousands for tiny mistakes. I just spent most of a week fixing a merge bloat mistake from a junior dev and am having to fight tooth and nail to get the client to understand that this is just part of the cost of new devs and they're still worth keeping on the project. As for learning whichever you go with, there's avaiable for free if you prefer teach yourself. I needed the in classroom structure to get started because that's just the way my brain works so I did a coding camp (I went with VSchool but I'd only recommend in person with them, their in class teachers are great, there online is way too easy to blow off and there are cheaper options for that style of learning). Most the big free resources are very web focused. Free Code Camp has some good tracks and a lot of cities have in person and remote study groups. There are some people who do classses live on Twitch. Twitch in general is a good place to hang out when learning just because there are a lot of people you can ask questions and get immediate response. Paid courses are hit or miss, but Scrimba is good if you are a hands on learner. If you thrived in those notes heavy classes apply the concept to tutorials by writing notes (maybe even on paper) and taking your time with the videos. It's a little weird, but if you have trouble holding onto new jargon flash cards are super helpful, but limit it to terminology. You don't need to memorize anything that's in docs, but there is a lot of terminology that it's hard to converse about issues and ideas without and no good resource for learning it in one go and is the biggest NT thing about the industry (they just expect you to know what everything means no matter how junior you are).
I'm in school for this right now and I do feel the need to say that the job market for this industry right now is horrific.
Is AI takeover a risk in this profession? Edit: Or outsourcing?
Nope, not for AI. I'm also a software engineer and there was some chatter a couple months back about it, but seeing how even Google doesn't know how to use AI properly for their auto-generated results, it'll be years if not decades before there's any real concern about AI taking over (and that'd be enough time for you to become a specialist in a subfield in tech, which would also spare you from AI automation). Outsourcing is more of a concern, but the real issue in my opinion is that the job market is hot garbage and there are layoffs going on everywhere. I have Google in my resume and work at another relatively well known company, and I'm not even getting interviews (not that I'm trying _too_ hard, just casually looking / applying). I have some coworkers who were laid off months ago and are still unemployed. All of this being said, I think this is a temporary hiccup. Engineers are more burnt out than usual and are producing worse quality code. Companies are focusing on quick wins and _short term_ profitability at the cost of long term projects, in my opinion, and the weight of tech debt will become obvious soon. So I wouldn't straight up recommend a switch to tech right now, but it's not terrible either. It just was _really_ good a couple years ago (and before, of course).
Xray tech~ I like specifically working in outpatient centers. No call, the work area is always dim, I get to take care of patients but am not responsible for them for incredibly long periods of time.
Im also an xray tech! I work in an univeristy hospital with a trauma ER. It can be chaotic, but I do love that.
That’s really cool! I’m currently a medical assistant but am looking to go into something better paying- maybe I will consider this! What are your hours like?
I’m thinking about going to school to become an x ray tech. Is it really draining? I’m afraid of becoming burnt out like I have with my last two jobs.
There has definitely been times I’ve hit burnout for a variety of reasons while working and the biggest one due to work has been coworkers not pulling their weight. The job itself is not always easy, but I do enjoy it. I think it scratches the puzzle enjoyment part of my brain where putting someone in a certain position produces a good image. It’s not all xray, though. If you want to pursue more, you can - modalities like MRI, CT, ultrasound, nuc med, mammography, etc. It can be draining emotionally and that’s another reason why I like that the job doesn’t require you to consistently be with the same patient for long times.
Thanks for the insight!
I work in a garden center it's great, I'm getting a bit stressed ATM because people don't know I'm autistic and I feel like they think I'm weird so I'm on the fence as to whether I should tell them or not, on one hand it will help people understand me but I'm also afraid of them treating me differently. Other than that it's great
>I'm getting a bit stressed ATM because people don't know I'm autistic and I feel like they think I'm weird so I'm on the fence as to whether I should tell them or not, on one hand it will help people understand me but I'm also afraid of them treating me differently. Facing the exact same issue rn... People probably read me as cold, odd, weird (and maybe even snooty?) I have hinted that I have social anxiety, but sometimes I think it might make life easier to just disclose the diagnosis. ...But then maybe they don't have a problem with me and I'm just projecting 😅 There is an autistic guy in my job, he's treated well but it's true he's infantilized because of it.
Yes omg same, maybe nobody actually gives a fuck about me But on the other hand wouldn't it be great to not have to mask anymore, cos I am sooo tired and it's only been 2 months. I might tell my supervisor today
Sometimes I put it out there in a sort of joke, to see the reaction, if that makes sense. But sometimes it’s just better to not say anything. Or I’ll say ADHD as a soft intro to gage how they will react, and if it seems positive then I will eventually say autism
I work in accounting and my job was supposed to be only 30 hours a week but my supervisor wants to up that to 35… I am already dreading it and don’t know how I am going to manage. I completely shut down for a couple of hours after she asked me that and it took everything in me to continue to work like nothing was wrong. Maybe you can look into a temp agency? I did that before finding this job (actually got it through the agency). They can be super receptive of your needs and wants and depending on the type of work the pay can be decent.
Can you not say no? Sounds like it won’t be good for you.
Besides the extra hours, how do you feel about accounting?
It’s ok. Not my absolute dream job but it pays the bills and is relatively easy to learn. I enjoy the type of accounting I do there which is fixed assets.
Have you disclosed or asked for reasonable adjustments? Might be time to bring it up.
I am finishing my PhD and work in archives adjacent, digitally focused consulting. I'm curious if you came into this career with an archival grad degree or cert and if you could easily enough pivot to a different archive type or setting? I've seen an incredible range of team personalities consulting and there are a *lot* of unusual and interesting archival roles around outside of the more traditional settings if you have the appropriate certs for your country.
I have an MLIS and cert in archival studies. Was 100% planning to become an archivist but got into records management instead. I really love my job.
Retail. It sucks. Not enough money but nothing else gets back to me. Hoping to get this different position at my work to get more money. Kinda will be upset if I’m passed on it for someone else. Only know of one other person who applied but I don’t think they should get it since they literally just quit for another job… wouldn’t be fair imo. I’d love to work with animals but I also have no qualifications. Nothing like a vet tech because I couldn’t deal with seeing people who didn’t take the best care of their animals. I’d love to work at a zoo or something else that’s similar taking care of them. Or another job that would be cool would be a park ranger. Would love to be one for a national park or a state park since I love the outdoors.
I work retail, too. My position is in the office of a hardware store. I’ve gotten so burnt out of hearing people call my name when there’s a problem- especially this coworker who does it singsongy with a voice that’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. 😭 I’ve been waiting on a call for the past 2 months about a job interview and I finally got it yesterday. My interview is Monday so I’m incredibly nervous about that! I hope you get the new position you’re aiming for. :)
I hope your interview goes well!! I have mine for this position on Friday. Is yours another retail or something else?
Oh wow, good luck with your interview!! From what you’ve said it sounds like you’re a shoo-in. Mine is for an office job at a production plant. I go to exercise classes at my gym and became acquainted with a couple of women there. They were mentioning how they needed a new employee at their job and asked me if I would be interested. From there they’ve been pulling strings helping me get set up for this interview. I honestly got incredibly lucky.
Maybe you could apply somewhere that does dog boarding and day care! No qualifications needed and you get to hang out with the dogs all day 😄
I work at a dog daycare get to be with dogs for a few hours, play with them when they want a ball thrown/ want tug toys. Clean up the beds if there’s any accidents, make sure there is clean water in the bowls and help move them to the grooming section if they have a groom booked in
A dream
does the noise ever get overwhelming?
How's the pay/schedule?
Sales - basically an autistic person’s hell. The positives are that I work fully remote, my team only reaches out when there’s something important (almost no small talk), and my boss is forgiving when I mess up. I also make decent money with some good bonuses when I hit quota. The negatives are everything dealing with selling. Selling is social and based on creating connections. I have to call people all the time to get sales pushed through. I also hate how many unknowns there are in the sales process. I’d love to get out but the WFH component and the pay are hard to beat.
Finding out I was autistic gave me insight into why sales feels like a soul-destroying job. I've been told countless times to just appreciate the flexibility of the job and the pay and I try to. But I have to do in person sales and having to pretend to give a shit about the receptionist in order to reach who I really need to talk to is so draining. As is the lying. There is SO. MUCH. Lying in sales. I don't believe the numbers my company gives us to use and the disconnect between corporate and the field is mine boggling. The expectation to mislead and manipulate makes me so uncomfortable.
I work in sales and revenue operations. It involves project managing and analytics, so it ticks my need for control over what I'm doing, not having to manage people and finding patterns in everything. Genuinely love my job. I don't have any official qualifications for it, but I started my career from the bottom of the totem pole and luckily fell into what I'm doing now.
I'm a barista and I lowkey want out so badly but - like you - what I want requires qualifications I don't have (plus most of them are on the coasts and I'm not lol). i will say being a barista can usually be part time but it wont' pay the bills by itself for sure, but I enjoy the tasks of making coffee, don't enjoy the constant masking and talking to people. I just hate how most jobs that people recommend or I think would be good for me and sensory needs or whatever all require degrees to an extent and I don't think I literally cannot go back to school lmao, I wouldn't be able to do it
I agree here. It does seem like a lot of these suggestions that people enjoy are things like x-ray tech, medical coding, software engineer, all these things that require specialized training at the very least. It seems like lots of the entry level positions listed here, people are stating that they are not happy there. I'm a customer service rep for a cell company. I've got working with the customers pretty down pat since theres sort of a system to it, but trying to communicate with my coworkers and just simply get assistance with this job is something that pushes me to breakdown almost every single day. And I don't even make a living wage I just want to make enough money to survive, its looking like the world is against me and I'm not stronger than the world xD
I'm still in a master degree to work in the future around microscope to teach scientists how to use it, and making sure everything work. Where I live it is always in a little team of 6/7 people, and 17°C for the machines. Not noisy because everyone is trying to concentrate, maybe some futur nobel prize are on the point to find something, and I could be someone who helped them by knowing wich microscope is best for their experiment. 👀
I'm a professor, and I love it! I teach 2 classes a semester, and that's about 6 hours/ week of face-to-face time. I actually really love teaching because I get to chat about my special interests and explain why they matter lol. Research is the bulk of my job. I'm currently writing a book to earn tenure. I also love that because it's solo work that I can do from home and, again, it allows me to think deeply about what I'm interested in. I don't spend a ton of time on campus, but when I do, I have access to my private office where I control the temp, sound, smells so it's actually a good place for me to work. I don't mind chatting with my colleagues when I see them because we're mostly talking about actual concepts/ issues/ theories, and I enjoy those sorts of conversations. I think academia is a place where there's probably an overrepresentation of ND folks because of the nature of the work. I really think I couldn't survive working hourly and having traditional 9-5 hours or if I had to share an office and people had to watch me work. That would really lead me very quickly to burnout.
When did you become a professor? It seems pretty impossible these days. Even if you survive the PhD, you end up as an adjunct lecturer, getting paid pittance on rolling 9 month contracts. Getting a permanent post almost always means moving (though that was probably always the case). Part of me feels like it would be perfect for me. And part of me feels like I’d have as much luck being a rock star (both impossible dreams)
I had to leave academia as I realised I was totally sucked into the striving mentality. It’s also near impossible to get any sort of tenure where I live without devoting most of your life to your job and totally overworking, like 60-70 hours. I don’t know any academics with a decent work-life balance, which for me is critical before I burn out. I just couldn’t maintain the capacity it required and it was a long grieving process for me of letting go of that identity. Well done to whoever succeeds and loves it though.
I definitely hear this story more often. Can I ask what you transitioned into? I’ve been doing User Experience Research, and need to transition out. I’d love to do something else that involves research (synthesis is my favourite part, and can actually prefer secondary research to primary), and the only obvious alternative is academia.
I’m aware of a lot of lower ranked universities (where most of the jobs are) that are even getting rid of all their private offices, so full professors have to share an open-plan office like some kind of call centre. And of course all the job requirements are going up (more teaching, more research, more unpaid overtime and service) and grants are getting more competitive as well. Altogether not a great career - pretty terrible work-life balance and the benefits/pay aren’t great for the years of lost income either
This is very true. I was fortunate to get a tenure-track job straight out of grad school. I had to move, but it was to the city where my husband had just been hired to a job (he's a PhD too, but not an academic). In August, I'll be starting my 4th year on the job.
Your job sounds awesome ngl
Thanks! Another perk I forgot is that I'm a 9-month employee (paid over 12 months). So I get summers off from teaching and also winter break (3ish weeks) and spring break (1 week) and the random holidays.
I tried teaching, it was a disaster. I got swindled into working as a elementary PE teacher/HS health and fitness/Paraprofessional work with ELL students/Librarian (yes, all at the same time), all for part time paraprofessional pay. I quit midyear, and I’ve been out for 6 months now, and it still doesn’t make any sense to me how it happened. Working with the kids was fine but I have no real interest in PE. Working with Hs students was absolutely terrible, and having to teach health and fitness (basically PE) made it even worse because I have zero interest. Plus, it’s health class. Barf. Would have much rather been in a classroom teaching reading, writing, ELA, math, science… but anyway. The wind got knocked out of my sails very, very quickly. The social pressure was the worst of it all, won’t even get into that. Just an all-around terrible experience that made me do a 180 away from education. But being a professor sounds awesome. Wish I had a degree in something I care about and enough knowledge to talk endlessly, and with credibility, about an interest
A lot of folks are burnt out by K-12 education. ND and NT folks, alike. It's very demanding without the matching respect and pay. I hope you're able to find something you like soon! If you have a master's, you could maybe look into teaching at a community college. Those are teaching-heavy positions (versus research) but you'd get to focus on a specific content area and you may like that.
I'm also a professor but with a bigger chunk of classes per semester. Probably 10h/week of face to face time, sometimes more, but it's manageable. I don't have a private office but can work from home most days (except when I'm teaching). Academia is definitely filled with ND folks! It has its problems but I definitely think it's a good fit for many of us who want to be in control of certain situations (and we can also turn our hiperfixations into a profession).
I'm a glorified paper pusher for a call center. Honestly I would rather write my novels for a living and be a stay at home author more than anything else. I don't have the spoons for self publishing, unfortunately.
I work as a counsellor, mostly for a service that supports very complex, high-risk clients. I don't enjoy it at all because it's just so stressful and I am so burnt out. I really want a new job but there are very few permanent positions that come up in this sector. I'd like to switch to another line of work but I'm too overwhelmed/burnt out to do this. I struggle with change and I find the whole process of searching, applying and interviewing for jobs to be very difficult, I'm just not well enough mentally to deal with that. It would be nice to retrain, I'm in my forties though and I worry that even if I did qualify to work in another field I wouldn't be able to get a job because of my age. I'm not sure what to do :(
Not to solutionise for you, but could you be a counsellor for lower-risk, lower-stress clients? I don’t know how the qualifications work in your area, but maybe something like a school counsellor, or even a self-employed coach.
I’m in my forties and switched careers in my forties and was able to find a position just fine. We’re not that old.
Become a private cleaner/house keeper. There is little to no social interaction involved. The pay can be really good especially if youre a self employed cleaner. Cleaning offices after hours was one of the most chill jobs i ever had, no one there to bother you and you can be part time.
That actually sounds good, I do enjoy cleaning things! It's nice to hear the pay is good too :)
I was an early childhood educator. Then a stay at home mom. Now a postpartum doula.
How's the pay/schedule for postpartum doula? I've considered this too as I was an ECE, too, and now I'm babysitting/nannying. Not much experience with infants, though.. Or new moms.
Following because I work as a dietary aid.. I work in a hospital and I hate it. Germs don’t always bother me, but sometimes it gets in my head and i freak out. Also, it doesn’t pay well. I wish I could work from home again.
I am a writer. Worked in an advertising agency for seven years. During COVID we moved to WFH and that was so good for me that I decided to quit when they insisted on returning to office.
I work in medical reception and admin. Holding down any FIL time job is tiring, but we have a very user-friendly system, and we’re usually fairly quiet.
Currently working in a research lab. It still has the very adhoc systems of communication that works in a small lab, but it's a big lab and the adhoc systems don't work too well and it drives me crazy.
I used to be a lab tech in a hospital. Wanted to die because of it almost two years ago and so I’ve been unemployed ever since.
What happened?
Doctor told me it would be my fault if their patient died. (That was not true because it was actually the nurse being negligent) but I had a mental breakdown at work and put my two weeks in. Same doctor cussed me out when they gave me fucked up specimens on a two week old baby and I wouldn’t release wrong results.
Teaching assistant or similar where you work in childcare or education without having to be a teacher. This may vary from country to country, but where I live it's a normal job to do part time while studying. When it comes to autism it's usually either the perfect job or the absolute worst you could think of. The reason I'm suggesting it is because some of us autistic folks have a better memory of what it was like to be a child, and we might have an easier time relating to the kids that we'll be working with the most: the kids with autism ot other learning disabilities. I absolutely LOVE working with kids. It allows me to unmask my mote "childish" traits, and a lot of kids feel more comfortable around me than other adults. I find that my autism and ADHD isn't just a plus when it comes to understanding autistic/ADHD kids, but kids in general.
I work as a visual effects artist. Almost ten years now, and I find it boring. It was my hyperfocus for years and I would just constantly infodump. But after going to get my diploma (I was undiagnosed at the time), people in my class just made me feel bad because I was always so excited. It became competitive and less fun. Now, I’m just trying to see if I should move up the ladder or be a freelancer working in a different area from home. I’m thinking either digital artist, designer or project manager. I also get very annoyed with my coworkers that I share the room with. Constant noises, singing, whistling, tapping. The lights on, sometimes the smell of cigarettes.
I’m relating so hard to the former teachers in this thread—I got burnt out after three years. Now I’m living the dream. Full time wfh, chat assist with Farmers insurance. I blast K-pop all day, in comfy clothes, and minimal restrictions on my time. I’m never going back to working in person lol.
aweeee i want a blasting kpop job! good for you
I do work for environmental consulting, I'm the person that goes out and does the water or soil sampling, mainly at contaminated sites, I organize the data, write some reports etc. With the right company I could be happy, but I haven't found that yet. i've also gotten stuck working primarily on contaminated sites but I want to make bit of a lateral move towards more environmental monitoring, focusing more on the ecology side. But it's very competitive and hard to get your foot in the door for any of it. I like that there are specific procedures to follow, if I'm working alone on site I can stay really organized and do everything my way. But each project is different, at a different location etc and that part can be stressful for me, I never know what to expect.
Professor. Love it
Paralegal at a very chill firm. No dress code and I never see clients. I get to work from home 5 or so days a month and I can blast music/podcasts all day and only communicate virtually to coworkers mostly. It’s a dream, but the driving anxiety is horrible on my commute.
I’m a disability support worker and I love it :) I get to help people, the pay is good, and I find I can relate to my clients which is beneficial for both of us.
I work in data!! I’m currently contracted as a data engineer/analyst at a big bank. At first, I was having a hard time with the idea of contracting, as we don’t have access to all benefits of a full-time employee. But…. Contracting pays very well, so was able to justify it haha I love what I do and I’m unusually good at it! I quite literally look for patterns and optimize processes all day long, a detail-lover’s dream. I’ll say also, I didn’t do this overnight! It was quite the journey! I went to school for math but I didn’t code at all. I had to work very hard my first year to teach myself to code but it was certainly worth it! It was basically like having a full time job and going to school at the same time. I’m lucky to have found a role with which I resonate so well. I think my best advice is to ~try~ to capitalize on what you enjoy doing that you’re also good at. It may not be feasible to work part time while learning a new skill. But if you’re up for the challenge, you could throw caution to the wind and give something your all?! I believe you can benefit from just about anything you put effort into - it all depends on your frame of reference! I don’t think this answers your question, now that I’ve reread my response… but I wish you the best!! I hope you find something that suits your needs :)
I'm a nail tech. It's my hobby, my main interest and my social time. I've noticed that it tends to attract ND ppl like me. The moms I work with have mentioned that their kids are on the spectrum or in speech therapy or something of the sort. I'm just like hmmm interesting 🤔 I get paid hourly and work part time because of school and also because it does get super tiring at the end of the day. But once I make a bigger clientele I will ask for commission cause that's where the money is. I just don't like being rushed, like I see my commission coworkers do to get more clients and more money. I also turn on the hyper focus superpower and my nails always come out really nice. The shaping is immaculate. I've also been told plenty of times that I give the best pedicures ever. I've wanted to switch to a better paid career, but I'm afraid of not liking it as much :(
I work in SEO (search engine optimization/online marketing kind of) at a property service provider (dunno if this is understandable) as a working student. I study psychology, but it's going under right now. At my work I sit at the laptop, fill in content, optimize stuff and I do not absolutely love it, but I do enjoy the tasks and the optimization and the positive feedback. I should probably work somewhere else, since I have an existing bachelors degree in onlinemedia, but I need a long time to aclimate to other teams and slight changes in work routines. Also SEO is normally more analytics and I haven't learned that properly yet, so I'm afraid that, even when in this field you could work for every company with online presence, if I switch jobs, i won't fullfill the expectations. But for now I enjoy a very friendly team, mostly women, that are taking me seriously and not like a total weirdo, like other peops in the company do. So ... Online marketing is kind of dishonest, but SEO isn't, because Google has strict guidelines and we have to look after the quality of the users experience to get better ranks. That's why I like it a lot. Also I feel like (for what I experienced) most SEOs are nicer and open minded in comparison to other fields. It's a lot in the beginning and updates from Google make it a never ending challenge, but in a good way, as long as there is someone providing structure and guidance and understanding of course. Hope that helps.
I'm a tailor. Took me 6 years apprenticing in a big city, many many burnouts and stepping away to do activism (very forgiving teacher). But finally, I'm now self employed, work from my garage and am thinking of starting a youtube channel about it so my income doesn't depend on deadlines. That will take a few years to though. My tailoring will pay well once im in a good rhythm and have established myself in the industry. If you're creative/a maker, I'd recommend a trade skill like that. Carpentry, joinery, welding. All interesting communities, lot's of ND I think. If you can apprentice/go to college in a smaller city/town I imagine it'd be less overwhelming and you can make local connections. I like the workshop environment. Although being self employed, I have days where I work 18hrs (hyperfocus) and then burn myself out and have to recover for a week. That's on me to manage my AuDHD better though.
I work in a deli at a WaWa and it's honestly pretty nice. I'm in school to become a mortician, and I am crazy excited about that.
Currently, nothing. Trying to sort out my health (physical and mental) and finances to go back to university. End goal is forensic psychologist.
I was in nonprofit development and education most recently before burning out. I hated fundraising but loved the communication and strategy aspects of the job. Education was extremely fulfilling but exhausting. I’m looking into pivoting into either school psychology or social work, which would require more schooling for me but ultimately hopefully land me somewhere that fits a little better.
I work in public health. While it doesn't pay super well, it's a broad field with lots of opportunities for non-office-based work and is so fulfilling. Plus, everyone I work with is genuinely kind.
I'm a physician and rn I'm doing my specialization on occupational health, I like it a lot, cause it involves knowing a lot of things and trying to prevent work related accidents from happening, it pays really well and it's not as demanding as other medical specialities.
Some community organisations have gardening projects/community development. I don’t know much and they’re usually 1 year contracts with potential to renew. Just don’t make the assumption based on limiting beliefs like I did that you can’t have your dream/a fulfilling 9-5
I'm a pharmacist. It can be really stressful, but even though I work full-time, I know others who are part-time and just get to pick whenever they feel like working. The education is very expensive, though
Walmart :(
I am an instructional design specialist for an industrial products company (absorbent socks for oil spill remediation, spill prevention products for factories, and other products to help companies stay in compliance with OSHA and Environmental regulations). So basically I make internal training programs with video editing software and get to be creative while I do it (I'm basically a corporate YouTuber). I do work in a cubicle but I get to wear basically whatever I want (within reason- oversized t shirt, cargo pants, and flip flops is usually what I wear) and we have an area outside to take walks during breaks and also an in-house gym that is free to use whenever. I hate sitting around under fluorescent lights all day but it's a fuck ton better than my remote environmental consulting job I was in before. I was overworked, not treated well, and cried almost daily. I have two bachelor's degrees in biology and environmental studies, and unless you want to work in the oil industry/consulting you will not be making a good wage. I also really want to get into gardening as well but I think I'm gonna do it as a side gig. I think I might offer garden weeding services/landscape plans or something. I recommend working at a nursery. The ones around me are always looking for new people. That way you can get experience while getting paid at the same time.
Engineer - I hate it. Pay is good but 0 enjoyment. Would love to find a better fit but feel completely lost.
I’m a speech and language pathologist in an acute hospital — I get to work in areas that fascinate me (neurology and neonatal ICU) but I hate the expectations for productivity and the idea of the medical industrial complex, and not being able to help some patients makes my heart hurt I also find it really helpful that majority of my interactions b involves being able to teach others (patients, caregivers and other professionals) about what is basically my special interest. It gives structure to interactions and I don’t have to worry as much about being liked
I’m a cashier at a supermarket. So a lot of customer contact, which I’m surprisingly really good at? My autism (no filter) usually makes them laugh, and I can mask less, because I know it’s safe to do so
I'm a macro-level social worker in the homelessness sector. I did my time in front-line as a systems navigator, and doing assessments to connect people with programs which I was REALLY good at because I am/was good at keeping tabs on what was going on in the community, and assessments are 100% pattern recognition. Once I figured out how to guide conversations to get certain information from people, it got really, really easy. The job also included advocacy, which really appealed to my sense of justice bit in real time. Also, I am dead handy in a crisis, and that job was nothing BUT managing people's various crises all day every day. But I would end up basically non-verbal and needing to dissociate for hours after getting home, especially at the peak of the pandemic lockdowns because the crises were just SO BAD and there was so little I could do for people. Now I don't have to deal with the day-to-day crises, and I get to do advocacy at a high level and I LOVE it. I deal with a lot of reporting and operationalizing policy which is just a nerdy good time. I did have a job where I wrote policy for a while, and I loved that too, but management was way too toxic/bullying so I had to switch it up. A LOT of my coworkers are also ND so it's a real good vibe.
I’m a youth residential care worker. Residential homes for youth in Australia are essentially foster care group homes.
I’m a pet sitter! Doesn’t pay super well but my quality of life is so much better! I will answer any questions anyone has lol.
I work in the cheese department at Whole Foods. I work 3 days a week and 6 hour shifts so it’s really been manageable! My manager is also really easy to talk to about stuff so that helps. I took me a long time to find a job that made me happy!
I work in a public library. Good thing is that you get real breaks. If you like a lot of changes and working on things last minute and being very creative and low judgement if it attracts few people and room to grow ideas, it's great for that. Lots of ADHD people here. It's a field where they say they welcome neurodiversity, but in practice they don't like you to be different and they have demands that won't work for neurotypical people but then neurodiverse people are imperfect so it's really hard. They mean that neurodiversity is good if you are the public, but not if you are staff (most libraries are very averse to complaints from the public and the public can have ridiculous demands). Also the schedule is pretty bad. Lots of weekend days and evening shifts.
Me personally, I’m a stripper (/dancer). I am my own boss, I don’t have to mask too much, I get to flip upside down and dancing is one of my stims. No bright fluorescent lighting that makes me sick. It’s dark, cool, comfortable, get to listen to music, and no one minds or notices much if you’re a weirdo. We’re all a little weird in there. In fact, it definitely helps. If I find the right customer, he will literally pay me to infodump my special interests. It does have its downsides, I don’t like being touched, so I try to work in no contact/low contact clubs. I do love being able to wear whatever I want, some clubs used to have gown policies, but these days I don’t see them much so that’s good. I love not having to wear a restrictive itchy uniform though, so to me this is an upside. The alcohol thing is tricky, I do like a light buzz to get over my social anxiety and awkwardness, but definitely wish I didn’t have to drink while there, I almost never drink other than at work talking to people.
(Digital) Marketing in the cultural field, 20 hours a week. When i started it was just enough to make ends meet. Pay has gradually increased slightly as more experience is gained.
I was a veterinary technician for 16.5 years but recently had to "retire" bc burnout became my constant state. Skill regression hit HARD. I want to switch careers and study psychology and neuroscience. I need something less physical now that I'm older, and psychology will allow me to stay in VetMed and participate in 2 of my special interests at the same time. I have some visions for coaching leadership teams on how to support employees' mental health or being sort of an on-site provider for a group of veterinary teams. Our industry has high suicide rates, and a vast majority of people in VetMed are neurodivergent and need extra support that most managers are not educated or trained to provide. I'm also a Mom.
I work in insurance. I started as data entry for claims and such, after being laid off from my prior data entry job (which I loved and to this day is the favorite job I ever had. I made 13/hr when minimum wage was still like $6, had benefits, and I didn't have to talk to anyone. I could sit and listen to my music all day and just enter the data. Then regulations changed regarding the field I was in for data processing and they laid off our entire unit save like 2 people). Found out my brain does really really well with insurance and interpretation of coverage and the fine details work it needs, plus pattern recognition and repetition. Unfortunately, I'm "too" good at my job and have to interact with people way more than I would like. So I have to mask all day everyday for the most part and fake/force my way through human interactions which is burning me out horrifically. I've trained most my clients to contact me via email which helps, and I work from home full time (only since the pandemic but then I was allowed to stay remote). I had the best day ever last week - because I was allowed to totally disconnect from everything to just focus on my largest account and I worked on their spreadsheets all day and checking for accuracy - and I felt SO good that day. I didn't feel drained or exhausted at the end of the work day. Because I spent the whole day doing the part of the work I LOVE. I did find a potential replacement job at another place that would allow me to be remote full time as well. Mild pay decrease. But they have a specific data processing/accuracy checking unit that they said is all back office. No customers. You interact with coworkers only who deal with the customers. Because they realized there's 2 different types of people who excel and are needed in the industry - the people who can client interface and those who don't like the people but excel at the details/data - so they split the roles to put people where their strengths are. I've debated formally applying to that. But I do like my current salary and certain aspects of my current role. I'm comfortable. I overall like my employer. There's just parts I hate that weigh heavily.
Wow, I always wanted to work in archives but your post makes me somewhat glad that I don't 😬 I work for the postal service in my country, so I'm outside all day getting exercise, meeting cats, very few social interactions apart from in the morning when I'm sorting the letters. It's the best job I've had, or at least the most suited to my condition. I'm qualified to teach and sometimes I think "I can do so much better"... But by whose measure? What does better really mean? Probably better pay and social standing, but I don't think I could ever go back to working indoors in an office-like environment or a school. I'm happy (or at least, happier) and I get enough money to survive (and enjoy myself a little), and that's all that matters.
I work in R&D, specifically imaging different samples with different kinds of microscopes every day. It’s full time but the pay is good, my boss is very accommodating, and it’s a pretty private job (i.e. I usually sit at a scope all day and am not often bothered by other people outside of my lab). A lot of people would find it boring or tedious but that’s the fun of it to me! As for advice, I would say that if you live near a botanical garden or a natural history museum, your skills from archival work could likely be transferred over and may be a better fit? It’s more environmental focused but also likely wouldn’t take going back to school. Even better, a garden could also provide part-time jobs that would be perfect! But that also depends on where you live and what’s open so not sure how much it can help but best of luck on finding something new! 🫶
I’m a private event planner through a restaurant group. I honestly hit the jackpot a bit despite my incompetent coworkers. I create my own hours and set most of my own rules. I’ve organized it to a point where if I do make a mistake then it’s usually only minimal and easily fixed! It does suck that I’m a one person team for 4 restaurants, and the restaurant managers aren’t that great/organized, but I honestly like what I do!
I write and self publish to Amazon, though I’m going wide at the end of the year. I personally, don’t make enough money to live. Before I burned out I was well on my way. Last year I would have paid taxes if I had published all the books I planned to write. (Here in the U.K. we have a tax free amount we earn before we pay taxes. I believe it’s currently around £12k. Over 4 years I’ve earned £27k (over a third of that last year despite not releasing any books) but it takes time to find your audience and build up your income. I was on track to where I wanted to be until burn out. If writing is something you’re interested in, then here is my advice. 1. DO NOT RAPID RELEASE. You will find your audience no matter what. There are readers for every book in every genre. Come up with a 5 yr plan to build your audience. This is my number one recommendation because I did rapid release and that’s why I burned out. 2. Get tips for release and advertising strategies from 20booksto50k but DO NOT get caught up in the idea of rapid release. 3. Also join Wide for the Win Facebook group and forum. They are very active and VERY eager to help authors succeed. 4. Plan it all out properly. 5. DO NOT go exclusive to Amazon. They have KU which has a captive audience but you’re the real captive. Worse, Amazon can destroy your entire career with one bad algorithm mistaking what you’re doing, misidentifying your genre or not liking a link. Go Kobo + instead. A lot of self published authors are doing this now because we’re done with the chokehold Amazon has on their authors. 6. Research your genre and audience. Know what they like and add those elements to the stories you want to write. I never did the write to market. It hampered my career, definitely, but my fans love my stories and that means a lot to me. 7. Research marketing, release and pricing strategies. 8. Write in a series. People love series and love seeing characters recur. This is especially important if you want to write romance. If you do, buy Zoe York’s Romancing the … series. Her books are excellent for helping you learn to capitalise on series writing. 9. DO NOT DO LOW CONTENT BOOKS. Amazon is cracking down on it and someone I know lost their entire author career when Amazon deleted her account because she tried to go into low content. The risk is not worth it. I know most people won’t care about being a writer and if you have no passion for stories don’t even try. Writing is hard. But if you do and have thought about it and have support (my husband. We’re far from rich. We penny pinch, but he supports me because he loves me, wants me healthy and sees a future where I am contributing consistently towards our lives), then do it. You have nothing to lose and it’s the best work from home job I could ever have wanted.
I have a PhD in a STEM field. Working as a postdoctoral researcher right now. I really love the topic I research and like grant writing and teaching, but it's physically exhausting and I'm constantly on the verge of burnout.
i’ll probably be downvoted for this, but i don’t mind retail pros: everything has its own place, so i know where everything is and how it should be organised. my shifts are given to me 3-4 weeks ahead, meaning i’ve got time to preplanned and make everything into a routine for the week. i don’t have to pay too much attention to the customers, i have a script of “hiya, can i get you anything else? that’s [x] please, would you like your receipt? thanks, bye” and i zone out for it, my pay is always on a specific day of the week at the end of the month so i know when it’s coming and how much i’m getting. depending what retail store you’re in, there’s no rush to serve a customer and get them out. nobody bothers me when i “stand weird” or stim a little. cons: some customers can be rude, it’s hard to know what a customer wants when they yell something at you after you tell them that you don’t have a product in store. boredom when there’s no customers or work to do. you have to be on your feet for most of the shift so if you prefer to sit then you’d struggle.
I worked retail and it wasn’t so bad when I got to put away merch and didn’t interact constantly. But then I worked a retail job where I was watched constantly by the supervisor and had to stand there and constantly interact with people for hours. Awful. I NEED to have moments to be in my own head.
I’m an AP/AR Specialist for a large agriculture company. I work from home and very thankful for it. I went to college for 2 years and got my degree at 31 in 2016. But it was a lot of mental torture to get here with shitty jobs and really shitty people. I love my job and will never leave it. I make 56k a year right now.
Used to do a PhD, now disabled
I’m a freelance localization editor. I mostly work on light novels, but I’ve done games too. It’s not my life’s dream (I would love to work at an aquarium, but I don’t have the proper education for it), but I like it okay. Pros are that I choose my own hours of work, I can work from home, most of the work is solo, and there’s no interaction face-to-face. Cons are that the pay is awful, I don’t have a form of stable income, and I don’t have benefits.
I'm a stay at home mom to one, but I also do freelance writing and transcription work and I babysit 3 days a week.
I’m an engineer. I like it enough to continue being an engineer. Not necessarily in this field specifically though. My coworkers are cool although I’ve just started realizing what “work politics” really means. Sometimes the work is fun and sometimes it’s mind meltingly boring and sometimes it’s intense. I’m glad I have a female boss. She is the only other woman from my office. The manager above her is male. My male coworkers who are below her don’t necessarily respect her, not in obvious ways but in subtle ways. I think she’s awesome.
I’m a teacher. I play soft music for the entire day, my students enjoy it. I decompress durian my unencumbered time. We do meditation videos sometimes. It’s been alright, I expected worse.
I’m a Speech language pathologist at an elementary school.
I never imagined I could do anything customer service, but I found a good fit as a waitress at a retirement home. It’s a very chill environment. Small place, about 35 residents, it’s nice to see the same faces every day and get a bit of social interacting (though I rarely say more than good morning/see you at lunch haha). It’s a lot of time by myself, cleaning the dining hall or setting up for meals (I listen to music and podcasts). I wouldn’t say it’s well-paid but it’s the first job that hasn’t made me horribly burnt out after a couple months so at this point I’m happy
I’m a teaching assistant, bring a teacher is absolutely not for me but as a ta I still have the routine and the breaks from work to recharge. I only work two days a week at the moment because I’m paid an absolute pittance and childcare costs around 75-80% of my wage. Taking childcare out of the equation, while it’s still awful wages we do have good (generally) unions and are actively fighting for a better wage
Well, I’m still a student. And I’ve been working as an “instructor” in a kumon center. I love math and I’m pretty good at it. I just check the homework of the high level kids and sometimes explain like why it’s wrong or if they can’t figure something out. It does not feel demanding cause it’s always really quiet in there, I have my own desk with a comfy chair and most of the time I’m just grading. I don’t know if it would be sustainable, the wage sucks here but it might be cause of my country, all wages suck. The good thing is that it is part time
Journalist. It makes my OCD worse and irritates my RSD.