Susan and I have made three major moves to reset our lives, taking us from California to Minnesota to Pennsylvania… and, finally, to Texas. We moved to Texas expecting that I’d teach high school technology and business courses. The girls would have a fresh start at a new school. Best…
Category: Employment
Posts on the employment challenges faced by autistics.
My work has to be perfect. My grades need to be excellent. I dislike mistakes, especially my own. I am a perfectionist, and that’s not a good quality. Anyone trying to turn perfectionism into a positive isn’t really a perfectionist. I hate when people use “I’m a perfectionist” as the…
I used to consider software development one of the few careers, outside librarians and medical examiners, surely insulated from the extroverts too often in charge of human society. Then, along came various project management schemes that forced programmers to act like extroverts. This post discusses Agile software development project management…
My grand plan to write daily fell apart on the night of April 18-19, after a losing battle with an online employment system used by a university. I spent three days preparing documents and then the HR system being used (Workday) choked while uploading my materials. The application was marked…
Autistics struggle because most people have more social skills and extroverts with social skills lead most communities. By the age of six, teachers can accurately predict which students will be successful. That’s true in various nations, on several continents. Research has found, time and again, that the mastery of cultural norms…
“Never publicly discuss your job hunt,” I have been advised by colleagues with the best of intentions. I’d offer the same advice to my students, or any other job seekers. However, other autistics, their families, friends, and allies need to know what it is like for an autistic adult. The…
“What has changed since you started blogging in 2007?” The question from a Facebook follower prompted me to skim the older posts and compare them to now. What has changed over 13 years and a bit? What has remained the same? Have my attitudes changed dramatically, or only a little?…
Getting a job is difficult when you’re autistic. The data aren’t promising: 85 percent of autistic college-graduates lack full-time employment in their desired field. The job interview process works against us in ways it might not work against the physically disabled. Sadly, I’ve noted time and time again, we autistics…
NOTE: This rant is cross-posted and expanded from the Rogue Rhetorician, where I focus on rhetoric and philosophy. It’s been a decade since an academic supervisor wrote that my various creative and non-fiction writings were all of little value. He took my sarcasm, my jabs at academia and academic writing, seriously and…
Susan does a lot to help me function, but it’s unreasonable for anyone, especially me, to expect her to read and respond to whatever I am scribbling or typing. Susan is my wife, not my editor or co-author. Yes, we have worked together on the Tameri Guide for Writers, but not…