First post/about careers

[aftermidnight]

It may be weird that I choose to write about careers as my first post, but it's in my pursuit of suitable careers for myself that really makes me realize that I allow my SA to have too much control of my life. When I'm looking for jobs, I find myself looking for the ones that seem to involve as little talking as possible (I can deal with basic social interaction with familiar people, but you'd find me running for Timbuktu when I have to give an in-depth verbal opinion or explanation). When looking for long-term careers, I find my search much more desperate. I can deal with a warehouse job for a few months, but I'm far too analytical and thoughtful to be stuck in a brainless job for any longer than that. Not to mention that my family would be thoroughly disappointed.

Have any of you had any success finding a intellectually fulfilling career that involves little social interaction? I mean, I've tried the more obvious solution to my SA problems - working on reducing them - but to no avail. I don't really want to constantly act like I am someone who I am not, and I don't want to constantly be doped up either. Avoidance just seems right to me, even on a rational level. Thing is, complete avoidance of lengthy social interactions seems to be near-impossible in every career but mindless, minimum-wage paying grinds. I'm having a hard time.

 

[coyote]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately, all my work experience has been in fields that require alot of social interaction.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I figured out that the reason I was always so unhappy in my jobs was because of this whole social anxiety thing (and/or avoidant personality disorder).

 

[chrisjurban]

I'm worried about it too. My jobs all suck because it's really hard for me to communicate my needs with my employers, and I end up feeling unfulfilled and doing a really bad job. However, since I'm only 19 I'm just talking about simple jobs as like a sales associate or a cashier. I'm really nervous about my long term job. 1, if I'm looking for like a good science job, I need to do some shadowing and that requires ...gasp...me setting it up. Like, what if I had to call Lockheed Martin and ask to shadow a cryptanalyst? Idk, idk. Nervous. And then, with graduate stuff, I have bad perfectionist tendencies and homework anxiety...how am I supposed to study anything. Idk, idk. nervous.

 

[aftermidnight]

@ coyote: how are you able to operate in jobs that require a lot of social interaction? What kind of social interaction are you talking about exactly? Cashier-type small talk, negotiations, sales, running meetings, lectures? Are you fearful but just able to ignore your fears? I was under the impression that those with SA and particularly APD almost by definition avoid social interaction.



@ chrisjurban: don't let people fool you: many, many science careers involve lots of social interaction. A key exception would be lab tech. Another, but much less common, one is medical/science writing, but it is a tough field to get into (a real catch-22 situation: all job ads state that related experience is required, but how are you to get experience when you can't get a job because they all require experience?)

I advise all prospective and current post-secondary students to probe the current job market (e.g. check out sites like monster.com, workopolis.com, etc...) of their intended career. It's one thing to read that a career is "in demand"; it's another to actually know that by probing the job market. The still-looming global financial crisis will certainly paint a fairly poor portrait of the job market for a career, but science careers don't get severely hit by recession, so don't expect a complete turn-around. The current job market for science jobs should be fairly indicative of the future job market. In this job market, I've applied to probably about 30 lab tech positions and haven't heard back from any of them. And I fear that when and if I do hear back from one of them that I will do poorly on the interview and thus likely won't get the job. I hate that people skills are still the deciding factor even for rather non-social jobs.

 

[coyote]

@ coyote: how are you able to operate in jobs that require a lot of social interaction? What kind of social interaction are you talking about exactly? Cashier-type small talk, negotiations, sales, running meetings, lectures? Are you fearful but just able to ignore your fears? I was under the impression that those with SA and particularly APD almost by definition avoid social interaction.

i never thought i had the option of not making a living

so i've been toughing it out in the work force for 30 years

anxiety doesn't necessarily have to stop anyone from doing something - it just makes it more difficult

we all have different levels of tolerance

 

[Aletheia]

It may be weird that I choose to write about careers as my first post.

I don't think it's weird. Work is my biggest issue.

many, many science careers involve lots of social interaction

I was a software engineer in R&D, and you don't get much more backroom than that. It was still social anxiety that killed it: fear that I'd let people down.

I'm far too analytical and thoughtful to be stuck in a brainless job for any longer than that.

I've tried brainless, jobs with as little responsibility as possible. But I found work difficult no matter what it was, even the crappy part-time jobs I had as a teenager, jobs I only survived because I knew they were temporary.

And brainless is in some ways worse. It makes the pain that I've not lived up to my potential more acute. And the boredom gives my mind all the space it needs to chew itself apart.

Sorry, I wish I had some answers for you. But welcome to the forum anyway.

 

[this_portrait]

I'm a part-time event photographer, so I don't have a whole lot of social interaction at my job, really. I just stay in the background and photograph the scenes in front of me.

Pretty sure that if I were to look for a full-time photo job, though, there would most likely be more social interaction involved. Hell, I'm pretty sure social interaction is required to even GET a full-time photo job.