Some of this post draws on the ideas of The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment which was a resource guide written for autistic individuals in 2013. While some of its language and thinking has now dated, this book remains a useful resource for autistic adults to navigate the unique culture and unspoken rules of workplaces. It is available for online purchase or by order from your local library.

Finding A Good Job Fit For You

Engaging work is work that draws you in, holds your attention and gives you a state of flow. Regardless of what path you choose to take, feeling satisfied and fulfilled by what you do can give you the energy and motivation to continue on your career path.

Following your inherent knowledge, interests and abilities can help to open up great and enjoyable employment opportunities. Focus on your interests and how to become even better at what you do.

Formal qualifications will give you the edge to stand out from competitors but any books, online education and even social media can help you to link up with careers that align well with your interests.

It is worth thinking about what other ingredients a good job fit for you would involve. Research has suggested that the best job matches for autistic adults in employment are jobs with structure, routine and that align well with personal interests. Clear job responsibilities, predictable expectations and mentoring are all factors that create good conditions for employment success.

If we assume that you know what job you are targeting, there are a number of predictable steps in the process of jobseeking.

Job Searches

Approach your job search with a plan. You can try using a spreadsheet or notebook to keep track of jobs you have applied for, the date of your application, the contact details for follow-up and any updates as they happen. Being prepared is critical for getting employment.

Finding a job opening is actually the easy part. The trickier part is knowing which jobs you are suited for and communicating that you have the skills and experience an employer is looking for. Give yourself time and patience to practice these skills.

There is no ‘right’ job search engine to use but IrishJobs.ie is worth considering because of their recent collaborations with AsIAm researching autistic unemployment in Ireland. JobAlert.ie is a small Irish owned jobsite that is easy to navigate and allows you to search for jobs by county. JobsIreland.ie is the official job search site run by the employment service.

Google searches will help you learn where the jobs you want tend to be advertised and allows you to focus your energies. If you’re not sure, try googling your target job along with your location and see what comes up. You can then target your job search towards those sites where they seem to be advertised.

For example, PublicJobs.ie is for the public and semi state sector, Activelink.ie is for the community and non profit sector and specific recruitment agencies or specialist sites may target your sector.

When you see a job ad that interests you, take a few moments to scan the full ad. This gives you a chance to check the minimum requirements for applicants, job location, work conditions, salary range, hours, application closing date. After confirming that all that is in line with your expectations, save a copy of the job description and person specification if you plan to go ahead with an application.

Keep using your tracking system to keep records of your job applications and the dates you apply. Set yourself realistic targets for how many applications you want to make a day / a week and stick with them. If your targets need to be revised, then do that.

So much of jobseeking feels outside of our control, so when you know at the end of the week that you have kept to your own targets, it can really help when you are feeling demotivated in the face of finding employment.

Plan rest days so that your breaks are intentional and you know when they are coming up and enjoy them guilt-free.

Job Applications

Take your time before applying for the job. Identify the skills and experience needed for the job. Spend some time researching the skills and experience employers generally look for in employees in this sector. This research will help you to learn the language to use on your application.

This previous blog post on how to market yourself for a job application may be helpful to you.

Compile a CV and get references. Show your CV to trusted people around you to get their feedback. Spunout offer a nice tipsheet on CV writing here

If your experience is not matching up, it is time to think about implementing strategies to acquire these. I have suggested some of these strategies below.

Targeted strategies to help with accessing employment

Targeted strategies get you access to employers in ways other than direct job applications. Targeted strategies can include training, mentors, people you know in the industry, agency work or voluntary experience.

There may also be specialised supports for jobseeking and recruitment practices that are open to you, and if so why not use them?

For example, Specialisterne is a specialist consultancy agency for neurodivergent jobseekers in Ireland , AsIAm provide employment guidance and a list of inclusive workplaces and Ahead offer the WAM Work Placement programme for graduates with disabilities. Any of these could be very helpful supports to you in accessing employment.

There may be other opportunities you are overlooking:

If you are in college there may be mentoring or graduate programmes available to you that can help you to gain experience and references.

If you are unemployed you may find support through INTREO or the Local Area Employment Service.

If you are looking for upskilling, Springboard courses are excellent and generally there options there for employed as well as jobseeking people.

If volunteering could boost your skills or contacts, then Volunteer Ireland, Activelink or your library, community or resource centre may be helpful to you.

Employment or recruitment agencies remain a popular way to gain experience and have somebody help you to find your feet in a job.

Also make sure you have a LinkedIn page, that it is up to date and with a professional-style photo and that you have clicked Available for Work under your profile settings. More tips on setting up your LinkedIn page can be found here

Mentoring

A mentor is someone who can guide you professionally to success. Think of someone familiar to you who meets that description, who is a good communicator and who has experience in the profession you are seeking.

You could make contact with this person by email, phone or through someone known to you both, to ask them if they would be interested in guiding or mentoring you as you set out on your career path in their field.

It can be a good idea at your first meeting to suggest to your mentor that you agree some clear guidelines and boundaries for meetings. These could include setting an agenda, agreeing a start and end time for your meeting, allowing time at the end for any questions before you finish the meeting, and agreeing that both the mentor and mentee have the right to end the mentoring relationship if that is what they wish to do. Keep to those boundaries to minimise any conflicts.

Before every meeting, think about what you would like to focus on. It is good to ask questions of your mentor if you need clarity on anything. If a problem occurs, try raising it for discussion during a meeting to see if it can be resolved.

If you start working with one good mentor, it could then lead to building a network out one person at a time. This rehearsal of a professional relationship can also be very helpful when starting to work as part of a team or with a supervisor or line manager.

THE HIDDEN CURRICULM: AVAILABLE ONLINE OR BY LIBrARY ORDER

Autistic Rights in Accessing Employment

The draft Autism Innovation Strategy (AIS) is a cross government initiative that aims to address the challenges and barriers facing autistic people and to improve understanding and accommodation of autism within society and across the public system. While this is a draft policy and has only just been through a public consultation period, hopefully a final AIS strategy will soon be published and include recommended actions across government departments.

Any suggested actions listed below were quoted in the draft format of the AIS before it went to public consultation. These have not yet been finalised but give an idea of the barriers facing autistic people in accessing employment.

Intreo Centres provide employment and income supports and services and have begun identifying sensory rooms or calm zones in their Centres. One goal of the draft AIS strategy is that a sensory room will be available in each Intreo office by the end of the first quarter of 2025. It may be worth enquiring if your local Intreo Centre is planning to develop a sensory room in line with this strategy. The draft AIS has recommended that all Intreo staff receive disability awareness education.

The Public Appointments Service (PAS) provides a range of reasonable accommodations for candidates with a disability as part of the recruitment and selection process. The PAS is supporting the delivery of more inclusive routes into the civil and public service. Efforts are also under way to increase diversity within the PAS interview board member pool and ensure that all interview board members undergo disability awareness and unconscious bias training.

To ensure equity for all candidates, including autistic people, the recommendations for the PAS are to continue to enhance its recruitment and selection processes by taking a universal design-led approach and to gather equality monitoring data in order to support the commitment to increase by 20% the number of candidates with a declared disability, including autism, and who are from an ethnically diverse background applying for roles.

Local Area Enterprise Offices were recommended under the draft AIS strategy to better support entrepreneurship opportunities by adapting their training and mentoring programmes so as to better support the needs of autistic individuals using their services, alongside other under-represented groups, in line with best practice.

To support remote working and entrepreneurial opportunities for autistic people, the AIS Strategy also recommends encouraging the development of autism-friendly workspaces within the Connected Hubs network, which offers a network of remote working spaces and office facilities across Ireland. The goal of this action would be to enable autistic people and people with disabilities to work remotely at a venue that caters for their needs.

The National Development Authority has been recommended under the draft AIS strategy to review existing resources relating to autism-friendly workplaces and identify gaps in information and/or the need for updating information, including guidance on accommodating people with sensory issues in shared office including open-plan offices. The goal of this action would be to enable employers to better support autistic employees in the workplace.

The Importance of Well-Being when Jobseeking

Jobseeking is a stage in life where all people feel their autonomy is threatened. For autistic people, who frequently spend most of their time already needing to advocate for themselves to simply have the same opportunities as everyone else, jobseeking can be exceptionally challenging. Consider any and all supports you may need to access employment and prioritise your stability and ways that you know can help you restore some kind of equilibrium in response to the stresses of this time for an autistic person.

Learn what you need to do well to keep well-regulated during the jobseeking process and try to implement these habits now. Ultimately these habits will serve you well when you get the job.

Sources

AsIAm Ireland’s Autism Charity: Frequently Asked Questions | AsIAm

Autism in the Workplace Report 2021 | AsIAm and IrishJobs.ie

Draft Autism Innovation Strategy 2024 | Gov.ie

Interview with an employee at a majority-autist ic company | Ask a Manager

The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment

What are the Characteristics of the Most Satisfying Jobs? | Indeed