Job possibilities according to Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin, a person with high-functioning autism, wrote a letter suggesting some poor job possibilities and good possibilities for people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome entitled "Choosing the Right Job for People with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome". Grandin's list serves as a good guideline for job possibilities and considerations. She suggests avoiding jobs that put significant demands on short-term working memory because that is a limitation for people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome. She advises choosing jobs that make use of the excellent long-term memory that they have.

She divides jobs into four categories with her reasoning for why the job is either a good choice or a bad one.

Bad Jobs:

Air traffic controller - Information overload and stress

She also lists cashier as a bad choice because of the short-term memory requirement, but some people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome disagree about cashier being a bad choice, since cash registers do the calculations for making change, now. However, they do say that it could be a problem if you must interact with too many people.

Good Jobs for Visual Thinkers:

Computer programming - Wide-open field with many jobs available especially in industrial automation, software design, business computers, communications and network systems
Equipment designing - Many industries, often a person starts as a draftsman and then moves into designing factory equipment

Most people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome, and the people who know them, believe that computer programming and other computer-related or Internet-related jobs are good choices. Grandin views herself as a visual thinker, so the jobs she lists in this category are probably ones she could more easily visualize herself performing successfully.

Good Jobs for Non-Visual Thinkers:

Accounting - Get very good in a specialized field such as income taxes

For jobs in this category, she is focusing on people who are good at math or facts. She also suggests that computer programming can be a good job for non-visual thinkers.

Good Jobs for Non-Verbal or Low-Verbal People:

Restocking shelves - In many types of stores

There are not as many employment options for non-verbal and low-verbal people. However, one of the choices she mentions is data entry, which can be a higher-paying job, especially if the person can perform it in specialized fields, such as medical insurance coding.

The list of job possibilities for people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome should not be limited to the ones Grandin suggests, but many people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome or who have family members with those conditions think it is relatively accurate and would be useful for considering jobs for adults with autism and Asperger's Syndrome. Since each person with autism or Asperger's Syndrome has different levels of strengths and weaknesses, a job that would work for one might be too stressful for another. Also, consider the special interests of the person and how they might be used in a job.