Dyspraxic friendly jobs

[robyn]

I work in a residential school with extreemely difficult and damaged teenagers. Its very pressurised, stressful and changable, but i seem to thrive well in that atmosphere, during work hours at least, i dont cope at all well with uni stresses or personal stress. I find that my creative strengths are a major asset, as is my ability to read the childrens emotions, adapt my communication to them and see problems from many perspectives. Although it is very emotionally draining, and I dont consider it my ideal job, but it is great experince and a fantastic challendge and I have soooo much fun. i really enjoy working, I find it far easier to learn from doing things rather than sitting in a class room, and despite my dyspraxia, disgraphia and add Iv even done well in the past at part time jobs around uni like waitressing and bar work, somehow I can be totally unclumsy during working hours then the minute Im out the door i walk into everything and trip over my feet etc. Iv allways worked though, ever since i was a teenager, and its always been an excape from my troubles for me so I guess its a psycological thing for me. i think if you look for a job you genuinly want to do you'll manage fab. Beside which I dont believe that most dyspraxics cant work, most people have no choice but to work for finacial reason and so many dyspraxics must be undiagnised etc anyways and therefore not recieve adaquate support to beable to not work. maybe a considerable percentage cant work, and maybe many can only work in certain jobs that suit them best, maybe its far more difficult to find a career that fits in with their needs, and maybe it harder to fulfil our potential, and more draining to manage fulltime work than for nts, but i think its unneccessarily pesimistic to assume that the majority of dyspraxics are unable to contribute to the world of work and I think its irresponsible if thats the image danda are portraying. by the way if you enjoy writing and politics why dont you become a free lance journalist? You could even practice while travelling and write about the places and culture you visit.

[Daniel]

Hi Robyn,

Thanks for the feedback on your job, that sounds really positive. What I've found annoying of my jobs until now is that generally speaking I think I've done them pretty darn well but there have been aspects of them (typically having to dealing with irrate customers, or crap bosses) that have made me feel I couldn't cope or just really didn't want to continue the job.

I think finding suitable work is a big step, however there's the big stumbling block of job interviews for more graduate level jobs which I think have prevented me from getting jobs I've really been interested in. I am actually looking at a path of writing at the moment and I've got a couple of things in the pipeline for when I get back, so I certainly don't want to come over as gloomy. I have always worked and while I think the scope of jobs suited for me is much more limited than that of most people I will work, even if I end up earning next to nothing doing bits of writing here and there. I personally reckon that if you can get away with it financially doing something you enjoy ranks a good deal higher than the income, however with like a good many things I may well be in a minority with my views

As for dyspraxics working, Mary Colley of DANDA has often mention to me at DANDA meetings that a good number of dyspraxics don't work. Perhaps the don't work / can't work differential is blurry given that perhaps some could work if the right sort of job was available but it might be due to the lack of suitable work out there, although I can but speculate. Mary has had a lot more first hand experience of getting to know dyspraxics than I have and I probably don't rate too severely dyspraxic on the scale compared to others so it really is difficult to say, but it would be interesting to investigate further into exacrtly what prevents some dyspraxics from holding down a job. If it is that aspects of a job get on top of a dyspraxic to cope then I could certainly relate to that. For me I suppose it's a mixture of actually getting through the job application procedure and of the actually being able to handle what a job requires.

[robyn]

I personally would also prefer a job that I enjoyed reguardless of the money involved. Im lucky that I have a v fab guy who also happens to be v ambious money wise so realitstically I dont have to worry bout my career earning potential. there are many little things that bring me down about my job. Oddly enough I never doubt how well I can do the job, but I do often feel like i cant put up with the beauracratic bs that goes with it. In particular I feel v despondant when members of staff think they know best, despite the fact that they dont like the kids let alone have the ability to relate to them. Although I enjoy what I do at work I know that long term it wont suit me as I have find these kind of stresses emotionally exhausting. Some how I find it easy to deal with every thing our v difficult, violent and challenging kids throw up but when staff fail them I just have no tolerance, and because of the way the system is set up staff often fail to come through in the way that would actually help the kids.

iv no doubt that many dyspraxics cant work, or cant work within the system as it is right now, but i also expect that it is far more common for those who dont work to speak up about this than those who do (in general terms), and thats not even including all those who must be struggling along with out adaquate diagnosis or understanding of their conditions who maybe excelle in certain aspects of work. This should be obvious to danda and they should take it in to consideration when advertising how dyspraxia affects working abilities. I would hate for a newly diagnosed teenager to latch onto the idea that dyspraxia means they will never be of value to the work place, before theyd had adaquate support and intervention for their difficulties. I know that danda gives credit to the positive aspects of dyspraxia but they should be aware of the negative implications of suggesting that most dyspraxics cant work. Like I said I expect that those who have difficulties with reguard to this come to the for far more than who dont and I very much doubt any person or organisation out there is knowledgable enough about the full picture to make such a definate claim. A new diagnosis creates a vunrable enough adjustment period in itself, being faced with the idea that dyspraxia defines a persons ability and value within the work place verges on negligence. Iv no doubt that this is certainly not the intended affect, but intentions are often irrelevant when considering the end affect.

[donnaf]

I'm with Dan and Robyn in the fact that I'm looking for jobs that I think I will enjoy and stick at, even if they aint the greatest of paid jobs, rather than have a higher paid job that might just stress me and make me leave...and I like Dan also find that irate customers and crap bosses would make me feel I cant cope...I walked out of one of my last jobs cos my boss was just a bully and I didnt know how to stand up to him. And I actively avoid jobs where I am likely to get a lot of irate customers.
Luckily I had been working for years when I discovered about my dyspraxia, so in a way its kinda helped me understand what kind of work I need to do, rather than put me off the idea of working altogether. I aint against pushing myself outta my comfort zone a bit and have been applying for jobs where I know I might come across the odd irate customer, as long as I know it wont be an all day long thing. But that's just what I think is good for me right now.

[robyn]

Oh my god, what a cute cat!!! Is that cosmic?

I am in love with the girl cat at our stabels right now, I just have to enter a room and she starts purring, and then she meows before jumping on me for me cuddle session. She is just like your pic, but with a tiny bit of white on her neck.

Do you think theres a job out there that would pay me to cuddle cats all day long?! I could be a cat cuddle qualitity engeneer!

[donnaf]

Yep, thats Cosmic, my little angel/pain up the ass lol
U kno how they say guys go for girls like their mothers, well, she was Scott's cat when we got together n I'm sure he loves me cos I remind him of his cat
Wow why don't we set up our own business doin cat cuddle quality engineering, u could cover Scotland while I cover England lol
My sis is a vet nurse which would be a wicked job that I'd love, if all the animals got better n lived happily ever after, unfortunately I am WAY to sensitive to handle the deaths

[robyn]

yeah I wouldnt manage the dying bits either. I used to work in a pet shop when I was in school, I spent all my time demanding that they take better care of the animals. It was just horrid the condition they came in, after I had taken 2 rabbits and a hamster home I decided it was time to quite, before I owned the entire shop!

[donnaf]

If I could find a job with animals that was all happy joy joy all day I would love it. Unfortunately I am so soft on animals that I think I would just get angry over the way they were treated, or upset if they got ill, or somethin.
I have spent a fair bit of time in the vets with my sis when she was on duty on xmas day n stuff like that, and I've seen some of the most upsetting things ever. My sis sees it as being a blessing that they can put suffering animals to sleep, and she makes sure they pass away in comfort, so it doesnt upset her TOO much, but I just wouldn't be able to handle that kind of thing, even if I understood it was for the best, I'd be a wreck!

[robyn]

Id be a wreck too

[wendel]

Hi Daniel
For me working at a university has been great.you don't have to become an academic to work at a uni. there are lots of different jobs.I found that there has been a really good attitude to learning differences here.I really struggled when I worked in the NHS as there seems to be a general bullying culture anyway and with my forgetting and losing things all the time (i didn't know about my dyspraxia then)I became an easy target.
I was terrible at the job and particularly couldn't do things which required routine of any kind. I still find it really hard sometimes and ahve lists for all the things I need to do during the day otherwise I d just forget to lock the office door at night maybe even leaving the keys in it if \i was a bit preoccupied and other sackable stuff like that.so yes the Uni has been a good place to work. I work in studentservices but my friend works in another department (she has ADD) and has also been treated very well

[Philip]

From my experience of working at different companies people attitudes have been from very poor to okay to learning differences/difficulties at the companies I have worked at from what I have seen - I think one or two colleagues have seen me a easy target and thought their could be overpowering over me

I have done okay in the jobs I have had so far (all via employment agencies) but struggled with other aspects of the job - down to minimum training for the people who were showing me what to do - because they think that all people will get it straight away

I have never been able to hold down a job for more than three months at a company all my jobs I have been via employment agency and the other one was via the job centre which was the placement -

I am discounting the one where I did my NVQ since it was only a placement and was working to get this qualfication

I have not always worked but have done some part-time study at the IT college in the city where I live to build and improved my qualifcations in IT (Microsoft courses) and to fill some gaps on the old CV

Between April 2004 upto the date this was posted. I have had seven jobs -ranging from 3 days to 61 days - (with huge gaps in the periods trying to get suitable work with the skills and qualifcations I have0

Trying to find work which is suitable for me is hard and is a big step because one or two things in a job description will make me get stressfully and I will struggled with it no matter how hard I try and the amount of communication needed for most the jobs I have seen is a big barrier

Another problem is the experience the company are looking for, what qualifcations there are looking for and who sort of person there are looking for

[skh42]

I've always known that I have problems multitasking. Up till now (I'm 35) I thought that if I compensate enough then no one will notice. Unfortunatlely my strategy has come a little unstuck now I'm training to be a primary school teacher.

You know how you think to yourself sometimes: now I can work at this challenge (in my case doing a stack of marking within a professional time frame and making sure that it is legible) and get better. In my case, I'm kind of wondering whether reaching my apex will ever be good enough to do the job.

There are mega issue here, like coiming to terms with who you are while not wallowing in a vat of self pity. Has anyone else faced similar travails in an attempted occupation (not in the military sense, although that would be interesting).

Pip Pip< Steve

[Hal76]

I review DVDs for a magazine. It actually suits me pretty well as it doesn't require too much mobility (although I don't work from home - I go in on a bus). The hardest things about the job are: typing (I suspect Dysparxia affects this), certain aspects related to conducting interviews allthough I only do this occasionally and navigating our slightly untidy office.

[pomo]

Hi Steve,

I have just resigned in my first year in secondary school teaching after doing really well in training even in a placement in my current soon to be ex employer!

I can not warn you off enough from teaching in a mainstream school, there is obviously advantages to primary, but this was what i attended to go into, but the multi tasking and constant marking really is a worrying reality for a dyspraxic to face!

I am more than happy to chat to you on the phone and offer any advice I have or explain where I dyspraxia will cause the biggest problems!

Best regards and good luck

pompom

[becky]

I had always despaired being dyspraxic in terms of my career options. My degree is in Drama and throughout my course, I focused on production, particularly stage and costume management. However, when I graduated, I found that I lacked the focus to help me work freelance in theatre, and I became quickly depressed with doing jobs that I wasn't really interested in. I thought that because I was dyspraxic, I wouldn't have the skills needed to succeed in whatever career path I was interested in. Reading through these posts, it has given me hope and encouragement that other people who have dyspraxia have found the same difficulties.

However, in January of this year, I got the courage to ditch my dead end job in a clothes shop and to move back to my parent's house. From there I was able to evaluate my options, and even do some freelance theatre work.

Now I am working as an administrator in an FE College that specialises in learning disabilities. It's an interesting job, not just sitting in an office from 9-5 filing (this kind of work does not suit me because I have a very short attention span) and I have responsibility and ownership for the tasks that I do. I find that if I am stimulated and challenged by a job, I will be dedicated and hardworking. If I'm not, then my dsypraxia is very apparent and I don't have the motivation to make the effort to overcome these issues. This job is also beneficial because I can do part time theatre work on the side, so I am still participating in an area that I really love.