Despite my autism I have had a varied and successful career and am well-equipped to support others around the challenges in finding the right career path, succeeding at interviews and navigating the world of work.  I did not receive my diagnosis until the age of 60, so all through my career had no clue that I was autistic.  For those with some knowledge of neurodiversity you may spot some themes in my career story below. The main aim of sharing this with you is to reassure you that autisim does not hold you back, but you can make your life less stressful if you get the right support.  I couldn't (no one knew about autism in girls when I was a child) but you can if you want it, and this free, online coaching service might be a place to start to explore where you want to go next.

Here's my career story.....so far:

Back to the 80's

After university I started working in social housing management in the mid 80s and was soon promoted to the role of an area housing manager with a large team under me.  Work was a struggle from day one but I always felt passionate about what I did.  I worked hard and soon had a company car and a decent salarly by the age of 25. I found it difficult to cope in such a responsible role and after a year or so went back to full-time education to study a post-graduate marketing diploma, to learn French and to work in Paris. 
 

Into the 90's 

Working in Europe took me to Greece for a year to teach English returning to the UK to take up my first lecturing role at a large further education college in east London.  Here I learned how to teach and coach others and again through my passion for the job and hard work I became really good at it.  It was extremely stressful but I managed to develop a good work-life balance to enjoy the most that the metropolis had to offer. I developed a strategy to 'go into role' when I was being a teacher and to completely unwind when I left the classroom. If received my Post-Grad Certificate of Education and a specialist certificate in teaching 14 to 19 year olds.

The noughties

Exhaustion from, what I now understand to be 'masking', saw me leave teaching for a while and move into a project management role with the college.  I designed and delivered large employment and training projects.  The attention to both big picture strategy and granular project data really played to my strengths.  I loved the structure and creativity that project management gave me and went on to other big public sector organisations and social housing bodies, to manage multi-million pound education and training projects. It was tiring though.  I had to work incredibly long hours. I found it almost impossible to concentrate in noisy open-plan offices so often stayed after everyone else had gone home or I went to work at the weekends to catch up.

London 2012

My difficulties in communicating with others were starting to cause bigger challenges than I was able to handle and I moved organisations regularly in an effort to cope and to find more and more exciting roles to keep my career moving in the right direction.  I never felt I had landed on exactly the right area until I discovered the field of corporate Learning and Development, and in particular coaching. I loved that coaching empowers others, helps them get clarity on their situations and most of all make changes for the better.  I felt I had found the best job in the world! 

Finally....it took a global pandemic

By 2015 I had a fantastic job in a wonderful organisation but I was simply burnt out.  I had no idea why and put it down to the menopause, because everyone else seemed to be talking about it. I took a massive demotion (and huge pay cut) to take a job that was local and saved me the exhausting commute into the city.  I was left feeling totally confused as to how I had failed and felt all my self-confidence leak away.  At the age of 52 I no longer knew who I was or where I was going in my career.

Then early in 2020 we were locked down and weirdly I felt completely at ease.  I no longer had to engage with people face-to-face and I found training and coaching people online extremely liberating.  I did feel guilty about how I felt and was ashamed to share this with anyone.  These new experiences and feelings started to make me really question my reality.

Today

After much soul-searching and some avoidance I finally went through hours of formal assessments for autism and in January 2024 received my offical diagnosis.  I haven't yet found the courage to go back into the report but I do plan to in the very near future because I want to fully understand my condition in order that I can best help and support others. If I can help just one young person have an easier journey than me then it will be worth it.