HACKER Q&A
📣 crazypython

How are the roles of engineers with Autism Spectrum Disorder different?


One of my acquaintances is doing a research project on autism. How are the roles of engineers with Autism Spectrum Disorder different? What parts do they perform particularly well in?


  👤 probinso Accepted Answer ✓
ASD is fairly common in engineering fields. It's more going to be a concern about which company you're at. I've known some okay ASD managers, very good ASD tech leads, good ASD individual contributors, and very good ASD researchers.

I think that whether you're going to share that you are ASD with the company will depend on your comfort level with the company. If you do feel comfortable sharing, let your manager know and tell them that you may be poorer at assessing your own contribution levels and you would like very detailed feedback.

Being ASD myself, I find value in changing disciplines dramatically with underlining support in programming. I have done work in image processing, migration studies, programming language development, deep sea audio processing, computer securities, and citizen science support, over the past 8 years. Depending on what shape of the spectrum you're on, you may find value in being stationary in a single discipline instead.

It's a very big spectrum


👤 rogerkirkness
For some people, any meeting is harder than writing 1000 line bug free PRs. That's probably the best summary.