Episode 222: Working in an autism employment program – with Jack Pabich

The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories of neurodivergent people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

Carolyn: On today’s episode, I’m speaking with Jack Pabich. Jack is autistic and found his current job through an autism employment program run by CAI Neurodiverse Solutions. As a Quality Assurance Support Analyst, Jack is responsible for processing requests of potential conflicts of interest, ensuring parties are correctly assigned to the location within their database, and rearranging information to improve database efficiency. Jack’s attention to detail is his biggest strength, and he uses it to proactively streamline tasks. In his free time, he enjoys being active with various sporting events, sporting activities, and spending time with friends. Jack, welcome to the podcast.

Jack: Thanks. Glad to be here.

Carolyn: Yeah. I’m happy to have you here.

And I’m really interested to hear more about your work experience because you actually got your current position through a neurodiversity employment program. And like, I’ve, I’ve heard of programs like that, but I’ve never actually spoken with someone who’s gone through and been part of a program. So I’m so interested to learn about your experiences through that.

Jack: Yeah. So I found CAI Neurodiverse Solutions program after graduating college, it was still the pandemic. And so finding jobs was hard enough, not to mention being on the spectrum. A lot of people are either unemployed or underemployed. And so my parents and I we found a job skills place in the area that helps people who are on the spectrum build up job skills. And not only to build up job skills, but they also place you in an internship for the length of the program which I think was like three weeks to a month or something. And you also build a resume, practice the interview skills, the works.

And after finishing this program, I kept working with like a counselor there to help try to send out job applications and such. And then I found CAI through this person and, yeah, I’ve been with them ever since. That was two and a half years ago, a little over that. And I was with the first client for about a year, and then this new opening opened up that’s closer to home. It’s a hybrid position rather than fully remote and matched my skills and I’m doing that now.

Carolyn: Very cool. So the neurodiversity employment program, it sounds like they, they place you with different employers based on who needs what kind of work and support there.

Jack: Yeah, exactly. They help streamline with a lot of people, but well, a lot of people with autism and stuff, the biggest issue is the interview process. Like with most people in general, the interview process is the barrier to entry to a job. If anyone knows how to get a job without an interview, let me know. That’d be, that would streamline things for a lot of people. But, autism is a social communication disorder in the end. And an interview is the first time you’re, most likely the first time you’re interacting with someone socially. And so, those two things are naturally conflicting and they butt heads.

So, with this program, you interview and you, you get hired by CAI, not the CIA. CAI.

Carolyn: It’s different!

Jack: Anyway, so they hire people and they, and they learn, okay, these are the strengths that Jack has. And we, we’ve already hired Jack. Jack works for us. So he doesn’t have to interview anywhere else. He works for us. Now we can go and say, hey, Jack would be a good fit on this team. Let’s try to work it out and get Jack a part of this team of other people on the spectrum who are, you know, working with said client. And the current client is this big law firm in Chicago. And so, yeah, it’s been going well.

Carolyn: And did you find this program just by like Google searching or did you have someone refer you in?

Jack: Yeah. So it was that program that helps us with like that mentorship and stuff. I was working with someone there for a few months after my program had ended just as like, not as a therapist, but as like someone just to talk to professionally about things. Somewhat of a therapist talking about life with autism and just social stuff, but also talking about, Hey, I want feedback on how to format this on my resume. Hey, what do you think about this thing? I don’t know about going out and living on my own for this job that I know nothing about. And so just kind of a life skills coach / person to help find jobs and they helped show me CAI. So.

Carolyn: Yeah. That’s great to have that level of support because it, you know, it’s, it’s difficult. The whole job search and finding jobs and interviewing and all that is, is so difficult. You know, it’s difficult for a lot of people and certainly for a lot of autistic people as well. As you said, the interview can often be difficult, so that’s great that you found someone who’s, you know, really tuned in and, and very like, you know, neurodiversity affirming and, and can help support and place in that way. That’s great.

Jack: Yeah, it’s awesome that CAI as a company developed this program, knowing that there is a demand for it, and it helps people both on the spectrum getting employed and helps the clients that we work with, with our skill sets that we actually get placed there as well. So, win win!

Carolyn: That’s awesome.

Jack: Yeah.

Carolyn: So, yeah. So tell me about your current job. I mean, we talked a little bit about it in your bio, but like, what kind of work do you do at your current employer?

Jack: Yeah. The law firm, one of the many things that they do is they help restructure claims. They help restructure when there’s bankruptcies and stuff. And I help the restructuring department make sure that there are not conflicts of interest when, when, when redistributing the finances of people that go bankrupt.

So I get a bunch of names sent to me and I make sure that that they all exist in the system. I helped with the coding aspect of that. I help make sure that the database runs smoothly, to a degree. I help make sure that that things don’t repeat too much. If Google’s entered, we all know how to spell it, Google, but some people, maybe don’t double check spelling, and maybe if Google has three O’s in it, we know that’s wrong. I’m able to, proactively fix the coding of things and I’m able to make sure that things are running at a smooth clip. And that’s some of what I do professionally.

Amongst the team, we help train each other. So there’s a lot of different things that we do. But it’s mainly keeping the database running smooth. And that’s a very generalized way of saying it. I make sure I assign parties to the correct matter in the system. I help make sure things are where they’re supposed to be, encoded the way that they’re supposed to be.

Carolyn: And did you study like database management or analysis in school or how did you learn how to do this?

Jack: No, it was, I learned about general business stuff cause I was basically a general business. My major was enterprise leadership. So I learned how to, I got at the University of Iowa, and it’s basically how to be a leader in different group environments. Which when I took it, was right when the pandemic had started. And it was cool that it forced us to be interactive when there was a pandemic. So there were a lot of Zoom calls and a lot of ways of getting to know classmates because there was a lot of group projects.

But, I just learned because the first client that I had, it was also working in, in databases. And then, what makes this program so helpful is that the biggest assistance that they give is teaching you how to do things when you’re there. The learning process is very personalized and it’s not time sensitive. They give people a lot of time to say, Hey, we want to make sure you know how to do what you’re doing. And we don’t want to rush things to make anyone stressed. If you have questions, let us know. But it’s felt very, we don’t want to rush you. We want to make sure that if you have questions, you can ask them. And that’s been the biggest help for me throughout this little over a year and a half now that I’m able to. The longer I’m here, the unfortunately to everyone who I work with, the more questions I ask, because I’m learning more, I want to truly learn how things work. And sometimes I ask questions and they’re like, ” good question, Jack! We don’t know why we do it this way. It’s just kind of done that way.”

But I really appreciate that, because I don’t have coding experience itself. I don’t know any coding languages or anything, but I do have attention to detail and I can tell if Google is spelled with two O’s or three O’s. I just, I’ve always had that attention to detail. And so yeah. I’ve got a little bit of a knack for it myself, but I’ve also had, the database itself, people were very patient to help train, so it’s been awesome.

Carolyn: That’s great. Yeah. Because I think one of the hardest things about being a new employee is a lot of times, you know, depending on where you work, you, you don’t always get like a lot of training. Sometimes you’ve just been thrown in and they’re like, Oh, just figure it out! And then it’s like, but I don’t know. You know, as you say, you come in, you have a lot of questions. So it’s really great that you have people there at work who are there to answer questions or, you know, as you ask more and more insightful and sometimes questions that they may not be able to answer. But I mean, that’s, that’s part of really looking at process and data and understanding where improvements can be made. So that’s great that that support happens while you’re on the job and not just like in the hiring process.

Jack: Yeah, for sure. That it’s one of the amazing things about having CAI and the program that they are there, , whether it’s to grant you special accommodations or just to be the person standing, you know, in your corner just to be there to support you, you have that extra reassurance that you can feel comfortable swimming as far as you want. But if, if you need it, there was a ledge to grab onto if need be. And so yeah, that’s one of the awesome things about the program.

And the client that we have, it’s a well known law firm and people there are very professional. In just a casual sense, you help someone out and they say, Hey, thanks for the help, we appreciate it. And it’s just like, cool, they say thank you. It’s small things. And it’s, It feels good. So.

Carolyn: Yeah, that’s great. That, that’s so important. That’s just like, you know, that’s like a positive working environment and supportive and you know, just sounds great. We should all have that. We would hope, certainly hope to all have that. That’s cool.

So like working with your coworkers, so as part of this program or just at the company in general, do you, do you work with other autistic or other neurodivergent coworkers and kind of what’s that like?

Jack: Yeah. So everyone on, everyone that’s in the program is neurodiverse, so everyone on our team is neurodiverse.

We don’t all, we don’t really do many team projects, so we don’t do a lot of working together. But our team meets three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, to have a team check in just to hear what, what everyone’s working on and just a way to make sure that, “oh hey you’re in the office today, cool! Haven’t seen you yet. Glad to know you’re here and doing well.”

So there’s not a lot of working together, but there are times when if work is slow we may train another co worker on how to do a task just to make sure that, and we call that cross training, just to make sure if someone is sick for a few days that we’re not out of luck about “well, we don’t know how to do this task. This task was assigned to Mikey and Mikey’s, Mikey broke his leg. Why’d you break your leg Mikey? That’s awfully inconvenient Mikey, come on.” And so we try to proactively cross train each other, and sometimes if there are big tasks, we’ll work on the same assignment together. But overall, we kind of work on the same thing itself.

But it is nice having co workers who you know are on the spectrum. And especially on Wednesdays, we have that little morning check in that normally takes five minutes, if that, because we have a small team. But then after that, we have an extra 10 to 15 minutes to just talk, be like, “Hey, how was your weekend? Do you guys have anything coming up? Hey, you see the new movie? No, not yet, don’t you spoil anything! Oops. Okay.” So that just is nice, you know, being able to recognize faces specifically that you can have lunch with. And so it’s not a lot of working together on projects. It does come up, but we’re, we’re no strangers by any means.

Carolyn: That’s cool. Yeah. That’s great that you have, you know, sort of that, that professional part of it, the cross training and also the, the social or more relational part is that you have enough time to get to know each other and, you know, just feel like you’re not just one in a big ocean of people at a very large firm. So that’s really great.

And then, so what’s it like working with your coworkers who, let’s say, like, aren’t part of the Neurodiversity Employment Program or, or are neurotypical, I guess, as far as you or I would know?

Jack: Yeah. To my knowledge, the people outside of the program, it’s, as briefly mentioned before, it’s great.

I mean, yeah, it’s a big law firm. People that are, again, professional, then it’s nice. Just people are eager to help. And yeah, it’s, it’s a very welcoming environment. I’ve been there for, again, I’ve been doing at this client specifically for a little over a year and a half. And I, this restructuring team that I said that I do other work for, my department is business intake, we branch out to different departments a little bit. We kind of just help manage business, but I help do other side projects depending on who’s sending it. And no one on the restructuring team is a part of the neurodiverse side. So I work with them very closely and they’re all wonderful. I hear from all different people on that team. And everyone who I interact with is just very welcoming and people are friendly. And so, yeah, it’s awesome working with them.

People tend to send things to my team lead and then the team lead sends things to us. So she’s a good, she’s like a barrier between. She helps make sure we aren’t overwhelmed with work and stuff. So we don’t have always one on one contact with people who are a part of the firm properly, but it happens occasionally and it’s always pleasant.

Carolyn: That’s great. Yeah. That’s awesome. So, yeah, you get to build and grow those relationships with all kinds of people in your same department, different departments, part of the program and not part of the program. That’s very cool.

And so you mentioned your team lead and, and I’m curious, like, what’s it like, you know, I asked about your coworkers, so I guess, what’s it like working with your manager? I don’t know if that’s your team lead in a law firm sense or another person who’s like a manager, but any, any of those.

Jack: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I’m going to talk about two different people, my team lead, who is on the CAI side and helps manage the team directly. And then there’s someone else who is a manager slash mentor to me specifically, who is on the law firm side.

And so I’ll talk about my team lead first, because we’ve already been talking about her. And so, she’s really, like, when it comes to the support that the program gives, it’s her. She is the support, and there are some other people too, but she’s 95%, and maybe I’m underselling that. She’s the head person who, again, she’ll be the one physically sending out the assignments to you, but she runs many of the meetings that we have to check in with people. And we meet with her weekly on specifically those days just to check in and make sure, “Hey, how was everything going?” And so she is the person who, “Hey, I want to send this email. Can you take a quick look at it?” “Yeah, of course.” Or just helps you review things or if it’s like, “Hey, I’m kind of overwhelmed with this. Can you let so and so know?” It’s like, “yeah, of course, Jack, I’ll be sure to let them know.” Like she’s the person who is in your corner and it’s great having that person who you do meet with and you can reach out to like, you know, any day. And so she’s awesome. And I can’t understate that.

And she is the support. We have four people on our team, including myself, plus the team lead. So it’s a good, small group that we have. And so she’s very attentive and knows like, Hey, this is what so and so works on. Yeah, I love the team lead that we have.

And the President who works at the law firm directly, at the old office that we had, his desk was literally so close to mine that I could just turn around and ask him any questions that I might have, assuming that he wasn’t working on something at the moment, cause he’s always so busy. And even now at the new office we still work very close. And he’s been doing this for nearly as long as I’ve been alive. I haven’t told that to his face cause I don’t want to make him feel any older. But, it just feels awesome because with the amount of experience that he has, he’s entrusted me with a lot of stuff for about a year now already. So when I was there for only six months, six to eight months, he’d been doing this for almost 25 years and he entrusted me with all these like special small projects that he has. And he really, he meets with me on a weekly basis to explain work that, I know how to do the work. I’ve been trained to do it for over a year now. But he explains like why things are coded a certain way specifically and why to look at certain things that moving forward it can help me do like new assignments that I haven’t done quite yet. And he knows I’m someone who likes to ask questions about why things work a certain way. And I often ask him, “Hey, why is this coded this way? Should it be this way or that way?” And he has to look at things and say, “Oh, that’s a good question. Well, let me get back to you on this.” Or, “Hey, should we code it this way?” So probably I can stop asking him questions in about in a few months, but but right now, he is a manager, but he has definitely taken a very mentorship role with me that I definitely appreciate. That, again, someone who’s been doing it for over 25 years and I’ve been doing it for a year and a half. You don’t get that kind of training and experience very often. So I definitely appreciate all the time that he set out for me and that he gives me these special assignments because I want to be challenged and grow. And he sees that and he’s like, “Hey, you want a challenge? Take this off my hands!” Okay, let’s do that. So it’s a great dynamic we have, and I’m really grateful for all of the support that CAI gives and the people that I work with outside of the program. And so, they’re all wonderful.

Carolyn: That’s awesome. Yeah. It’s, it’s, you know, I’m sure it’s, it’s exciting for him as a mentor to work with, with you because you want to learn and you want to understand and you want to do new and more things.

And you know, any mentor or any manager would just be so happy and excited. You know, because I’m sure, as you said, he has a lot of work. He’s like, “Hey, you want to help me with my work? Cause this is important stuff. And and if you’re interested and you want to learn I can help you through it.” But yeah, every project you do is just more and more learning. That’s really cool.

What other types of things do you do as, as part of your work right now?

Jack: Yeah. So, if we’re supposed to add a party into the database under a specific matter or client matter, we have to make a request and have things formally sent off. So I will get in a list of like 50 different requests. All of these requests say, hey, add this party. It can be one party. It could be 120 parties.

And I need to make sure that they all have been added to the matter. And 99.99999 percent of the time they have. So, but I just need to make sure hey it’s been added. Sometimes it isn’t, and I make a note to myself and I go and I add it.

But when I go into the matter and I see hey, I’m supposed to look at this one party. Okay that one party’s there. But I’ll see there are another 20 parties in the system. I’ll be like, let me just double check that the aliases are all updated for these parties that have it in the, in the notes. Am I supposed to do that? Someone’s going to have to do that at some point. And as my history has shown, sometimes I’m the one who’s supposed to do it later. So I’ll do it now.

When I first started doing my work, a lot of my work was a Venn diagram. There was a lot of overlap. There was maybe 98 percent overlap with my, all my different assignments. And so I really learned how things are connected. And if I’m transferring parties from the matter to the client record matter, I learn like, okay, these are the codings I transfer over when I do this. Should we just keep this as a main coding? And that’s when I go back and I ask my mentor “hey, I’ve noticed this pattern. Should we just have this be the way things are coded from now on?” And before he was like, “no, it’s meant to be this certain way.”

And recently in the last two or three months, when I work with the restructuring team, when I first started doing restructuring uploads, they were like, “no, just, just create a new party. It doesn’t matter. Like, just do that.” And I said, “but for most, we’ll have to consolidate those later.” And they’re like, “yeah, but that’s their problem.” I’m like, “yeah, that’s going to be my problem.”

So I, so I really have had the privilege of really seeing things from multiple different perspectives. Then I feel like I’ve helped other departments actually start talking to each other because I’ve been the person talking to different departments. I’m like, “something doesn’t add up. We’re doing this work to help this team, but this team doesn’t care about this, but this is causing this problem. What’s important now?”

Because of my experience with updating the way things are coded, and transferring things from the matter to the client record, and I check all these things that are supposed to be added into the system, I look at the same general scope of information often, and I’ve been able to notice the patterns.

And so, yeah, that’s why I appreciate that my training I was able to do, it was very accommodating. Every day you’re learning something at the job. And, the thing that I like most about my work is that most of my work, it has soft deadlines, but very rarely I’m given something and, and I’m told, “Hey, Jack, this needs to be done by the end of the day.” That almost never happens. I’m often given maybe three or five assignments and they say, “Hey, Jack, here’s what you have to do. Like, let us know when you’re done.” and I make notes of things and I say, “Hey, I finished 95 percent of this, but there are two questions I wanted to double check on because someone maybe made an error somewhere.”

And when someone does make an error and I notice it, I feel special. I feel, hey, I noticed something. If I don’t notice any errors, that’s good on everyone else. But my job, for me, I’m like, I still want to find that one thing though. I want to find things to fix. Come on. My job is to fix things. Give me something to do.

Carolyn: It’s fun. I mean, it’s fun to find like, Ooh, I found something! Like, you know, you know, it’s great.

Jack: It’s when you find the, the $20 bill in your jeans or under a couch that you didn’t realize was there. Yeah, so it’s that moment of eureka. And so yeah, that’s what feels good.

But most of the time I’m given the freedom to proactively do work. And that’s something I really appreciate because I know that I’m saving the work from someone else having to do it.

Carolyn: Yeah. And yeah, I think, you know, what you’ve been describing, really sounds like strengths or like natural instincts of yours. The attention to detail, of course, because you do such, you know, careful data work, but also like the fact that you’re proactive, the fact that you’re curious. Because, you know, not everybody’s curious about things. Some people just want to like do what they’re told and then go home again. But you want to learn, you want to learn about like you know, why does something work like this? And sometimes you’re asking questions that other people just haven’t thought about because you can kind of see across like all those corporate, like, you know, silos and departments and, and how the processes are working and how they could be better. And you’re not afraid to ask people why things are the way they are. So that’s really valuable. I mean, especially in your early career, but like throughout your career, just that, that openness to ask questions and willingness to learn and do new things and be part of, you know, the process and work with different teams.

So yeah, I mean, those are incredibly valuable skills that you can transfer to almost any kind of job. Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jack: Yeah, because I one time when I was meeting with my team leader one on one and she was like, oh How’s everything going? And I mentioned like well, you know, I’d like to know more about the restructuring uploads. Like when i’m done uploading my stuff into the database for their team to actually run the conflict searches, i’m like “Hey, I kind of want to learn what the next step is. Like I’m helping them do this one step, but I kind of want to know about the next step.”

So my team lead helped me get some shadowing in with some people on that team and I’m able to ask questions like, Hey, why are we doing this way? Oh, why does it work that way? And he’s like, Oh yeah, you do it for this reason and that reason. And I am learning a lot and I wouldn’t have known how to have gotten that shadowing stuff on my own.

And so it’s on both people’s parts, both the clients that they had people that were willing to have me shadow them. And the program, you know, my team lead helped actually spearhead that. And it’s a collaboration on my team lead’s side, my side and the client side. And that’s what’s really special about this program.

Carolyn: Yeah. It’s, it’s amazing what, what people can do when they have the right support in place, because that just lets you, you know, just lets you be your, your best self and, and learn and grow and, and build on your strengths and your experiences.

I think we may have touched on some of these already, but let me know if there are other things you want to share. Cause you were talking about what you like most about your job just now and what kind of skills you learned. I don’t know if there’s anything else you want to add to that besides what you just shared?

Jack: Yeah, so, it’s a hybrid job, and that’s special. But before, I had a fully remote job, so that had its own dynamic, but being hybrid, going to the office twice a week, felt good having a reason to get out of the house and getting to know the co workers. And, just taking the train and just getting out, that alone was just a very special part about the job.

And then not to mention, I like the people in the program. I like the people who are outside of the program. I like that I’m able to use my attention to detail and I’m able to find things and people there are professional and it just is a wonderful work environment.

So what else is there to say about not feeling pressure about, about assignments? The fact that if there is a big assignment, you know that you have other people on the team that can often collaborate and help get things done in a timely manner. That you have a team lead who helps make sure that you’re not swamped with work and helps be an advocate for you.

I mean, work often is associated with stress. And I wouldn’t say that there’s never any stress, but it is significantly reduced by the fact that there’s just so much support and things that I don’t even have necessarily any special accommodations. I don’t need anything overly helpful, but it’s just, there’s a lot that’s built in that helps to relieve anything that you might have. If you do have a lot on your plate, maybe that can be spread out to someone who’s like, “Hey, I’m just sitting here and not doing anything.” There is always something to do, but you know, it’s, it’s great.

The fact that people are friendly, people are professional. And I enjoy being able to learn new things and find new things. So it feels good being able to get things done and use my strengths as a job.

Carolyn: That’s awesome. Yeah. I, I think maybe sometimes employers get worried about like having to give, you know, official accommodations or like provide all these extra supports, but like all of the things that you’ve described are, are really just good things that in a positive work environment or like good companies who really care about developing and supporting and getting the best work and contributions from their employees, that these employers would just do naturally like for a lot of people.

So it, it, it doesn’t take a lot of big, fancy, expensive things to, you know, provide support a lot of the time to really help people thrive.

Jack: Yeah, Who would have thought common human decency helps people feel good? Yeah. But who would have thought if someone says, “hey, can you do this for me?” And “I say, sure, here you go.” And they say, “thank you. I appreciate it.” That’s like, oh, cool! That’s not just an unresponded message that goes into the ether.

Carolyn: Yeah. Like, what a surprise that that that would make a difference! Yeah, but so often, you know, people forget about that. So this is a good reminder that, you know, just part of those relationships is just acknowledging, I know we’re all busy, but, you know, it’s important. And the people who you say thank you to and please, you know, and and take that time to appreciate them, they’ll remember. They’ll remember you for doing that and that’ll be a good thing. Yeah.

Jack: Breaking news! Being nice is good!

Carolyn: I know, shocking!

So, yeah, so I know you’re still pretty early in your career. You’ve been working for a couple of years. What kind of work do you want to do in the future? Do you want to stay with quality analysis and databases or try other things?

Jack: Gosh, I’d love to know.

Carolyn: This is the “where do you see yourself in five years” question, which I always dreaded, so that’s maybe not great. But yeah, it could be anything.

Jack: Yeah, no, I mean I was an undecided major, going into college. So off to a strong start, as you can tell. And, through like just some of those open ended classes, they’re like, oh, take a StrengthsFinder assessment class. You can learn what kind of career is supposed to be right for you through this test. I’m like, okay, sounds good. Option number one, you are strategic, good with data, be a banker. I’m like, okay, Nothing against bankers, but I want to work with people a little more. Okay, option number two. Be a therapist. And I’m like, hmm, hold on.

Carolyn: That’s like the opposite, almost.

Jack: About that, yeah, exactly. I’m like, is there something that’s in between the two? I mean, that’s everything else. So I I’m still trying to figure that out a bit.

But my first job, with the first client that I had with CAI, it was in insurance. I would make calls doing some audits, and I’d also process some claims. And so, you know, okay, I’m talking to people, I’m, I’m doing audits, that’s talking. They’re not always happy with me, but it’s, it’s talking, nevertheless. And then, doing data work, processing claims, it’s a database, like, okay. It’s a little bit of both.

But here it’s nice. I’m getting in social stuff because it’s a hybrid position. I get to actually see people in person. And, so yeah, I don’t know exactly what I want to do. I know if I say, hey, I want to do something where I can use my attention to detail to help things, to help people. That is, again, hey, we want people with high attention to detail, who work well in a group environment, or with people, who prefer a fast paced environment. That’s every single job description as well.

So I’ve learned some common keywords and phrases. But yeah, so, I don’t know exactly what I want to do. Maybe I want to do coding. But, I I like that I at least like my co workers right now, and I like that, it’s a good place. But what I truly want to do five years from now, what I see myself doing, I don’t know, but I know it’ll be something that I’ll be pursuing a strength and attention to detail in some way, because every job is attention to detail. So I have at least that going.

Carolyn: you’re off to such a strong start. You have so many strengths and, and I just want to pause for a minute because this is sometimes an assumption or a stereotype that people make about autistic people is about like talking on the phone. And, and, some people just don’t want to talk on the phone for a variety of reasons, but the fact that you’re having phone conversations with people who, and it sounds like sometimes they’re challenging conversations in your previous role. That’s an incredible skill. And you know, it might be your favorite thing or your not favorite thing, but the fact that you’ve done it and you have that experience is, is awesome. So yeah, that’s great as well.

Jack: Yeah, so, and I think that kind of relates to the fact that autism is, as I kind of started off earlier, it’s a social communication disorder, but at the end of the day, that’s all it is. Not everyone who has autism has a hyper fixation, but I can’t say that for myself, but, not everyone who has autism, just because it’s a social communication disorder, doesn’t mean that they don’t like communicating.

I love communicating. I’m on a podcast. I love communicating. And so, yeah, it’s a very broad spectrum and with a whole bunch of different things. And so I’m glad that this program exists to help people in a bunch of different ways. And that the program works for me because it is very encompassing the spectrum.

And so I can’t vouch for everyone on the spectrum or everyone in the program, but I can say that it works for me and that I’m glad to be talking about the program in positive light because it works well for me.

Carolyn: That’s great. I’m so happy that you’re having such a great, like, success in your program and just learning so much and, and really just building, you know, building up all your experiences.

And I think whatever you, you know, it’s still early, whatever you choose to decide in your career, and I’m sure you’ll probably try out a bunch of new and different things. You’re well set up and well suited to be able to do whatever you’d like. That’s awesome.

Is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

Jack: Yeah, so I want to reiterate what I had just said earlier, that these are all my personal experiences. There’s a bunch of things that have shaped my experiences from the way that I have grown up, you know, family support, and just the way that, with me having autism, like, I’m just, I’m unique.

If you know someone with autism, you know one person with autism and everyone is, surprise, surprise, breaking news again, everyone is unique. So whether that’s with having autism or not having autism, everyone just is unique in their own ways. And hopefully that, sharing my story, people can find pieces that help relate to them in the end.

I do want to add on and just say that while I haven’t needed special accommodations through the program, it is nice that just being in a work environment and with a little bit of help from the program, that as you build skills in general, you can find ways to transfer them either to a new job or outside of life.

You know, on Wednesdays is when we had those longer meetings to get to know people. From doing that, you know, I kind of was able to bring in my enterprise leadership major and I was able to be a bit of a leader and advocate to start having those meetings.

We didn’t have those beforehand. And so I took that over from my first team meeting, when we would have like first 20 minutes of every call, it would be spent getting to know people. And again, it was a team more than twice the size of our current team, but that was something really helpful of bonding when it is a fully remote position, how do you get to know people? You talk for about 25 minutes, getting to know everyone every day. And that helps. And so by doing that, I’m able to just be a bit more of an advocate and communicate more clearly outside of work, maybe to my friend’s detriment that I won’t stop talking even more than I already was, but hey, so be it.

So yeah, the skills you learn are applied wherever you are in life from organization to time management skills. And that’s really helpful regardless of if you’re on the spectrum or not.

This program helps with that. And I think work helps with that in general. And it’s it’s helpful. So, that’s kind of all I want to close out with, but I hope my story helps people and maybe you learned something from it.

Carolyn: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Jack, for sharing your story and sharing all of the great work that you’re doing and all of the strengths and the skills that you’re bringing into the workplace, even at the beginning of your career.

And yeah, I can already tell from our brief conversation today that you’re, you’re going to go really far and do really well, because you just have that, you know, you have that curiosity and, and those strengths to, to continue to succeed. So thank you so much for sharing your story on my show.

Jack: Thanks so much for having me on it.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help me spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give it a shout out on your social media, or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of my episodes and sign up for my free newsletter at Beyond6seconds.net. Until next time.