Pay is important, and narrowing your requirements further doesn't seem helpful, but just something that is worth keeping in mind.
Thank you for writing this; it's an incredibly eloquently written piece, and these are the needs that need highlighting (over and over) if any of these challenges are to change. Have bookmarked for future sharing.
(1) Seek contract work on sites like Upwork.com or Freelancer.com instead of traditional jobs. Frequently all communication is via writing and this should be a boon for your needs. You can do a little freelancing on the side without quitting your current job. And it may help you gain additional modern skills or improve your pay while you look for a steady full-time job.
(2) I understand that your psychological conditions are rare and extreme, but it's always worth investing in self-improvement to try and mitigate some of these challenges. Practice interviewing, even if you don't want / need the job. Consider consulting with a cognitive behavioral psychotherapist for ongoing work to improve your social interactions. (I realize you've probably heard this a hundred times before and I apologize for repeating it again, but I had to include this for the sake of thoroughness.)
(3) I'd hire you for one of my projects in a heartbeat if you have the experience I need. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to provide a stable full-time job with benefits.
(4) Many companies with well-paying jobs will provide accommodations to candidates with special needs such as yours these days. You should apply to jobs normally, and for those that call you back be prepared to make a statement about your needs. Many jobs will even state that they will make "reasonable accommodations" to candidates with disabilities up-front. The ADA requires employers to make such accommodations to employees with disabilities.
Your experience set isn’t a good match for us, but it will be for plenty of companies and any halfway organized company over about 50 people is likely to readily accommodate your request for reasonable accommodations in the interview process. Many will have fairly fixed bands for comp for their first two industry SWE levels as well, so you’re not as likely to get low-balled as you might fear if you go to a company large enough to have scores of SWE1 and SWE2 employees.
I suggest writing posts on LinkedIn related to your skills. Really lard them up with relevant keywords. That draws recruiters like chum in the water. Once a recruiter suggests you voice chat, respond that because of a disability you prefer to communicate via text. If you can, offer to chat synchronously via Teams (recruiters love Teams) or Slack or whatever. Some recruiters will stop communicating with you at that point. It sucks. But some will have no problem with that.
Don’t go into detail about your disabilities. It is no one’s business. As an employer, your disabilities don’t matter to me so long as you can do the job with reasonable accommodation. So focus on how well you can do the job.
And trust me, just from reading your post, I can tell that you can do the job, some job, well. You are articulate and thoughtful. You just need to find the right match. Good luck!
Also, have you tried working with external (not for a specific company) recruiters? It’s free for you, and when one doesn’t produce results you can easily try another.
Finally, have you tried reaching out to maintainers of commercially-popular open-source projects? They might know of related jobs at the companies that are the chief sponsors of those packages.
They won't waste time starting office drama, they'll be 100% focused on work.
If I was in a position to, I'd probably let them interview via text.
I was hoping remote work was here to stay, tons of people simply can not work in an office. Say you have children and can't arrange child care, etc.
It's worth playing any card you can play to get ahead, especially in this economy. But keep your eye on the prize - A big part of life is about getting dealt bad hands and still finding a way to win.
> Studying grad-level concepts that are specific to my field, and applying that knowledge to develop and maintain image processing workflows.
I used to do this exact thing, but then after switching my study time to non-tech related things, namely how to deal with people, I was able to get great results from that. Getting even better at something you're already good at is less useful than studying the basics of something already identified as being a bottleneck to your life's goals.
I do hope you find a better job that fits with your conditions and I don't mean to minimize your efforts in that direction.
https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/job-applicants-and-ada
I have no idea how that turns out in practice.
Honestly the ideal situation here would probably be for OP to receive some kind of disability payment from the government and continue to work on open source projects.
OP said selective mutism, not the inability to communicate.
“I work best when I am able to sit alone in relative quiet, and when I am able to communicate asynchronously via text.”
> and confrontation is common.
A healthy back and forth about how to solve problems, sure. But “confrontation is common”? Only in toxic work environments.
Our field is perfect for OP, and few are better. Especially in remote and async situations.
Anecdotally; the company where I work has hired people who had problems with social interactions. We even had special workplaces away from the rest of the employees where they could site and code all day.
If you want to reach out, feel free to ping me at [0]. I only know a few other maintainers but might be able to help out.
That's fine.
Are you getting paid for whatever job you are doing in the university? Do you appear in the list of authors of the paper?
