When I was in school, there was almost NO awareness of autism or Asperger's Syndrome.
My first job was working at a school for kids who had behavioral issues.
My son has social learning issues, so I had firsthand exposure to some of those difficulties.
I started working mostly with kids who had autism or Asperger's Syndrome.
I founded my own education center that teaches kids and adults social thinking skills.
I teach people with ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome and Autism how to be socially successful.
I spend my days working with kids and adults and teaching them executive function strategies and social thinking skills. The perfect day would include me hearing that what I taught someone helped them make a friend, get a job or helped them to be more socially competent.
I would honestly say that there's nothing that I learned in school that I use now. This field of work isn't something that you just fall into, and there definitely wasn't a great level of awareness of social learning issues (people who struggle with social skills) when I was going through college and graduate school, so I really had to seek this out on my own. You definitely need a willingness and desire to deeply learn about the issues you'll be working with.
Do some volunteer work to see if you like working with kids or adults who are diagnosed with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. You probably know some already from your school.
"Don't you want to be a doctor or lawyer and make more money?"
In the culture I grew up in there was often a push to pursue a career that would yield the most income. It took me a while to find a career that was fulfilling to me, people always asked why didn't I want to be a doctor or a lawyer. I don't know that I ever fully "overcame" that noise; I was always second-guessing myself, until I finally realized that I've found a career that I love and that I'm good at, and nothing else matters.
My mother had multiple sclerosis when I was growing up. I learned at a young age that something unique about me was that I was very comfortable around people who had disabilities.
Dealing with my son's social learning issues inspired me to go from working with students with behavioral issues to working with students mostly dealing with autism and Asperger's Syndrome, and building a program that I have found to be effective.