Planning Your Career Through Intense Interests
Planning a career around your special or intense interests is possible and, in fact, easier than you might think! If you’re wondering how you can turn your love of animals, intense fascination of transportation or passion for information technology (and much more!) into a fulfilling career, that you will never get bored of, you’ve come to the right place!
Yenn Purkis and Barb Cook are leading autistic advocates, employees and business owners and are using their first-hand knowledge and the power of special interests to help you plan your future in this book. By straying from the conventional paths and thinking differently, Yenn and Barb could help take your passion for outer space and help transform you into a budding astronomer or even aerospace engineer!
Full of helpful advice and activities, including goal and vision setting, identifying your skills and personality attributes, looking at what makes a positive workplace, common attributes of autistic employees and business owners and challenging assumptions to name just a few, this book will help you to find work that you truly enjoy and thrive in the workplace.
This highly practical book will be really useful for autistic teenagers and young people to support their successful transition from school or higher education to the world of work. The authors have brought their lived and professional experiences together to ensure that the advice is useful and easy to implement.
Autistic adults often face challenges navigating the job market, but ‘Planning Your Career Through Intense Interests’ offers a fresh perspective on leveraging our unique abilities. By tapping into our intense interests, autistic individuals can craft fulfilling careers that align with our passions. Yenn Purkis and Barb Cook provide practical advice and real-life examples to inspire readers. Apart from empowering autistic individuals, ‘Planning Your Career Through Intense Interests’ should be embraced by parents, business leaders, educators, service providers, and anyone with an interest in seeing autistic people thrive. As someone who coaches autistic individuals navigating the job market, and as an autistic person myself, I highly value this book.
Yenn Purkis is autistic and non-binary and has published a range of books with JKP since 2006. They actively speak at autism conferences and have increasingly spoken and written on autism and LGBTQ+ identities. They received the ACT Volunteer of the Year award for work in autism advocacy. Yenn lives in Canberra, Australia.
Barb Cook is a Neurodivergent Developmental Educator and holds a Master of Autism degree from the University of Wollongong. She is a published researcher on autism and mental health, and recent projects of self-determination and self-advocacy for autistic adults and youth suicide prevention. Barb is a prolific writer, speaker, and advocate on neurodivergence, and is founder of Spectrum Women Magazine, NeuroEmploy and the NeuroDiversity Hub, based in Gympie, Australia.
