#17 Becoming An Engineer, Being An Enginerd
Written by SAPL on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 in Careers.
Right up there with Becoming A Professor, the career choice for many Aspergers is engineering. People who are engineers are more likely to have a child or a grandchild who turns out to be an Aspie. There is definitely something in the genes. If you’re operating a piece of electrical equipment or driving down the freeway, you probably have an Aspie to thank or not thank, depending on if the freeway was designed with the town’s flooding tendencies in mind.
Engineers are usually not your party people. Engineering is a most nerdy profession and many Aspies enjoy this, because at least it flatters their intellect to know they are in a very mentally challenging profession. Some have been nicknamed “enginerds.” Career planning may take place when the Asperger asks him or herself: What kind of enginerd should I be? Depending on the precise algorithm of nerdiness and weirdness, there are several categories to choose from. Here are a few examples of the possibilities:
Biomedical/Biochemical: Not as nerdy as some other areas. Incorporating medicine into their interest may win points with nerdy, but cooler pre-med students. People are always interested in others who can make food taste better, last longer, and stick extra preservatives in them that they cannot pronounce. Ability to bring about advancements in pharmaceuticals may also impress hot nurses.
Civil: Middle of the road nerds. Not quite as cool as the biomedical/biochemical. Usually possesses good social skills to possibly even trick some neurotypical to marry them with the neurotypical thinking that this is the way math and science geeks behave. And size does matter-if you can design a really tall, big, fancy building you will be elevated to stardom status among enginerds and regular people.
Electrical: Level Extreme Nerdiness. Just plain weird. Even Steve Urkel crosses the street to avoid them.