Saturday, June 03, 2006

Interpersonal Skills, job finding, and volunteering

Old lags here might know I am a photographer and currently out of work.

With advertisments like this one "JUNIOR STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHER required for a contempory modern Hertfordshire based studio. Must have excellent interpersonal skills" Is it any wonder, that my business failed.

Self promotion is the worst nightmare for any budding aspie businessman (or woman)

Talent is never enough it seems whilst the majority of advertisments call for "team players" and "excellent communication skills"

Yes I can be a team member, if my role is well defined and the other team players, play their proper parts in support, but usually that is not what the phrase means, it means that one needs to be a joiner, a voluable personable socialite.

Communication skills I must have, to have survived on the board of the NAS, to have built a web domain as large as mine, but again what counts is first impressions at an interview, or on the phone.

I have offered my services as a volunteer to a local organisation (not the NAS) as I think the work experience might be useful to me with regard to my studies next year, but the organisation turned round and said that they do not take volunteers, I believe that to be an outright lie, they meant that they did not take awkward autistic volunteers (and they an autism charity too)

I have been let down and lied to so many times by those who are supposed to be looking after or promoting my interests. My art is not promoted, my DVD's are not promoted, I am a side line.

Well I will promote myself here, you can buy my DVD direct from me and I will be the one who benefits for once http://www.shiningcityvisions.com/

If you buy from the NAS I am not allowed to profit from any of the sales via that route, though the NAS profits enough by my being on their board I might add, but Charity rules are one way and out of date, made for the leisured middle classed who can afford to give their time for nothing, not the forcably leisured hoi polloi who can't.


1 comment:

MothersVox said...

Charity rules are one way and out of date, made for the leisured middle classed who can afford to give their time for nothing, not the forcably leisured hoi polloi who can't.

You are so right about this . . . the laws that apply to the non-profit sector are based on having the financial circumstances that allow one to work for free. Also, the pay scales in these organizations even for those who are paid (esp. in arts and culture), are often so low that one has to have some other means of support. It ensures that the charity world continues to be about "generosity" rather than about political organizing.

Also, on age discrimation, on the other end of the scale, the use of "energetic" and "dynamic" and "long hours" is often a code for "only young people should apply."