How Technology Is Eliminating The Unemployment Epidemic In The Autistic Community

This is the story of Matt, a talented but but struggling web developer diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a late age who eventually found success due to the use of new and innovative communication technologies.

“It’s a sad fact that only 16% of adults with Asperger’s hold full-time jobs. There are around 68 million of us globally. It’s a major problem, a drain on the economy, and a huge waste of talent and resources.”  - Matt Skillings, CDO of CommissionCrowd

Matt Skillings wasn’t diagnosed with autism until he was 33 years old. Up until that point, he never understood what made him different from other people. Social interactions came as a challenge to him. And despite performing well in school, he’d often find it difficult relating to his peers. Receiving his diagnosis was like a light bulb being turned on inside his head. Suddenly, he understood why he struggled with some situations and excelled in others.

According to the National Autistic Society only 16% of adults with autism are employed in full-time positions. When Matt sought to enter the professional world, he was met with grim prospects. He was well aware of employers’ tendencies to see the “disabled” label on a resume and assume a person was unfit for a position. That left him with few options that allowed for little social interaction and the freedom to work independently. And while he knew these jobs were fine career choices for someone else, his real passion was in web development.

A recent study by the Center for Disease Control found that 44% of children with autism display higher than average intellectual ability. So why is it that so few adults are able to find full-time employment? For Matt, one-on-one interviews and the prospect of working in a busy office environment were just two of the deterring factors he found in his job search. His solution was to start his own company and work on a freelance basis. He knew he possessed formidable skills and experience in web development, but his social skills still presented a problem with making sales. That’s where CommissionCrowd came in.

CommissionCrowd is an online networking and collaboration service dedicated to the independent sales industry. Their platform connects experienced, self-employed sales agents who work on commissions with companies throughout the world. One of the things that attracted Matt to CommissionCrowd initially was their collaborative functionality that allowed for companies to keep remote working relationships with newly-found agents. Matt approached the company in the hope of finding sales people who could sell his services. What he found instead was the opportunity to become the lead web developer for that very same program.

Having Matt on board was a godsend, but it also presented a unique challenge. Our organisation was hedging a great deal of success on someone with a condition we knew little about, and whom we couldn’t speak to in person or over the phone. But it didn’t take long to recognize Matt’s talent, and we knew we had to figure out a way for us to work together that was comfortable and effective for both parties.  - Ryan Mattock, Co-Founder of CommissionCrowd

When Matt joined the team in March of 2015, CommissionCrowd was still a startup company grappling with creating a website and application (app) with only one developer. His services to the team proved to be such a boon that he was offered an equity stake in the business.

We've now been working with Matt for close to two years. He's one of our greatest assets and his work helped our company win a major award at the 2016 Sales Innovation Expo. We’re growing at a rate that would not have been possible without his incredible work ethic, dedication, and unique skillset. He's now our full-time CDO and we've still never spoken person or over the phone! It’s troubling to think there are millions of people like Matt who have never been given the chance to showcase skills.  - Laura McGregor, CEO CommissionCrowd

CommissionCrowd is now turning its attention to raise awareness for individuals with Asperger’s. Their forthcoming Asperger’s foundation will give Matt an up-front opportunity to change the community for the better.

Name: Matthew Skilling 

Job Title: CommissionCrowd, CDO 

Attitude Statement: I still don't consider having Asperger’s syndrome a good or a bad thing but it's part of who I am.

1. What has been your biggest difficulty coping with Asperger’s syndrome?

Matt: I've always found the world a bit confusing. I performed well enough in school, but had difficulty making friends. My biggest frustration came from 'neurotypicals' (informally defined by the autism community as people not on the spectrum) not understanding my condition. I’d encounter employers who would look at the “disabled” label on a CV and automatically assume the applicant was unsuitable for the job.

Asperger's syndrome is a hidden disability. Walking past me on the street, you would never know I had it. It’s when I have to fit into a neurotypical world that the problems start. Neurotypicals are born with the skills to communicate and interact in any number of public and social situations. I was not.

2. When were you diagnosed with Asperger's?

Matt: I was diagnosed at the age of 33. While I was growing up in the 80's and 90's, not much was known about autism. I always knew that I was different. But after I was diagnosed everything made sense. I suddenly realised why I'd found some things difficult when they came so naturally to everybody else.

3. What are the characteristics of your Asperger’s syndrome (autism), and how do they affect you?

Matt: My symptoms are primarily related to social interactions. I also get very distracted by noises around me, so I tend to play music from wireless headphones when I need to focus. But there’s another aspect to my autism. I've realised there are things that come easily to me that other people find difficult. For example, I've found that I can understand complex ideas and identify patterns or trends much quicker than the average neurotypical.

4. What was life like before you were diagnosed?

Matt: Before my diagnosis I assumed I was normal and everyone else was weird or different.

5. What career options were available to you?

Matt: While I was an extremely capable web developer, my career choices were limited to jobs that don’t involve considerable social interaction. Essentially, it came down to becoming a van driver, postman, or milkman; all of which gave me the freedom to work alone. These were all perfectly fine career choices, but my passion was still in web development and prior to meeting CommissionCrowd I was stuck in a cycle of working in jobs that simply couldn’t fulfill my ambitions.

6. How did you first come in contact with CommissionCrowd?

Matt: I came to the realisation that neglecting my passion was ultimately leaving me unfulfilled in life, so I decided to start my own company and work on a freelance basis. But even though I possessed formidable skills and experience in web development, I encountered difficulties making sales. I was trapped so long as I couldn’t contact, meet with, and sell to prospective clients.

I initially approached CommissionCrowd because their service connects companies with independent sales agents and I hoped to build an outsourced sales team to sell my services. But even more appealing was the fact that their platform provided everything needed to easily manage remote working relationships with sales agents with very little human interaction.

7. What circumstances led to you start work with CommissionCrowd?

Matt: I applied to see if my business would be appropriate for CommissionCrowd and the sales agents that worked within their platform. Soon afterwards I was approached by the CEO of the company, Laura McGregor, who asked if I would be interested in working for the company on a freelance basis. I jumped at the chance and haven’t looked back since.

8. What do you enjoy most about working with CommissionCrowd?

Matt: Most of the team work remotely and initially that was a big concern for me. The company’s vision and scope of work involved would normally call for daily meetings and constant communication with multiple departments.

What makes CommissionCrowd different is their use of new and innovative technologies that eliminate the need for constant interpersonal, face-to-face communication. A couple of our favorite applications include Slack, DaPulse, and Realtime Board, all of which have been super intuitive and have allowed me to work comfortably from home.

Slack is a simple yet intuitive app that focuses on team communication chat. It helps the whole team communicate via text chat which means i’m constantly in the loop while eliminating the need to speak on the phone or sit in a meeting room and talk face-to-face which i’m not comfortable with.

DaPulse is the tool we use for project management and staying organised. We each have our own task lists and can also contribute to others. We can easily see what each department is working on at that specific moment without the need to meet in person.

Realtime Board is a visual collaboration tool we use to plan out physical aspects of the website and application. Again, it’s a collaborative tool that’s intuitive to use and eliminates the need for me to sit in a board-room and present on flip-charts.

These tools and others which are being more readily adopted by companies means I can now pursue my passion for web development and design while being part of an inspiring team of like-minded professionals. I’ve never had an opportunity like this before. Ryan, Laura and Alistair - The founders of the business - welcomed me into the team wholeheartedly from day one and are constantly seeking out new and innovative technologies that make our working relationship that much easier.

9. How has life changed for you since finding a job that allows to take advantage of your skills?

Matt: It's great! I’m living my life the way it was always meant to be. I now get to do everything I love most: act creatively, take full advantage of my talents and passion while being able to achieve a form of normality and routine for a company I believe in and love! It’s a sad fact that only 16% of autistic adults in the UK find full-time employment, and only 32% are paid for their work. (source: www.autism.org.uk) Companies like CommissionCrowd give us the opportunity to show the world what we’re capable of.

10. What advice would you give to professionals who suffer from Asperger’s when seeking work?

Matt: I’d remind them that they are now living in a very different world, with all sorts of new opportunities being adopted by forward thinking companies. You no longer need to limit yourself to jobs or a life where you aren’t able to use your full set of talents.

Do you write about Autism, business, the economy or employment? For more information on this story please contact:

Ryan Mattock (CommissionCrowd, CMO) 

Tel: +44 131 208 2562 

Email: Ryan@commissioncrowd.com