Elizabeth Graham

I attribute my success to the fact that I'm alive and thriving despite the tough rate of mental health issues for trans people and the lack of acceptance we can amd do face. Given the high unemployment rate and job loss rate for people on the autism spectrum, regardless of level of support needs, the fact that I've held one job for so long is an overall accomplishment. Being 10 years in the job this day and age is actually a good milestone. I didn't have to seek a job that I totally did not want to in order to be myself. There are some trans people who wind up in other lines of professions because that was the only choice they had, but I was able to stay in the same line of work and move on up to case management, which was good. I have less direct contact with people, which sort of helped, especially in the early days of my gender transition. I think keeping the same job and also maintaining a freelance advocacy career on the side is an accomplishment, given the job turnover rate and unemployment rate for many people with developmental disabilities. My mom, Kathleen - a flassical musician and piano teacher who died in her 50s from melanoma when i was 15 years of age - has also helped me even from the grave - she was influential to my life and showed me through her actions that women have to work twice as hard to be viewed as half as good as men.

The best specific advice I received was from an HR recruiter when I was doing an internship at a psychiatric rehabilitation agency after graduating from college. She heard me applying for different jobs, including one at a developmental disability-based organization, and she knew about my expertise with autism. She said to me, 'You have the skills to work in a group home at one of our organizations, but is this the population that you want to work with?' She told me to think about it for the day and call her tomorrow, and she sort of hinted that working in the developmental disability population might be a better fit for me. I think she was right - 13 years later, I'm doing a lot and contributing a lot to the developmental disability field. The broader advice I would give to anyone is, whatever your major is or whatever career path you want to go in, find your niche. Find something that only you can specialize in. I mean, yes, your position could be replaced, but find something about you that if you were to leave, someone would miss that thing. Make yourself unique in a way that you will be missed.

I think you need to work hard. Try to work harder, as my mom, through her actions, showed that women have to work twice as hard to be viewed as half as good as men. The Army, even the Army Band, is still pretty much a boys' club, so to say. Thankfully, in the developmental disability field, there's a lot more women working in the field than men. But I think the key is to find your niche and work hard. Prove yourself so that even if you could be replaced in terms of position, you'd still be missed. An accomplishment is one accomplishment, and then you just think of another accomplishment, but you also want to make milestones.

One of the biggest challenges we're seeing in the developmental disability field is turnover of the direct support staff, the ones who arevon the front lines. Part of it is salary, and that's also a policy advocacy matter as well. That's a bigger level thing. I do say that if you want to go into the developmental disability field, work in a direct position first before you find other jobs within the developmental disability field. I've seen people who are able to do the job itself well, but they don't really have much of an understanding of what they're doing as case managers from a concrete level. Starting in a direct support role helps you understand the work from the ground up.

I value consistent and sincere work ethic and interest. I value people who are passionate about what they do. If you don't like a certain aspect of your job, find another part of your job that you are passionate about. For example, when I was working at Starbucks while finding my job after college, I knew I wasn't going to stay there, but what I did enjoy was helping people maximize their rewards benefits and drinking coffee. I'm known for my puns if you get me in the right mood, and a lot of the customers liked my jokes and puns as well. There was never a boring moment, especially on the morning shift. So even if you're in a job that you don't like, at least find some aspect of the job that you do like and make the best of it. I'm the type of worker that doesn't always need external motivation - I'm not really motivated by those employee of the month things. What tells me if I'm doing my job is: Are the clients getting the support that they need and am i meeting my recurring deadlines? Those are examples of what often tells me if I'm doing a good enough job.