Luke Cameron is a Junior Analyst in our Cairns office and works alongside Bailey. His story highlights his experience of living with autism growing up in a small town, plus how a supportive environment allows him to apply his strengths—namely, his attention to detail. Learn more about Luke (and his wicked sense of humour) below!
Luke Cameron: I was born in Charleville in Western Queensland. My family moved to a small town called Barcaldine, 400 km north, when I was two, and we stayed there until I finished high school. I’m the youngest of a family of five, with two older sisters. I attended school at Barcaldine Prep to 12 Campus, which has about 300 students. I had a pretty good childhood growing up in a small country town. I kept a small group of friends for the entire time I was a student. I was even a primary school captain!
I was diagnosed with autism when I was six years old. My parents noticed I wasn't as social as other kids. What led to my diagnosis were a couple of incidents. The first was that I was nearly suspended in Grade One. When I eventually found that out, I thought oh my God, I didn't think I was that bad of a kid!
I also landed detention in Grade Two because I was told to draw four straight plain shapes for homework. But I misinterpreted this as drawing straight shapes from a plane! My teacher suggested that I might be autistic, and my parents thought she was making excuses.
But I wasn’t told about my neurodivergence until I turned 13 because my parents thought I wouldn't understand until then. I didn’t learn much about my childhood until I was an adult.
“A lot of stuff happened throughout my life that I never really questioned. For example, why was I constantly pulled out of class for these other sessions or told I was special? Why did I go to all of these special days?”
I even went to Townsville for a ‘special kids’ sports competition. Mind you, it was cancelled because of heavy rain. But someone said to me, ‘Luke, this says disability games.’ And I'm like, wait, what? But even then, I still didn't question it. As I got older throughout school, I was more open about it, especially when people started comparing me to Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory! I once sang a whole song about Asperger's Syndrome (note: this terminology is not used anymore) in Grade 12. It was about many celebrities believed to be on the spectrum. It actually made my Special Ed teacher cry. It’s a parody of an Adam Sandler song and goes like this:
I’m here, annoying. I’m here with Asperger’s. Also called autism. When talking of Asperger’s, Asperger’s people have different working minds. People think we’re dumb, but we have history’s greatest minds.
But when you feel like the only kid in town who doesn’t quite fit in. Here’s a list of people who are Asperger’s. Just like you and me.
Albert Einstein was a terrific man. So was Nik Tesla, Isaac Newton and the funny Andy Kaufman. Guess who probably is Asperger’s and makes your insides hurtin’? Late comedic Rob Williams. And director Tim Burton.
Brennan from Bones is Asperger’s. Sheldon from Big Bang is too. Put them together, what an annoying-sounding fellow!
You don’t need to feel weird about being a weirdo. Cause you can watch a film directed by Knight Sir Alfred Hitchcock.
Asperger’s.
I’m here, annoying, I’m here with Asperger’s. The creator of the puppet, The Muppets, probably was Asperger’s.
Wolfgang Mozart was Asperger’s. And guess who else? Pianist Glen Gould, who hated clapping. We got Maurice Moss, played by Richard Ayoade. Danny Pudi plays the Asperger’s Abed, not a baddy!
Some people think that Steve Jobs was. Yeah, but he’s boring. Guess who ain’t? Allen Turing.
So many Asperger’s people in film. John Belushi wasn’t, but I heard his Blue Bro is. Dan Aykroyd!
Tell all your friends that I have Asperger’s. I hope I can work obsessive, while I have Asperger’s.
So, live your life fun, Asperger’s
And be proud of your Asperger’s
If you really are Asperger’s
Be happy happy happy happy
Asperger’s
After I finished school, I went to university at Toowoomba. I'd always loved movies and television and had wanted to try acting as a career since I was 14. So, I went through the theatre program but was dropped after a year. People seemed to like my performances viewer-wise, but the teachers pointed out a few things to me. For example, one said I had to do every take differently when doing a scene. They asked me, ‘Luke. Everyone else can commit to change. Why can't you?’
And she was yelling at me about that. It took literally every fibre of my being not to shout back at her for that comment. But then I sent her my learning support plan after that, and we never discussed it. She was weirdly nicer after that. So, it was pretty much just a lack of understanding at uni. After that experience, I've always been very open about my autism.
“I also had an interest in maths during school, so after the acting stuff fell through, I took up accounting and have a bachelor's degree.”
Then, the pandemic hit during my last year. I had to move out of college and live with my parents again. Then, my mum landed a job in Cairns just before my last semester began. It was either moving there or returning to uni under extremely restricted living conditions. I just decided the hell with it. I'll just go to Cairns and do my last semester online. It would have had to have been mostly online anyway.
I have had two jobs in accounting since leaving uni, but neither lasted more than nine months because of my Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and attention to detail. I tried my hardest. I worked as hard as I could, but unfortunately, I couldn't work as quickly as I would have liked because of my attention to detail. For example, my colleagues would say, ‘Luke, this job should have taken you two hours.’ It would take me 10. I know that isn't good, but I just wanted to give people quality work.
But I think this was mainly due to a lack of training and misconceptions about autism (e.g. I know what you're like. My son's got an autistic friend). And I think that leads to a generalisation. Just because they've met one autistic person, they've met them all. But they don’t realise we're all individuals, like neurotypical people.
I think that's something a lot of people forget. I was fired from my first job due to my inability to move quickly and to their standards. A similar thing happened at my job after that, so I quit that one. I didn't want to go through the stress of losing another job.
“I don't know if that's the case, but I do sometimes wonder if being open about my diagnosis has caused people to be hesitant to hire me. I was applying for about five jobs online daily, and I would barely hear back from anyone.”
I thought I had to be completely honest about my autism from the get-go because if I'm not, it could lead to a misunderstanding later. I even tried to get a job at an autism not-for-profit, but I didn't get that. Part of me felt it was a little demeaning to apply for a job there because I can't work anywhere else or because no one else will understand me. I just struggled to find work. I looked for other accounting work and anything else via an employment provider. They weren't very useful. The only thing they managed to find for me was a delivery job at three in the morning at a bakery, delivering bread to various places. After one night of that, I found out that early morning deliveries weren’t for me!
Four months after I left my last accounting role, an opportunity with Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA) came up. I took it without a second thought because it sounded like a great opportunity and has been a great work environment since I started. People are very open-minded and like-minded, and I've just found it a much easier place to work. Most of my work has been in the geospatial area, as I've worked on many projects involving maps. I’ve also ensured that diagrams have been translated correctly. I’ve worked on various things, including LiDAR projects, the fibreoptic rollout for Ventia and agricultural mapping for AgriWebb. I have been working casually for a year and am keen to sign a permanent contract and increase my workdays.
“It's been a new and engaging experience. I love the working environment because it's the first time I feel I've been in a place filled with like-minded people. I'm amazed. I find it ironic that this job has had more social events than any other, as this is a place filled with neurodivergent people who are assumed to be more antisocial.”
This is the first place I've worked where people truly appreciate the skills I bring, particularly my attention to detail. I have to check everything, and it's weirdly coming in handy because there was a project where others initially marked it as passed. But I noticed one glaring issue that was missed. I’m the quality assurance person!
ASA has been very accommodating. They’ve been a lot more understanding of my mental health, way more than other places I've worked at. They've done things that have helped me at work. People give me constant and consistent feedback to let me know that I am doing the job well and completing it promptly. This has meant I’m more confident in my work and what I’ll be doing in the future. Our People Success Officers (PSOs) have been great. They've helped to show me that I am succeeding at what I'm doing and that I'm not falling behind or ‘failing’ as I did at other jobs. The work I've been doing has been gratifying. I want to progress from a Junior Data Analyst to a Data Analyst.
“I feel ASA has helped me gain more confidence in myself and the work I produce because they've been a lot more reassuring about what I'm doing. So, I hope this will help me excel in future endeavours if I decide to take another career path, for example, returning to the finance industry.”
With communication, I prefer communicating in person because I feel that's the best way to help understand a person's tone and emotion. My parents have always encouraged me to be social. I'm doing Dungeons and Dragons with a coworker every Thursday night. I bowl and still regularly talk to my old high school and uni friends. But there are times when I’ve had enough of being social; for example, when the whole family is together, everyone will talk. Eventually, I will leave because I don't want to be there anymore.
People have asked me all sorts of personal questions about being autistic—most of them ridiculous! At uni, others asked, ‘Luke, were your teachers afraid of you?’ Other questions included, ‘When you were diagnosed, did your parents ever consider home-schooling you?’ No! As soon as I was diagnosed, that guaranteed I was going to school. Some assume I don't drive, but I got my learners the day after I turned 16 and got my provisional licence as soon as I could. I grew up riding motorbikes and was no stranger to changing gears.
Based on my experience, neurotypical people need more awareness of neurodivergent people because I feel they don't understand that, like neurotypical people, we are all individuals, and autism affects us differently. And I think another important thing is the very wrong assumption that autistic people can't feel empathy. We just feel it differently. Someone at uni said that to me, and I replied, ‘Excuse me! I'm autistic, not a psycho!’
The biggest thing is miscommunication because if something isn't communicated correctly, it could lead to me not fully understanding what I need to do. This could lead to incomplete work and me constantly worrying about whether I'm doing something right. I also feel the lack of feedback causes anxiety as it's the main thing to help someone know they are doing something correctly. This can make you stuck and unsure of how to move forward.
In the future, I would be interested in working with other organisations if they were as understanding and accommodating as ASA. I have expressed a desire to return to the accounting or finance field if possible. In fact, I'm currently part of the ASA Mentor Program. My mentor is a finance guy in Victoria who has dyslexia. That can’t be easy if you’re always looking over financial statements! We've been discussing ways to improve my skills, and he has been a great help.
That’s it from me. Finally, have a look and subscribe to my YouTube channel. I'm kidding!