It’s easier to get out in the working world when you have competitive skills coupled with a little experience.

That’s what Extraordinary Ventures of Michigan, located in Legacy 925, aims to make possible for adults living on the autism spectrum.

The nonprofit gives its employees jobs that save other businesses’ time, such as laundry services, packaging and assembling small parts. The employees get to work in areas they enjoy and excel in.

“We might have people who are best at folding or best at assembly, and we just have them do the part that they’re most successful at,” said Don Reid, the president and CEO of Extraordinary Ventures Michigan.

Reid, a former Detroit Pistons forward and Detroit Schools employee, has a passion for working with people on the spectrum and providing those who have graduated high school with a sense of purpose and ability to build a career. He came to Extraordinary Ventures Michigan as its CEO after seeing what it can do for those who work there.

“(They) get an initial understanding of what a job is,” Reid said. “Getting the opportunity to work in a traditional work space is important.”

In the business’ unique interview process, interviewees are brought in and given a chance to try a number of jobs. Rather than counting on prospective employees to have a preexisting set of skills, employees are placed in positions based on what they show the most promise with during the interview. During the work day, some stick to a single job while others bounce around.

“We try to keep our employees on the most productive part of what they can do,” Reid said. “It’s not a regular interview process, we have them try a lot of different things.”

Reid said the predictability of the jobs is what makes them enjoyable to many of his employees, which consequently gives them a job with a sense of purpose. One of the employees, 27-year-old Drew McDonald, knows the laundry service inside and out and another 27-year-old Chris Plummer, can rattle off endless facts about the microgreens he grows and packages.

For some, this job is their first. No matter what the job, experience is what helps build a resume, and Reid has seen his employees enter the working world in part because Extraordinary Ventures gave them a start. He said he’s had former employees who have gone on to work in various fields from chemical companies to Oxford High School.

“This might be their first job, they don’t have a resume or anything saying what they can do,” Reid said “We’ll try to work around their needs and it’s likely that once they see they can do (a job), they can do it anywhere else.”

Reid wants the community to know that he and his staff are “always looking for more jobs” to do.

“Sometimes people don’t even know that they have a job they can give us,” he said. “We can help a lot.”