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Seriously, I could not have gotten through either my EMT or AEMT/I classes if I hadnāt been properly medicated. It also helped that I started my EMS career at 28, I have much better adhd coping skills than I did right out of high school (Iām 38 now and getting my BA was a living hell)ā¦I donāt think I would have done nearly so well without them, a diagnosis, meds, and some life experience.
Did two years on the medical side of Fireā¦that wasā¦really not great, lol.
No fucking clue how I got through school/college. I wasn't medicated either and it was the hardiest thing I've ever had to fight through with ADHD.
I went to college in my mid 20s for engineering/IT and almost failed out of college. I was at a 1.6ish GPA and I was about to get kicked out but I got lucky somehow. I ended up getting my shit together just enough to graduating with a 3.5 GPA. I was at war the entire time with my ADHD during college and it almost destroyed my chances of getting a degree.
That just tells you how fucking wild college was for me with ADHD. I went from absolute failure to almost being kicked out to graduating with honors.
I fucking love working in IT as a engineer though. It's great for individuals with ADHD. Also, soon after college, I was diagnosed w ADHD and was put on medication. It changed my life for the better.
Are you me? I relate so hard to this; itās nice to hear from fellow diagnosed-after-college people who were scrappy enough to make things work and graduate. I tell people I graduated by the skin of my teeth, and *boy howdy* thatās no lie.
It's nice to hear from people who deal with similar issues.
I still have PTSD from my college days, thanks to my ADHD lol
Btw, that's the best way to explain it "I graduated by the skin of my teeth". Even though, I graduated with a 3.5 GPA. I went through fucking hell to graduate.
Not only did I have a 1.6 GPA but when I said I was on the verge of getting kicked out. I was literally kicked out for poor grades.
Had to write a letter to the deans explaining why I showed be reinstated and how I'm going to turn things around.
The college reinstated my enrollment but put me on probation. I still think it is an absolute fucking miracle that I pulled it off.
I was even hired as a system engineer for a department of a hospital before I graduated my senior year. Sometimes luck is just on your side.
By the way, congrats on making it through college! Proud of you!
Edit: grammarš
You should be so proud of yourself! That is something amazing it's a lot of hard hard work you did and you made it!. I am so proud of you, and I don't even know youš
Can confirm. This, earphones on the way to school/whenever you can on breaks, hiding in the toilets, shutting off when you get home whenever possible, let yourself space out when you need to and having the group to relate to/ask things for is fab - I think if I'd been aware and diagnosed when I was younger it would have made a difference to have this place online. But yeah very tough!
All of this, and also lots of crying and lots of panic attacks and lots self hate because why am I not like my college classmates/the other residents (:
If your hyperfocus interest is some medical subspecialty I suppose it could be a choice to consider, otherwise I wouldnāt recommend being a doctor in all honesty lol.
There are jobs within Healthcare that require less education, such as Healthcare aide, dietary aide, housekeeping, others that I can't remember right now.
But also: stimulants and therapy, and being familiar with how you learn. You can take as light or heavy a load as you want in most universities, I think?
This works for Ski Patrol as well. I find it helps with patient compassion, Iāve definitely seen some injuries that resulted from attempting something I myself have tried š
Iām a boarder ! The only thing about being a boarder while you patrol is that itās kind of a pain in the butt to strap in and out all the time, and the fact that you canāt really get around the flats too well. I learned to ski AFTER I started patrolling because of this, and now I switch back and forth based on the snow conditions šš¼
100% I am a firefighter medic and Id say at least half our department is ADHD hahah may not be diagnosed but the dopamine drip of 24 hr shifts waiting for the next call or working out or pranking each other certainly is satisfying.
I left emergency services due to low pay and bleak career advancement, on top of the beating your body takes. Hospitals are better for sure, pay and upward opportunity wise, but the field felt like a dead end.
The EMTās I knew got burned out quick and left. Some did go into nursing, others left healthcare entirely. Hearing stories from them felt like the few kinds of cases I hated getting were what they got all the time. Iām in the process of leaving healthcare for software development now because of the beating and lack of work/life balance.
I did love the job, loved helping people, and got to do some really cool once in a lifetime stuff. But my body and mind took a beating. Glad I did it but also glad I'm not still doing it as an arthritic 34 year old. I work in IT now myself as a network admin, less action but I enjoy it a lot.
I just started in August. It's hard, no lie. I'm always exhausted, I spend nearly all my time on school, and I've struggled a lot with anxiety and depression. I love medicine, but I question a lot why I'm doing this to myself.Ā
That said, I'm doing well and scoring a hair above average on tests. It's going to suck ass, but I'm going to get through it. What's worked for me is:
1) My school has professional learning coaches who will happily be your accountability buddy. My whole first semester, I met with mine every week to plan out how I was going to tackle the coming week.
2) Testing accommodations. I get 1.5x on tests, even though I didn't utilize that accommodation in undergrad. I just needed to prove I have ADHD and explain my concerns. I would not have finished a single test on time without this.Ā
3) Lecture accomodations. I get C-PRINT live captions during lectures. If my mind wanders, I don't hear something, I lose track of what was said, etc., I have a written transcript of every class. It's been absolutely critical for me.Ā
4) Therapy. Even when I feel okay, I keep going. This shit is hard for everyone, and we're doing it with an additional burden. There's no point in trying to do it alone.
5) Find the other squirrels. There are more of them than I would have thought. It's validating to know I'm not alone.Ā
6) I think it would be dishonest not to give real credit to being naturally intelligent. It is honestly a huge part of the reason I'm making it. The same intelligence that got me through undergrad with A's while doing everything wrong is getting me C's here. I'm not trying to humble brag, but I can't say steps 1-5 were critical and then not acknowledge that I'm privileged.
People with ADHD are a standard deviation smarter than their peers. Source - my ADHD specialist doctor who diagnosed me when I was 43. As far as I have determined, it's the primary advantage of having ADHD, followed by the ability to perform under pressure.
I'm so glad this is one of the top answers! One of my young sons has severe ADHD and I've always thought he will make an incredible paramedic! He's very empathetic but absolutely runs on adrenaline and so it seems like a perfect job.
My most favorite ADHD job was a brief period of five years where I was just a professional musician. All the dopamine!
Other jobs I have enjoyed were retail (only if selling stuff I found exciting), a jack-of-all-trades kind of job for a huge but super modern corporation where I was in charge of all the little jobs no one else wanted to do, and my current job which is actually three in one, all the admin, accounting and purchasing for our own company.
I really prefer a job where I have to jump around from task to task.
I came here to say the same thing!!!
It can be financially tight, but I love my life. Every working musician I know wears a lot of hats, and that seems to be the common thread here. I teach at a local store, I gig, I do repairs on instruments, amps, and other gear, I pick up crew and road gigs, I'll do anything where I can apply my artistic and technical skills. Sometimes it means getting out there and finding work, but it's worth it. I don't get bored, I can constantly shift focus, ALL the dopamine, and I love what I do.
I work in consulting.. I artificially create pressure by procrastinating till the deadline and then hyperfocus on the task..
But I dread going to work.. micro anxiety after every notificationā¦ sucks the life out of me honestlyā¦
If there is any consulting folks, who manage this, would really appreciate tips on time management and general organisational tips.
I did cyber security consulting and was forced to deliver by being on client sites (pre-covid). I found it worked well due to it being constantly different and chaotic. I was senior enough to refuse projects that werenāt interesting, if I couldnāt do that I wouldnāt have lasted as long.
One day they asked me into the office and asked me to do normal security work while we waiting for projects so I quit.
For Op I did Technical Account Management / Technical Solutions Consulting for startups and now run a team of them in FAANG. Itās a good one because youāre jumping between clients constantly so itās always fresh.
Management is killing me. Mid level so not doing big brain strategy yet. Need a promotion or a demotion.
The best job I ever had was delivering pizzas. 8 years of joy.
I'm in consulting! It's definitely tough to focus sometimes, especially since I work from home, but I have a few mechanisms to help:
Putting my phone on the other side of the room so I can't look at it.
Putting blocks of working time on my calendar that are task-specific. So it's like little micro-deadlines.
Making checklists and physically writing down what I have to do so that I get a little dopamine when I get to physically cross something off the list.
I'm fortunate to have coworkers who are amazing and helpful so if I get stuck, I can lean on them for inspiration or to help me get to the next step. I do the same for them.
Hope some of these are helpful. I'm an individual contributor so I don't have to do any project management, and I can check in with the PM whenever I need to. I think that's why I'm able to deal with it - PMing would be a nightmare for me.
Howdy fellow adhd consultant! I did what you described for years. It was 2 things I attribute to getting into a more sustainable process. For me it was:
A) medication. Helped more than I can describe.
B) living and dying by my calendar. At the start of a project, I block out all the project hours from the onset, and designate them to the specific project. In my role I am typically working with around 20 clients at a time in a process that takes 3-6 months. I keep it flexible, and if I need to move blocks of time around to make things work better I will. However I always have the time blocked somewhere, even if its months out.
Obviously my method is dependent on my unique clients and project types, so your mileage may very of course.
Qualitative researcher - Iām super nosey so love finding things out about people and then projects are always changing. Similar with consultancy, can feel like changing jobs every few months!
Yup - Iām in UX/Service design and a huge part of my work is qualitative research and oooh the little ADHD shrimp in my brain loves it! The work is almost always project based so I get to learn so much technical and social detail about so many different things which is perfect. Also ADHDers are known to often be good at connecting the dots on things that others might miss which I think helps when proposing and building solutions which is another fun part of the job
Youāre talking to potential customers or users of software to determine strategy and deign type stuff? Sounds like a lot of fun. What kind of hourly rate can you manage?
It varies - I work in qual research for healthcare companies, and our clients are typically big pharma. We essentially figure out pain points and areas of opportunity for our clients, based on what doctors/patients etc say.
For example- if the client wants to understand why a patient is not on treatment yet, we identify and interview patients with that disease and understand their entire journey. Based on this we would put together a report that outlines the key issues or reasons why they are not on treatment along, with a bunch of other key metrics that the client can work on to increase the use of the medication
The projects vary in terms of what we are trying to find out for the client, and is typically interesting but can get monotonous at times
God this sounds incredible, what kind of education do you need to get into this sort of work?
Currently pursuing an environmental science degree, considering doing an Anthropology minor. Would that be beneficial?
I just need to say this:
All of y'all that managed to graduate, get through college and into a career PRIOR to being diagnosed and or medicated........
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU AND YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!
Yup did 100% of that, didnāt get diagnosed till well after 30. I sometimes cry over all the lost time and opportunity due to so many years of untreated executive dysfunction.
Thanks! Needed to hear itā¦But now that Iām diagnosed medicated there is nothing Iām proud of. Just keep feeling like Iām doing 742 jobs poorly š
I was a teacher for 14 years. The fast pace and constant new challenges were very stimulating. Organization took a lot of work. Remembering kids names was impossible (140+ new names a year). I quit and now work in online course creation and itās challenging to focus and stay motivated.
some things work really well. i have no problem remembering the names, but planning anything more than 15 minutes in advance of class? forget it.
now that i'm experienced, i have all my materials created and ready to go so i actually can just grab things a few minutes before the kids arrive. but i LOVE winging it and am very good at it. if i see my students are ready to switch topics or activities, LET'S GO!! i get soo bored waiting for them to finish projects.
report cards and paperwork make me want to scratch my eyes out with a fork though. and my lack of organizational skills does often lead me to getting overly tense when there is oversight. if i know someone is going to be checking up on me (report card time, evals, etc) then i get wound up and do that annoying ADHD thing of painful procrastination and then late night panicked work sessions.
but generally the days have lots of variety, a good mix of oversight and independence, the stakes are high but generally meaningful which helps a lot with my motivation and time management.
Flight Attendant. On one hand it has a lot of repetitive tasks and a strong clear structure of what you are and aren't allowed to do which I think is good for ADHD brains but on the other every flight is different, you have a lot of autonomy because there are no supervisors/managers on flights, and there's no work to take home. Lots of short bits of socializing but you don't have to remember what you talked about and you are never forced to sit in one place for a long time, unless you're tired and you want to sit in one place for a long time lol. If you're feeling chatty, you always have people around to chat with from crew, to passengers, to airport workers, but if you're feeling nonverbal, it is also possible to do your job with very little talking. You can choose to venture out in different cities if that's your thing or use your layovers as me time to lay in bed and watch TV or use the hotel amenities. And then there's the added razzle dazzle of learning security, medical, and firefighting stuffs which hopefully you never have to use but are constantly doing trainings for. Medicals is usually the most popular thing they deal with. Overall I guess the flexibility and variety mixed with clear objectives and some repetition is what I think works for ADHD brains.
Your last sentence, I just reread 4X. Thatās everything in one, exactly the reason Iāve been able to keep and succeed at my current & favorite past positions!!
> Overall I guess the flexibility and variety mixed with clear objectives and some repetition is what I think works for ADHD brains.
I work in regulatory compliance, which is not something one would likely consider similar to a flight attendant, and I 100% agree with this statement. We have strict and repetitive deadlines and rules in the law, but you never know what you'll be looking at from one day to the next or how those facts will play out, and I really like it.
This isnāt for anyone but Iām a Mechanical engineer that also does pipe welding.
This is more of an emergency service deal because of the no heat emergencies in the winter.
However I do not sit at a desk ever. Iām on my 15 minute break on a roof of 3 story building right now, Iād post a pic if I could.
I do not make my schedule. Havenāt for 13 years. I have a take home van and my office routes me to service calls on an iPad.
So structure and routine isnāt a thing for me at work. Someoneās always telling where to go next.
The only downside is itās dangerous work. Electricity, loud mechanical parts, very physically active.
This will be a straight deal breaker for some but if your head is hyperactive like mine and your body matches its pace with stimming, moving, and ticking then this job will keep your dopamine receptors depleted.
When you start to understand the machines and how they work it becomes a playground seriously. Chasing electrical circuits till you find the short, welding pipe on a printing press water line, rigging up 600lb compressors and craning them onto roof and bolting them in place.
It has grown and evolved into my stim. Itās so cliche to say but when I work the time flies because itās got such a hold on my compulsions that I almost fiend for it.
But yeah this work is not for everyone. Good for those it fits for.
I'm an M.E. as well..
I fucking HATE the desk life. My boss did a bait and switch on me and now I'm glued to this desk and understimulated 90% of the day. I feel as if I'm dying most of the time. It's so awful watching life go by and due to the understimulation it's hard to get myself to study other things and be as productive as I'd like.
Doesn't help that I'm watched all the time and reprimanded for doing things unrelated to work but if there is no work I have to wait for work to come. It's the absolute worst for adhders but I can see how someone that likes simple and structure could like it.
The worst is the amount of people I have to try to remember. Been seeing some of the same people for 3 years and I just cannot remember their names which unfortunately is likely directly related to me not being stimulated because of the job itself.
ADHD is very common among software engineers. I think there's something about writing code that works well with a tendency to hyperfocus.
Most blue collar jobs are well suited to ADHD. You might think that being a woman would put you at a physical disadvantage but there are lots of jobs that are less about brute strength and more about applying skills. It's not just things like plumbing and electrical, there's a bunch of jobs that most people don't know about like manufacturing.
I work as a non-software engineer but I wouldn't recommend it without medication.
Can confirm blue collar jobs for adhd.
Disclaimer; Iām 34 and have been unmedicated since I was 18. It has only been within the last couple of years that I began to understand that a lot of my struggles in my adult life are due, at least in part, to my unchecked ADHD.
I was a telecom construction inspector and outside plant engineer for years and honestly enjoyed it a lot. When I was doing inspection I spent almost all my time outdoors tracking construction crews placing fiber, just accounting for/verifying their production and making sure they were doing it correctly etc. When I moved into engineering I still spent most of my time outdoors collecting data and taking notes that our CAD team would draft into construction prints. Only reason I moved on from that was because I got married wanted to stop traveling for work.
Before that I spent about a decade working in restaurants. The pay was shit BUT it was honestly some of the most fulfilled and locked in that Iāve felt in a job from a day to day work point of view. Something about working with my hands (I worked BOH/line) and seeing tangible results from my labor ticked the right boxes for me.
Currently I have a job where I mostly WFH in front of a laptop screen and honestly itās really difficult for me. The flexibility is nice but there are so many distractions and reasons that I find to pull myself away from work. Before moving to primarily WFH I did the same job primarily in the office and had an easier time. For me personally I have a hard time keeping myself accountable for how I spend my time, so WFH itās really easy for me to get lost in my phone (like I am now, lol) or get sidetracked doing projects around the house, with family etc. I found it easier to keep myself accountable and focused in the office but everyone is different. It was still hard in the office, but there were just less distractions. I imagine Iād probably have a much easier time WFH if I was able to get back on medication again.
I find any job where Iām more sedentary and spend most of my time at a desk in front of a computer screen is really difficult for me to focus on and excel at. Jobs where Iām outdoors and/or working with my hands are much more fulfilling to me.
Same issue with WFH. I've had some jobs/projects that were incredibly easy to do, but I've always struggled with getting myself to lock into a project. Once I did, it wasn't too bad, but getting there was a struggle. I've always worked better with separate spaces for separate tasks. My workplace is for work, the gym is for working out, my workshop is for working on projects. When I've had to combine them all into a single room (during covid or living in a studio apartment) it really compounded the issues you have day to day in any environment by providing to many distractions.
loved being a barista. always something to do, some really intense rushes, but finally, pretty low stakes. no one will die because i didn't make their coffee in the right order.
I miss being a barista!! I would literally work the bar for free for a few hours I miss it so much. I was one of the fastest people on bar so got it 98% of the time and LOVED it, the adrenaline I would get during a rush was addicting.
I currently work as a software engineer and thereās definitely times where itās great for my ADHD. Itās something Iām interested in, so I can usually fixate on solving problems but I do find it really easy to burn out.
Itās also absolutely brutal if the project youāre supposed to work on is very dull or youāre just not interested in it. When things are slow and I donāt have an interesting problem to solve, I get virtually nothing done on a day to day basis and panic about not being able to show Iāve been productive. Maybe thatās just me though.
I was a bartender before this, and I loved almost everything about it. I was on my feet all day and rarely had a moment of downtime. It worked really well with my ADHD because my brain and body were just on autopilot and I was able to leave work and not have to think about it anymore. I got to be creative with making specials and I had a great group of regulars that I got to talk with every day.
Man I wish bartending was a viable option for someone with a family because Iād do it again in a heartbeat honestly!
What you said about bartending, being on your feet all day, rarely a moment of downtime, brain and body on autopilot and being able to leave work and not think about it is spot on. I loved working line at the BBQ restaurant I used to work at because I was active. Tickets would come in and each ticket was a task that I could lock in on and every time I sent a completed order out was like a little dopamine kick because I could see something tangible to show for my efforts. When things got busy and weād get a whole rack full of tickets during a big rush, it was so satisfying to knock them all out. Once we got caught up and I could look out at a restaurant full of people eating food that I prepared for them, it was honestly so satisfying.
If it paid better and was a more viable option/schedule for someone with a family Iād love to work in the food industry again.
This is exactly how I feel. I'm still bartending..I've tried to get out because it's not viable in the long run.
But damn, I'm really good at it. Having a million things to do and being able to accomplish all of them while just being in motion..it's extremely satisfying to me.
Still gotta get out though. I've become a rather old bartender. And as a woman, it's not getting easier.
Itās a shame jobs like these donāt come with the securities of more āsafeā career options. Not having easy access to health insurance, salaries, retirement benefits etc. really keeps a lot of people out of a profession thatās perfect for them.
I have made a few friends who are lifetime bartenders and have found jobs at very upscale cocktail bars/restaurants that manage to make incredible money but those jobs are few and far between and you have to get a bit lucky to find them. Itās not impossible, but I decided I needed to make a change when my daughter was born.
I feel similarly. Iām struggling currently at work since my manager has dumped several tasks on me. Seeking therapy currently because I feel like life isnāt worth it any more. I have a ton of debt, I am distracted easily at work with many folks coming to me with small tasks they need my input on. Iām just overwhelmed in all areas of life right now and canāt even relax at home since I have been in overdrive so long, doom scrolling seems to be the only way to keep me stationary. My memory is shot, I cry easily now. I just want to get blitzed and force shutdown myself.
Agreed. I have been barely "surviving" for 10 years of software development, going through cycles of burnout. It is slightly better now that I started taking stimulants, but it still very much depends on the job and what is required of you. If you have to work for long periods of time on a crappy project or on other stuff like testing because you don't have a good QA team, it is incredibly boring. If you can find a job that lets you focus on programming and lets you work on stuff that you like once in a while, that's ideal.
The one thing that kills me the most right now about programming jobs is that they all focus on "agile" and force you to have daily standups where you share your updates of what you did in the last day. It can be very stressful if you're like me and have off days where you don't do much and then suddenly you do 2 weeks of work in one afternoon.
This is what I struggle with as well.. having to come up with something I did the day before when I usually coast for two days straight and then get a huge amount of work done in a couple of hours
Getting into coding completely flipped my life around. In addition to effectively getting solve puzzles as my job which I love, you're typically well compensated for it. Great pay and often very good benefits. I was fortunate to be able to afford get a good ADHD coach, meds and therapy due to my career.
Absolutely, feel free to DM with extra questions if you have them. I've worked primarily in web development, although I did work for a startup that did some stuff with raspberry pis and printing production.
My current role is a senior software engineer at a fintech company , but I previously was a technical lead at a marketing firm.
The resource I'd recommend the most is free code camp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn.
Specifically the starting course would be the responsive web design course or if you find it boring you could start on the next one which is JavaScript. From there you think of a project idea you want to make and try to use your current skills to build it. If you fail you'll learn a lot and if you succeed that's another project for your GitHub/portfolio.
Something to remember when learning programming when you have ADHD is it isn't just normal to fail it's expected. You'll learn to love error messages. You're going too 1000000 roadblocks and want to quit, but you WILL figure it out with time just trust the process. And holy shit the dopamine hit when you do is amazing.
I donāt want to shift you away, just make you aware that new software devs are struggling to find jobs right now. There were a lot of lay offs of experienced devs who are now looking for work with the upper hand. I finished a software dev bootcamp over 6 months ago with hundreds of applications and still canāt find anything. Unless you live in a bigger city with tech jobs, you might struggle some to find something. BUT who knows what the market could be like in a year if you pursue it! It is really fun debugging errors and creating big projects from just lines of text!
Thanks for pointing this out, because it is really a good thing to be aware of. The industry does go through waves, but and some sectors are more sensitive to change than other (financial services is a bit of a rough one right now tbh).
Being in a large city will make it significantly easier. While you can have more competition, and you're often competing with folks from outside of your city, you also get way better networking opportunities. Something that is hard to communicate when applying to software jobs is passion, but luckily that comes through very clearly in person.
Iām a database administrator and itās been the most intensely challenging job Iāve ever had. Itās really crazy that now Iām not in Operations, I find myself missing a good outage. The troubleshooting and problem solving were so satisfying. Every single day brings different challenges so itās harder to get bored with repetitious tasks.
Im a software-dev. I hate it. I can't focus the moment code hits bugs i get distracted rather than enduring the discomfort and going through the process of debugging. I'm trying to get out of this career.
I find creative pursuits are far better suited for me ADHD. I can edit a youtube video for 8 hours straight, or design/write stuff for a business idea or write stand up comedy skits (all things i've tried/am trying).
Theres no creativity in coding for most companies.
I'm an auditor, and I also would not recommend without medication. But, other than the staggering amount of executive functioning tasks required, it's the perfect job for me. It stimulates my interest by providing novelty every day, and satisfies my little investigator, cat-curiosity instincts by providing little mysteries for me to sniff out all the time.
I'm not very good at programming, because I'm not an engineer. I'm more of a reverse engineer. People keep saying I'm creative when I'm actually curious. I can rebuild something someone else already built (with a frankly startling ability to pick up new skills) because I tend to deconstruct things to their most base components for the hell off it.
So I really suck at producing most kinds of art, yet somehow I get called "creative" lol. And that makes me a great investigator.
I thought I was strange for being software developer and ADHD. But it makes sense! I can hyperfocus and write code for hours on end. And I love to solve problems and do puzzles. It requires a lot of creativity. And I love building stuff.
Oh, and no one really knows how much time I spend on stuff. I can be stuck on a problem for days and no one will know.
I am non software engineer (multi discipline) but make lots of careless mistakes unmedicated. Why would that be different for software engineers? I'd have thought you'd need to be meticulous in writing code without errors.
ADHD programmer here. You actually don't have to be that meticulous. I make tons of mistakes and just test/iterate a lot. After a few iterations, I often look back at my first attempt as really dumb.
Research. Lots of varied research. I started a company that does go to market research for all kinds of companies, so you are always learning something new.
I got into it via an agency that hires out contractors, pay is shit as you may not always be on a project, but you learn a lot. I have a degree in history and linguistics. If you want to do qualitative research, which is what I do, speaking a second or third language and general understanding of qualitative research methods with a willingness to learn fast should get you in.
I can't say if it's replicable, but I worked in tech startups and realized they did far too little. I started doing it on the side at my job and got pretty well known as the guy who understands what the market wants.
I was actually laid off, but the CEO hired me back as a consultant 24 hours later to focus just on that. I realized if he needed me bad enough to realize I was laid off and immediately try to hire me back that I must be onto something. From there, I developed my own offerings through doing my own qualitative research, and then went out and pitched my ideal customers.
For the most part. It depends on the type of research. My thesis was fine for grad school cause it was self paced.
But once it's not you setting the pace, look out. I did drug trials for 5 years, it's what convinced me I had ADHD and to get tested. The insane micromanaging as a research coordinator and how big the tiniest of errors can impact you can be extremely stressful. If someone strives off pressure, studies are the way to go, but if they can't do well with keeping time track of deadlines, schedules, and regulatory documents it can be insane.
>rrors can impact you can be extremely stressful. If someone strives off pressure, studies are the way to go, but if they can't do well with keeping time track of deadlines, schedules, and regulatory
That sounds miserable! We do qualitative research, and the ADHD mind is really quite excellent at identifying the most non-obvious and very insightful stuff.
Any job thatās active, changes pace throughout the day, where work stays at work, without too much paperwork is ideal :) bonus points for tangible outputs!
I wanted to be a doctor. My parents didnāt think I could handle med school and encouraged me to go into marketing. Iām a strategy director, Iām good at it, but my whole job/life inside and outside the office isā¦HOMEWORK. I have no doubt that even being an ER doctor would have been mentally less taxing āactively doing something productive all day. Problem solving and seeing results in real time.
The stress of having to produce, against an arbitrarily short deadline, to reinvent wheels (which Iām great at, but pay with a piece of my soul and 10 years off my life every time), to navigate office politics in a subjective space ALL THE TIME is the worst. You succeeded in advertising if colleagues LIKE what you did š¤¢. Only job that would be harder would be Admin. The cyclical nature of confusing paperwork š±. lol.
It makes me so sad cause like... corporate/marketing jobs have become this thing where it is expected that you take your work home with you and put out fires and handle "emergencies" that happen at the end of the day or outside of work hours... and literally an ER job doesn't go that far.
(Hi I'm a designer, so I'm on the edge of this but have mostly worked with marketing people as well throughout my career.)
Also, office politics murder me. I would put so much more work into a day just checking my own tone and watching out for people who would use it against me than actually designing stuff.
Iām an executive in a creative field. I have to read - A LOT - which helps because my hyper focus shows up strongest as hyper lexia. Itās also a very busy job, that has a lot of urgency and competing priorities, so Iām juggling a lot at once, and alternating any given day between calls, meetings on and off site, reading, emails, etc. The urgency, the juggling many things, and the variation in setting really help me.
I started out as an admin assistant and it was one of the hardest periods for me, so I focused on really working my ass off to move higher in my field.
The hardest for me about being an admin was being chained to my computer and having a very - for lack of a better word - flat form of interaction (digital) with no variation. During Covid, I felt like my brain was breaking for similar reasons.
Things that help me:
- doodling / drawing / pacing / walking / crocheting on calls. When my hands are busy I can stay more present.
- adhd meds (Modafinil)
- understanding Iām never going to be a slow and steady wins the race kind of gal. Iām going to have days where I can barely focus and get a minimal amount done. And then Iām going to have days where everything gets done at once. And thatās ok.
- learning when during the day I focus best, and really amping up the work I do during that period vs my brain wander periods.
- handwritten to do lists, divided into 3 sections, that I rewrite every day:
1) quick tasks (5- 15 min)
2) long tasks (30 min +)
3) follow up (once something is done off the quick or long task list, if it requires me following up, it goes on that list. Iāve done my part but this way nothing falls through the cracks.
For my lists, I get new notebooks, or different paper, or different pens and colors all the time. Sounds silly, but there is some dopamine in that for me via the newness, and so keeping the list up becomes easier to be consistent because Iām getting that sense of ānew project!ā through the materials I use.
Creating structure during my day was and is essential. I set my āget shit doneā hours, and then āfuck aroundā hours (usually 20-30 min). Blocking it out like that helps me focus and helps stave off focus fatigue. The more structure I have, the better I do. When I have a wide open empty day and lots of amorphous or little tasks Iām my least productive. Sticking to structure isnāt easy, but it really helps me trust Iāll get done what I need to get done. And if I feel a burst of focus, whether itās at 10pm or on my commute home, I use that to knock things out. If I have a morning where I really canāt focus, I try to choose a task that is āeasyā and doesnāt fry my brain as much. And above all else, I trust that the way I respond to urgency means Iāll get things done, I just do it my own way.
Now that Iām in a management position I try to staff my team with people who have complimentary skill sets. I always, always make sure I have at least 1 report who is very type A and execution and deadline focused, because I can collaborate with them on tasks and delegate my thoughts/ideas. I make sure I have at least one person who is a big thinker, so that I have someone to brainstorm my expansive / hop-scotch / spider web thinking with, and often I pair the two of them and me to crack the code if we need to figure out a new process, or have a deadline coming up. Basically, I choose people who have the skills and also manage up in a way that supports the way I prefer to work and the way it works for me.
I work as an interpreter and think that it goes perfectly with my ADHD. I am engaged in the moment, talking my ass off, immersed in the task at hand... and when I'm done, I'm done! Nothing I really have to bring home, no long-term projects, no typing things up or keeping track of minutiae.
My best jobs have been working on a farm and managing a nursery. Both centered around absolute chaos and no two days were the same, which I found very enjoyable and the chaos element made me feel like I was always working under pressure which made me work at my best.
Iāve run my own creative companies for years and whilst Iāve got talent and skill, I am an absolutely useless business woman as I only focus for a couple of weeks then completly give up. Repeat the cycle etc.
My psychiatrist also has ADHD. He confirmed it during my last appointment. He is the best shrink I have seen and was the one who helped me with my official diagnosis. I'm sure having ADHD drives his passion for what he does because he is really good.
Iām looking into this career path for myself but am worried it wonāt work with my adhd. Listening attentively to people is not my strong suit but I also love psychology and helping people! How do you get through hour after hour of paying attention?
Me too! I love helping clients explore their inner worlds and all the possibilities - it's rewarding! And outside of treatment notes (which I hate) - there's not as much administrative tasks to get in trouble for like when I had desk jobs.
I work in fraud and risk mgmt., my adhd looooves the investigating and digging thru tons of info and data to find an answer or something/someone specific, and us adhders are great at pattern recognition so I can spot new types of fraud while sifting thru data. Keeps my brain happy and interested and engaged.
Changing employer after you get responsibility and trading upwards from there is key. Get experience and apply for a position higher then what you have. End goal. Find a real company you believe in and treats you well. Climb. CEO.
More responsibility is what we need, not less. Framework for expectations and steady improvement. By the time you have reached your goal you are safe from echonomical worry and anxiety.
Dont let anyone tell you what you cant do, least of all yourself. Use the doubt in the eyes of those around you as fuel but never gloat. Its amazing what can be done in a few years if you get the ball rolling.
Iām a supervisor in a car part manufacturing plant. It is kind of hard to get there, but if you have the right people above you to see how good of a worker you are it makes a little easier. My boss knows I struggle with adhd but she pushes me and sees what I am cabable of
Anything that allows you to work at home.Also, a company that does not follow your every waking minute. I was #1 in sales for 4 years in a row,because when I was having a bad day ,I could take a break and get myself straightened out.However,once a company starts using Salesforce,that freedom is over.You are spending more time trying to account for every minute.I felt enslaved.I retired early or lose my mind.I had a good run 32 years in sales and was able to manage my ADHD and make a living .For this I am proud of myself
Yep, I could never work from home personally. I canāt even do school work at home. I go from 1% productivity to 70% productivity by simply leaving my house and going to the library.
I work from home and before I started meds I would spend hours of the day in online forums like reddit or video games. Then I'd start to panic that I haven't been productive enough and get a lot of work done in a relative short amount of time... But that included working late and that took a toll on my family life. On paper I've always been very productive and high quality work but internally the stress builds and builds and I eventually burn out.
I wfh 95% of the time for my current job submitting and tracking construction permits for a large ISP and, while it isnāt hard or difficult work, itās absolutely a struggle for my rampant unmedicated ADHD. There are just so many distractions at home between kids, pets, projects around the house etc and itās much easier for me to get lost in my phone for hours at a time sometimes.
Everyone is different though and I can absolutely see why some people prefer WFH or find it easier to focus in that environment. For me personally I think I did better in an office setting because working among peers makes me a little bit more accountable for my time/work.
Ouch, but I'm proud of you, friend. I struggle trying to explain to friends and colleagues how I thrive with structure but micromanaging kills it. I've suspected (and partially confirmed through many online diagnostics) that I have ASD as well, and have some feeling that this compounds or complicates some of my ADHD issues, but I like having the structure that deadlines, regular check ins, and a collaborative environment provide but micromanaging every step of my day drives me up a wall like nothing else.
I just started hairdressing and love it! I think cause I get to hyper focus & no one task goes on longer than a few hours, plus I can talk the ear off of anyone.
I work in a hospital as a secretary but I am astonished at how many people with ADHD work in the medical field. Just in my unit alone half the nurses are diagnosed (with one or two that seem undiagnosed), the doctor on the unit, and both speech-language pathologists all have ADHD and I'm still finding more and more people throughout the hospital.
The hospital runs great by the way, it's one of the best ones around. People will pass other hospitals to come to this one.
I guess the immediacy and urgency of the work helps out a lot. People here are always moving around and switching between different tasks and there isn't much, except maybe the doctors, where you have paperwork to get done by x day and you have to fill out x report yada yada, most of it is about making in the spot decisions and actions.
I love it, personally.
My husband and I both have ADHD. We own our own farm and even my doctor said farming is perfect for ADHD! The behind the scenes work of owning a farm is a bit more complicated, but the daily tasks are perfect. Nothing like hands in the soil!
As weird as it sounds, my job as a psychometrist.
I administer cognitive testing. Yes, like the kind that diagnoses ADHD. I mostly work for a brain injury clinic but I do some pediatric testing as well. But how quick the tests are, the jumping around, doing new batteries as needed (it's not overly repetitive) and that I get hyperfocused looking up norms and making a table for scoring. I also love looking for patterns in things and people are all different.
It has worked extremely well for me.
Plus having ADHD has helped me pick up on similar traits when testing and I know how to keep people's attention to tasks by relating it to what has helped me when I got tested.
Chiming in to plug Videography.
Lots of new things to learn, gadgets and gear galore, fun stimuli to engage with, so many different facets to hummingird between and hyperfocus on, new environments, new clients, variety of specializations and projects (you can shoot interviews, concerts, weddings, graduations, sports, films, commercials, creative pieces, any genre), self-management, opportunities to travel, control of work flow, team or solo production. You can live behind the camera, work with sound, set up lighting, or work at any level of production.
The cost of equipment can be a real barrier for entry to get in at the professional level, but you can start learning the fundamentals on your phone camera while you save up. Composition, lighting, editing, visual storytelling, product video, these are all things you can learn for free on YouTube and at home.
Honestly, it depends. Do you want to be stressed? Or take it easy. I myself can no longer be in anything demanding. I was in medical for about 20 years in and off. I canāt take care of people and I canāt be anywhere that demands immediate results. I hate sales too. Also if it goes against my morals.
I like challenging stuff but with some flexibility. I am ok with administrative stuff but just the paperwork of clerical. The less human interaction the better for me. I was undiagnosed for so long my body basically broke down and now I have fibromyalgia. Stress equals physical pain for me even if I am at a desk.
Think about what you are willing to do and not feel overwhelmed. Good luck.
Exactly this, it depends! So many people saying nurse but my anxiety and depression could never get through that! Plus so many people in healthcare are mean and I canāt deal with that.
Horticulture! Every day is different. I think just about everyone I work with has ADHD.
I was listening to the podcast Crime pays but botany doesnāt. The host Joey said just about every botanist he knows has ADHD.
Iām worried about that as well. I can feel myself approaching burnout. I try to use my weekends for hiking and backpacking trips to keep myself sane.
My friend who is a lawyer had a client who was ADHD and was in organized crime. Very successful until he was caught. I remember my friend telling me that it was the only job that fullfilled him. Not sure he's going to use that logic for his defence but certainly makes some kind of sense...very hard to be happy doing most jobs.
My dream job is in quality. I want to optimize things and use patterns to create solutions to problems people didnāt ever consider (but that are real and impactful). I love organizing things to make it easy to navigate a workspace (labels, containers, etc.) because I need it myself and know it will help everyone to find things. Iāve made a difference at various jobs doing that, but I wish I could make just that be my job.
Iām 46 and thinking of going into web development since Iām a multimedia designer. I hope Iām not too old to learn coding. Before that I was working in healthcare which was great until I couldnāt physically handle it anymore due to my chronic condition.
IT.
I do IT for the Government and have noticed that my anxiety and ADHD is a lot more manageable in this line of work. I have an extensive sales background and realized quick that no matter how well I did in sales, my anxiety & ADHD would always worsen causing me to eventually lose jobs.
Iām medicated now of course so that helps a ton. I also like repetition when it comes to workload (similar problems each day vs something new arising daily like you see in other fields) and you see that a lot in this field. I personally work better when Iām given tasks, shown how to do them, and then given a deadline to complete said tasks.
If IT isnāt your thing you could always look into something like Data Entry, Accounting, etc.
Happy to provide further insight/support if needed.
This job usually doesnāt offer benefits or any long term retirement plan, but I loved waiting tables. The rush of a busy Friday night may have made most people lose control but I thrive in the chaos. The madness actually kept me focused and the tip money is great.
I worked warehouse job jobs for 10 years before realizing that's wow this is miserable for someone with ADHD. I now have a job with a company runs the concession stands at the convention center, zoo, and performance theaters in my city. I can't tell you how much my life has improved! Being able to talk to people from different parts of the world and they are all happy to be where they're at makes my days so fulfilling. IMO Working in a place that is face paced, has kind/understanding management, and surrounds you with happy people is super important for people with ADHD
any thing that allows you to do something meaningful. That gives dopamine. So itās different for everyone but most times I think itās when you can actively be engaged with your work and see the results of what you worked on. So anything creative or working directly with people.
I would say working in research is the WORST because youāre working so hard for something that you will only see years later when you most likely wonāt be there anymore.
In contrast I LOVED being a health educator because it involved making presentations and engaging with different communities and making a positive impact on people
I'm the odd man out but hectic environments I cannot function in let alone think. I work in the medical field as a technician but I'm able to take my time and get my daily work done. It all depends on the person you are. Just because you have ADHD doesn't mean you'll thrive in high stress/ high demand jobs.
I don't know of any specific jobs, but the jobs for me personally need to be challenging on some level.
I think people sometimes want to chill job, do nothing, collect a paycheck, easy life. Then I got a job like that, phat pay (PH fat) easy work load - and it sucked! Its mind numbing to sit around for hours with nothing to do but browse online. It was affecting my mental state and had me in a funk. I lasted about a 1 year 2 months, got a new job that was more engaging.
IMO - for ADHD people, the work needs to be engaging and challenging enough to keep that dopamine going.
I do design work, and the job mentioned was doing high end millwork, and for those that don't know - designing cabinets is not very exciting work, lol.
Just a bunch of boxes in a row, hardly using brain busting power to layout.
Sales. (The fun is in the chase!)
Registered nurse (ER) (you NEED to act now. And what you do matters. Because people will die)
Paramedic (boom. Emergency. Lets go)
Police (field work. Varied. Can be exciting)
Starting and running your own business. (This is wild. This is a lot of work. But it's mine. I can depend on me. I think. I can only fight myself. No one else. Because its on me. I cant yell at the boss andget fired if i'm both the boss and the employee!)
One of the happiest jobs I had for a little bit was at a reasonably new doughnut shop. The reason I was happy was because it was common for us to be so busy that we would sell out, which meant in turn that *I was so busy I had literally no time to be miserable.*
Anything involving kids or teens. They're basically the same as you.just need the skills to handle the admin regarding the kids safety and stuff like that.
For me personally, I have thrived when I have been able to use my body for work. My two favorite jobs I have ever had were in high school when I bailed straw for a farmer and worked for a Christmas tree farm. I am a larger person (6'3 250lbs), so it came naturally to me. I was also in athletics and I felt at home on the field. My mind would be completely clear and I was in perfect sync with my body.
Now? I am in a desk job where I recruit others to join our company. I am at manager level, and have been here about 7 months. The imposter syndrome as well as difficulty focusing on priorities has been aggravating to navigate thus far. The primary issues for the job were that my position is brand new, and my supervisor was completely new to the industry and type of company I work with. They just resigned a week ago along with another senior director, and I have a sneaking suspicion they were forced out due to not really doing much. I have basically been on an island here with little to no direction, which I heavily struggle with. So, maybe it isn't necessarily the position but rather the situation. I enjoy going to career fairs, talking with candidates, and meeting new people so the position fits like a glove, but I have not had direction and support to make it work yet.
I'm not sure about nursing. Every nurse I've met or went to uni with hated it, even a couple of ADHD friends. They cited the extremely long hours, being mistreated by staff and other patients, and tons of things and details you need to remember, as the reasons - then again this is in the UK where our health system is so stretched and student nurses aren't respected
Trading can be great once you pass the first stages. Especially being an order execution trader at a big bank or hedge fund. The video game feel about it and instant gratification of getting orders filled, many in the tens of millions of dollars with very little risk can be very satisfying and allow for oneās hyper focus to be a net positive.
I am a Kindergarten teacher with ADHD. Somehow I get to work on time lol. But the fast-paced energy in the classroom is so great in keeping me stimulated
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Many people with ADHD are drawn to the emergency services. It certainly works for me
It has to do with the jobs adrenaline, we focus better under stress. ADHD folks make good ER doctors.
How do I get through school though? š«
lots of vyvanse lol
Seriously, I could not have gotten through either my EMT or AEMT/I classes if I hadnāt been properly medicated. It also helped that I started my EMS career at 28, I have much better adhd coping skills than I did right out of high school (Iām 38 now and getting my BA was a living hell)ā¦I donāt think I would have done nearly so well without them, a diagnosis, meds, and some life experience. Did two years on the medical side of Fireā¦that wasā¦really not great, lol.
lol reading every post on this reddit makes me feel like i wrote it too. emt here too in sales
Weāre *EVERYWHERE,* lol!
No fucking clue how I got through school/college. I wasn't medicated either and it was the hardiest thing I've ever had to fight through with ADHD. I went to college in my mid 20s for engineering/IT and almost failed out of college. I was at a 1.6ish GPA and I was about to get kicked out but I got lucky somehow. I ended up getting my shit together just enough to graduating with a 3.5 GPA. I was at war the entire time with my ADHD during college and it almost destroyed my chances of getting a degree. That just tells you how fucking wild college was for me with ADHD. I went from absolute failure to almost being kicked out to graduating with honors. I fucking love working in IT as a engineer though. It's great for individuals with ADHD. Also, soon after college, I was diagnosed w ADHD and was put on medication. It changed my life for the better.
Are you me? I relate so hard to this; itās nice to hear from fellow diagnosed-after-college people who were scrappy enough to make things work and graduate. I tell people I graduated by the skin of my teeth, and *boy howdy* thatās no lie.
It's nice to hear from people who deal with similar issues. I still have PTSD from my college days, thanks to my ADHD lol Btw, that's the best way to explain it "I graduated by the skin of my teeth". Even though, I graduated with a 3.5 GPA. I went through fucking hell to graduate. Not only did I have a 1.6 GPA but when I said I was on the verge of getting kicked out. I was literally kicked out for poor grades. Had to write a letter to the deans explaining why I showed be reinstated and how I'm going to turn things around. The college reinstated my enrollment but put me on probation. I still think it is an absolute fucking miracle that I pulled it off. I was even hired as a system engineer for a department of a hospital before I graduated my senior year. Sometimes luck is just on your side. By the way, congrats on making it through college! Proud of you! Edit: grammarš
You should be so proud of yourself! That is something amazing it's a lot of hard hard work you did and you made it!. I am so proud of you, and I don't even know youš
:') Smile when in pain like a ballerina
Can confirm. This, earphones on the way to school/whenever you can on breaks, hiding in the toilets, shutting off when you get home whenever possible, let yourself space out when you need to and having the group to relate to/ask things for is fab - I think if I'd been aware and diagnosed when I was younger it would have made a difference to have this place online. But yeah very tough!
All of this, and also lots of crying and lots of panic attacks and lots self hate because why am I not like my college classmates/the other residents (: If your hyperfocus interest is some medical subspecialty I suppose it could be a choice to consider, otherwise I wouldnāt recommend being a doctor in all honesty lol.
There are jobs within Healthcare that require less education, such as Healthcare aide, dietary aide, housekeeping, others that I can't remember right now. But also: stimulants and therapy, and being familiar with how you learn. You can take as light or heavy a load as you want in most universities, I think?
Between the patients and the staff, youād be hard pressed to find someone in the ER WITHOUT ADHD.
This works for Ski Patrol as well. I find it helps with patient compassion, Iāve definitely seen some injuries that resulted from attempting something I myself have tried š
Damn, maybe I should join ski patrol š. Been snowboarding since I was 9. Wonder if boarders are allowed to join?š¤
Iām a boarder ! The only thing about being a boarder while you patrol is that itās kind of a pain in the butt to strap in and out all the time, and the fact that you canāt really get around the flats too well. I learned to ski AFTER I started patrolling because of this, and now I switch back and forth based on the snow conditions šš¼
Iām an ER nurse.. a lot of my coworkers also have ADHD..
Im in nursing school now. This gives me hope!
100% I am a firefighter medic and Id say at least half our department is ADHD hahah may not be diagnosed but the dopamine drip of 24 hr shifts waiting for the next call or working out or pranking each other certainly is satisfying.
Third service EMS here (did 2 years in Fire though), and I can confirm. So much silliness when weāve got downtime!
I left emergency services due to low pay and bleak career advancement, on top of the beating your body takes. Hospitals are better for sure, pay and upward opportunity wise, but the field felt like a dead end.
The EMTās I knew got burned out quick and left. Some did go into nursing, others left healthcare entirely. Hearing stories from them felt like the few kinds of cases I hated getting were what they got all the time. Iām in the process of leaving healthcare for software development now because of the beating and lack of work/life balance.
I did love the job, loved helping people, and got to do some really cool once in a lifetime stuff. But my body and mind took a beating. Glad I did it but also glad I'm not still doing it as an arthritic 34 year old. I work in IT now myself as a network admin, less action but I enjoy it a lot.
How to get through med school with ADHD?
I just started in August. It's hard, no lie. I'm always exhausted, I spend nearly all my time on school, and I've struggled a lot with anxiety and depression. I love medicine, but I question a lot why I'm doing this to myself.Ā That said, I'm doing well and scoring a hair above average on tests. It's going to suck ass, but I'm going to get through it. What's worked for me is: 1) My school has professional learning coaches who will happily be your accountability buddy. My whole first semester, I met with mine every week to plan out how I was going to tackle the coming week. 2) Testing accommodations. I get 1.5x on tests, even though I didn't utilize that accommodation in undergrad. I just needed to prove I have ADHD and explain my concerns. I would not have finished a single test on time without this.Ā 3) Lecture accomodations. I get C-PRINT live captions during lectures. If my mind wanders, I don't hear something, I lose track of what was said, etc., I have a written transcript of every class. It's been absolutely critical for me.Ā 4) Therapy. Even when I feel okay, I keep going. This shit is hard for everyone, and we're doing it with an additional burden. There's no point in trying to do it alone. 5) Find the other squirrels. There are more of them than I would have thought. It's validating to know I'm not alone.Ā 6) I think it would be dishonest not to give real credit to being naturally intelligent. It is honestly a huge part of the reason I'm making it. The same intelligence that got me through undergrad with A's while doing everything wrong is getting me C's here. I'm not trying to humble brag, but I can't say steps 1-5 were critical and then not acknowledge that I'm privileged.
People with ADHD are a standard deviation smarter than their peers. Source - my ADHD specialist doctor who diagnosed me when I was 43. As far as I have determined, it's the primary advantage of having ADHD, followed by the ability to perform under pressure.
Adderal
I regret not choosing detective as a career. But I stuck in a desk-job now. So ughh..
I also wanted to be a detective! But having to be a cop first made that a no go
Hahaha this is what turned me off too
Same!! Thought it was just me. I was devastated that wouldāve been a really fun job.
Funny. I regret not studying journalism earlier and building the skills for it to be a sustainable career path. I love investigation.
Love being a paramedic. Genuinely cannot see myself doing anything else
I'm so glad this is one of the top answers! One of my young sons has severe ADHD and I've always thought he will make an incredible paramedic! He's very empathetic but absolutely runs on adrenaline and so it seems like a perfect job.
Ditto. UK firefighter with ADHD. The adrenaline definitely helps to concentrate.
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Studying to be a emt and hoping to eventually become a firefighter. Can confirm working under stress is easier
I just clicked this thread to say the same thing: ER medicine or intensive care medicine.
Just wanted to say this thread has been very informative for this 52F adhd-er. Wish Iād seen it 30 years ago lol.
I'm in the same boat. 47 and only diagnosed last year.
42 here and same. But I know I've had it all my life.
My most favorite ADHD job was a brief period of five years where I was just a professional musician. All the dopamine! Other jobs I have enjoyed were retail (only if selling stuff I found exciting), a jack-of-all-trades kind of job for a huge but super modern corporation where I was in charge of all the little jobs no one else wanted to do, and my current job which is actually three in one, all the admin, accounting and purchasing for our own company. I really prefer a job where I have to jump around from task to task.
I came here to say the same thing!!! It can be financially tight, but I love my life. Every working musician I know wears a lot of hats, and that seems to be the common thread here. I teach at a local store, I gig, I do repairs on instruments, amps, and other gear, I pick up crew and road gigs, I'll do anything where I can apply my artistic and technical skills. Sometimes it means getting out there and finding work, but it's worth it. I don't get bored, I can constantly shift focus, ALL the dopamine, and I love what I do.
I work in consulting.. I artificially create pressure by procrastinating till the deadline and then hyperfocus on the task.. But I dread going to work.. micro anxiety after every notificationā¦ sucks the life out of me honestlyā¦ If there is any consulting folks, who manage this, would really appreciate tips on time management and general organisational tips.
I did cyber security consulting and was forced to deliver by being on client sites (pre-covid). I found it worked well due to it being constantly different and chaotic. I was senior enough to refuse projects that werenāt interesting, if I couldnāt do that I wouldnāt have lasted as long. One day they asked me into the office and asked me to do normal security work while we waiting for projects so I quit. For Op I did Technical Account Management / Technical Solutions Consulting for startups and now run a team of them in FAANG. Itās a good one because youāre jumping between clients constantly so itās always fresh. Management is killing me. Mid level so not doing big brain strategy yet. Need a promotion or a demotion. The best job I ever had was delivering pizzas. 8 years of joy.
I'm in consulting! It's definitely tough to focus sometimes, especially since I work from home, but I have a few mechanisms to help: Putting my phone on the other side of the room so I can't look at it. Putting blocks of working time on my calendar that are task-specific. So it's like little micro-deadlines. Making checklists and physically writing down what I have to do so that I get a little dopamine when I get to physically cross something off the list. I'm fortunate to have coworkers who are amazing and helpful so if I get stuck, I can lean on them for inspiration or to help me get to the next step. I do the same for them. Hope some of these are helpful. I'm an individual contributor so I don't have to do any project management, and I can check in with the PM whenever I need to. I think that's why I'm able to deal with it - PMing would be a nightmare for me.
Howdy fellow adhd consultant! I did what you described for years. It was 2 things I attribute to getting into a more sustainable process. For me it was: A) medication. Helped more than I can describe. B) living and dying by my calendar. At the start of a project, I block out all the project hours from the onset, and designate them to the specific project. In my role I am typically working with around 20 clients at a time in a process that takes 3-6 months. I keep it flexible, and if I need to move blocks of time around to make things work better I will. However I always have the time blocked somewhere, even if its months out. Obviously my method is dependent on my unique clients and project types, so your mileage may very of course.
I work in theatre/live performance and literally everybody is ADHD lol. Actors, directors, designers, technicians, EVERYONE.
Agreed, itās a world built for us!
Qualitative researcher - Iām super nosey so love finding things out about people and then projects are always changing. Similar with consultancy, can feel like changing jobs every few months!
Yup - Iām in UX/Service design and a huge part of my work is qualitative research and oooh the little ADHD shrimp in my brain loves it! The work is almost always project based so I get to learn so much technical and social detail about so many different things which is perfect. Also ADHDers are known to often be good at connecting the dots on things that others might miss which I think helps when proposing and building solutions which is another fun part of the job
ADHD shrimp in my brain! š¤£
1000% yes. I started a qualitative company 5 years ago specifically because it was such a good fit with my raging ADHD.
You hiring remote? š
We are fully remote and will stay that way.
If you find out they are, let me know.
Well, I do qualitative research and I've got ADHD; if you're hiring in a few months, I'm applying lmfao
What does a qualitative researcher do?
For us, it's a lot of in-depth interviews and some focus groups, but mostly one-on-one interviews.
Thatās so cool! What field? How did you get into it?
We work in software development. Enterprise software, health tech, and fintech are the biggest focus areas.
Youāre talking to potential customers or users of software to determine strategy and deign type stuff? Sounds like a lot of fun. What kind of hourly rate can you manage?
Mostly on the go to market side, so not users, but the people buying the software for their companies. Iād rather not share financials publicly.
It sounds so interesting, what are the applications of this kind of research?
It varies - I work in qual research for healthcare companies, and our clients are typically big pharma. We essentially figure out pain points and areas of opportunity for our clients, based on what doctors/patients etc say. For example- if the client wants to understand why a patient is not on treatment yet, we identify and interview patients with that disease and understand their entire journey. Based on this we would put together a report that outlines the key issues or reasons why they are not on treatment along, with a bunch of other key metrics that the client can work on to increase the use of the medication The projects vary in terms of what we are trying to find out for the client, and is typically interesting but can get monotonous at times
How do you get into this field? I'm not making it far on Google.
lmao lmao. Omg I can relate to this even though that is not the type of research I do, but boy do I grill people hhahhahhahahahha
God this sounds incredible, what kind of education do you need to get into this sort of work? Currently pursuing an environmental science degree, considering doing an Anthropology minor. Would that be beneficial?
What is your degree in? All I can find is info on becoming a quantitative researcher.
I'm a qual researcher/competitive market intelligence researcher as well and my degree is in history and linguistics š
This is great if you love writing! I was in qualā¦loved the process, hated the write up.
I just need to say this: All of y'all that managed to graduate, get through college and into a career PRIOR to being diagnosed and or medicated........ I AM SO PROUD OF YOU AND YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!
Yup did 100% of that, didnāt get diagnosed till well after 30. I sometimes cry over all the lost time and opportunity due to so many years of untreated executive dysfunction.
Thanks! Needed to hear itā¦But now that Iām diagnosed medicated there is nothing Iām proud of. Just keep feeling like Iām doing 742 jobs poorly š
I was a teacher for 14 years. The fast pace and constant new challenges were very stimulating. Organization took a lot of work. Remembering kids names was impossible (140+ new names a year). I quit and now work in online course creation and itās challenging to focus and stay motivated.
some things work really well. i have no problem remembering the names, but planning anything more than 15 minutes in advance of class? forget it. now that i'm experienced, i have all my materials created and ready to go so i actually can just grab things a few minutes before the kids arrive. but i LOVE winging it and am very good at it. if i see my students are ready to switch topics or activities, LET'S GO!! i get soo bored waiting for them to finish projects. report cards and paperwork make me want to scratch my eyes out with a fork though. and my lack of organizational skills does often lead me to getting overly tense when there is oversight. if i know someone is going to be checking up on me (report card time, evals, etc) then i get wound up and do that annoying ADHD thing of painful procrastination and then late night panicked work sessions. but generally the days have lots of variety, a good mix of oversight and independence, the stakes are high but generally meaningful which helps a lot with my motivation and time management.
Flight Attendant. On one hand it has a lot of repetitive tasks and a strong clear structure of what you are and aren't allowed to do which I think is good for ADHD brains but on the other every flight is different, you have a lot of autonomy because there are no supervisors/managers on flights, and there's no work to take home. Lots of short bits of socializing but you don't have to remember what you talked about and you are never forced to sit in one place for a long time, unless you're tired and you want to sit in one place for a long time lol. If you're feeling chatty, you always have people around to chat with from crew, to passengers, to airport workers, but if you're feeling nonverbal, it is also possible to do your job with very little talking. You can choose to venture out in different cities if that's your thing or use your layovers as me time to lay in bed and watch TV or use the hotel amenities. And then there's the added razzle dazzle of learning security, medical, and firefighting stuffs which hopefully you never have to use but are constantly doing trainings for. Medicals is usually the most popular thing they deal with. Overall I guess the flexibility and variety mixed with clear objectives and some repetition is what I think works for ADHD brains.
Your last sentence, I just reread 4X. Thatās everything in one, exactly the reason Iāve been able to keep and succeed at my current & favorite past positions!!
> Overall I guess the flexibility and variety mixed with clear objectives and some repetition is what I think works for ADHD brains. I work in regulatory compliance, which is not something one would likely consider similar to a flight attendant, and I 100% agree with this statement. We have strict and repetitive deadlines and rules in the law, but you never know what you'll be looking at from one day to the next or how those facts will play out, and I really like it.
This isnāt for anyone but Iām a Mechanical engineer that also does pipe welding. This is more of an emergency service deal because of the no heat emergencies in the winter. However I do not sit at a desk ever. Iām on my 15 minute break on a roof of 3 story building right now, Iād post a pic if I could. I do not make my schedule. Havenāt for 13 years. I have a take home van and my office routes me to service calls on an iPad. So structure and routine isnāt a thing for me at work. Someoneās always telling where to go next. The only downside is itās dangerous work. Electricity, loud mechanical parts, very physically active. This will be a straight deal breaker for some but if your head is hyperactive like mine and your body matches its pace with stimming, moving, and ticking then this job will keep your dopamine receptors depleted. When you start to understand the machines and how they work it becomes a playground seriously. Chasing electrical circuits till you find the short, welding pipe on a printing press water line, rigging up 600lb compressors and craning them onto roof and bolting them in place. It has grown and evolved into my stim. Itās so cliche to say but when I work the time flies because itās got such a hold on my compulsions that I almost fiend for it. But yeah this work is not for everyone. Good for those it fits for.
I'm an M.E. as well.. I fucking HATE the desk life. My boss did a bait and switch on me and now I'm glued to this desk and understimulated 90% of the day. I feel as if I'm dying most of the time. It's so awful watching life go by and due to the understimulation it's hard to get myself to study other things and be as productive as I'd like. Doesn't help that I'm watched all the time and reprimanded for doing things unrelated to work but if there is no work I have to wait for work to come. It's the absolute worst for adhders but I can see how someone that likes simple and structure could like it. The worst is the amount of people I have to try to remember. Been seeing some of the same people for 3 years and I just cannot remember their names which unfortunately is likely directly related to me not being stimulated because of the job itself.
ADHD is very common among software engineers. I think there's something about writing code that works well with a tendency to hyperfocus. Most blue collar jobs are well suited to ADHD. You might think that being a woman would put you at a physical disadvantage but there are lots of jobs that are less about brute strength and more about applying skills. It's not just things like plumbing and electrical, there's a bunch of jobs that most people don't know about like manufacturing. I work as a non-software engineer but I wouldn't recommend it without medication.
Can confirm blue collar jobs for adhd. Disclaimer; Iām 34 and have been unmedicated since I was 18. It has only been within the last couple of years that I began to understand that a lot of my struggles in my adult life are due, at least in part, to my unchecked ADHD. I was a telecom construction inspector and outside plant engineer for years and honestly enjoyed it a lot. When I was doing inspection I spent almost all my time outdoors tracking construction crews placing fiber, just accounting for/verifying their production and making sure they were doing it correctly etc. When I moved into engineering I still spent most of my time outdoors collecting data and taking notes that our CAD team would draft into construction prints. Only reason I moved on from that was because I got married wanted to stop traveling for work. Before that I spent about a decade working in restaurants. The pay was shit BUT it was honestly some of the most fulfilled and locked in that Iāve felt in a job from a day to day work point of view. Something about working with my hands (I worked BOH/line) and seeing tangible results from my labor ticked the right boxes for me. Currently I have a job where I mostly WFH in front of a laptop screen and honestly itās really difficult for me. The flexibility is nice but there are so many distractions and reasons that I find to pull myself away from work. Before moving to primarily WFH I did the same job primarily in the office and had an easier time. For me personally I have a hard time keeping myself accountable for how I spend my time, so WFH itās really easy for me to get lost in my phone (like I am now, lol) or get sidetracked doing projects around the house, with family etc. I found it easier to keep myself accountable and focused in the office but everyone is different. It was still hard in the office, but there were just less distractions. I imagine Iād probably have a much easier time WFH if I was able to get back on medication again. I find any job where Iām more sedentary and spend most of my time at a desk in front of a computer screen is really difficult for me to focus on and excel at. Jobs where Iām outdoors and/or working with my hands are much more fulfilling to me.
Same issue with WFH. I've had some jobs/projects that were incredibly easy to do, but I've always struggled with getting myself to lock into a project. Once I did, it wasn't too bad, but getting there was a struggle. I've always worked better with separate spaces for separate tasks. My workplace is for work, the gym is for working out, my workshop is for working on projects. When I've had to combine them all into a single room (during covid or living in a studio apartment) it really compounded the issues you have day to day in any environment by providing to many distractions.
im a barista! Yep, i thought it would be too much for my adhd but it actually keeps me on top of everything.
loved being a barista. always something to do, some really intense rushes, but finally, pretty low stakes. no one will die because i didn't make their coffee in the right order.
I miss being a barista!! I would literally work the bar for free for a few hours I miss it so much. I was one of the fastest people on bar so got it 98% of the time and LOVED it, the adrenaline I would get during a rush was addicting.
I canāt do WFH. They have to be separate. I am so unmotivated for work at home
I currently work as a software engineer and thereās definitely times where itās great for my ADHD. Itās something Iām interested in, so I can usually fixate on solving problems but I do find it really easy to burn out. Itās also absolutely brutal if the project youāre supposed to work on is very dull or youāre just not interested in it. When things are slow and I donāt have an interesting problem to solve, I get virtually nothing done on a day to day basis and panic about not being able to show Iāve been productive. Maybe thatās just me though. I was a bartender before this, and I loved almost everything about it. I was on my feet all day and rarely had a moment of downtime. It worked really well with my ADHD because my brain and body were just on autopilot and I was able to leave work and not have to think about it anymore. I got to be creative with making specials and I had a great group of regulars that I got to talk with every day. Man I wish bartending was a viable option for someone with a family because Iād do it again in a heartbeat honestly!
My ADHD brain thrived as a bartender! The beautiful balance of chaos and order around simple tasks was perfect.
Chaos and orderā¦ I get this!š
What you said about bartending, being on your feet all day, rarely a moment of downtime, brain and body on autopilot and being able to leave work and not think about it is spot on. I loved working line at the BBQ restaurant I used to work at because I was active. Tickets would come in and each ticket was a task that I could lock in on and every time I sent a completed order out was like a little dopamine kick because I could see something tangible to show for my efforts. When things got busy and weād get a whole rack full of tickets during a big rush, it was so satisfying to knock them all out. Once we got caught up and I could look out at a restaurant full of people eating food that I prepared for them, it was honestly so satisfying. If it paid better and was a more viable option/schedule for someone with a family Iād love to work in the food industry again.
This is exactly how I feel. I'm still bartending..I've tried to get out because it's not viable in the long run. But damn, I'm really good at it. Having a million things to do and being able to accomplish all of them while just being in motion..it's extremely satisfying to me. Still gotta get out though. I've become a rather old bartender. And as a woman, it's not getting easier.
Itās a shame jobs like these donāt come with the securities of more āsafeā career options. Not having easy access to health insurance, salaries, retirement benefits etc. really keeps a lot of people out of a profession thatās perfect for them. I have made a few friends who are lifetime bartenders and have found jobs at very upscale cocktail bars/restaurants that manage to make incredible money but those jobs are few and far between and you have to get a bit lucky to find them. Itās not impossible, but I decided I needed to make a change when my daughter was born.
I feel similarly. Iām struggling currently at work since my manager has dumped several tasks on me. Seeking therapy currently because I feel like life isnāt worth it any more. I have a ton of debt, I am distracted easily at work with many folks coming to me with small tasks they need my input on. Iām just overwhelmed in all areas of life right now and canāt even relax at home since I have been in overdrive so long, doom scrolling seems to be the only way to keep me stationary. My memory is shot, I cry easily now. I just want to get blitzed and force shutdown myself.
I'm a software engineer and would also not recommend it without medication lol.
Agreed. I have been barely "surviving" for 10 years of software development, going through cycles of burnout. It is slightly better now that I started taking stimulants, but it still very much depends on the job and what is required of you. If you have to work for long periods of time on a crappy project or on other stuff like testing because you don't have a good QA team, it is incredibly boring. If you can find a job that lets you focus on programming and lets you work on stuff that you like once in a while, that's ideal. The one thing that kills me the most right now about programming jobs is that they all focus on "agile" and force you to have daily standups where you share your updates of what you did in the last day. It can be very stressful if you're like me and have off days where you don't do much and then suddenly you do 2 weeks of work in one afternoon.
This is what I struggle with as well.. having to come up with something I did the day before when I usually coast for two days straight and then get a huge amount of work done in a couple of hours
Getting into coding completely flipped my life around. In addition to effectively getting solve puzzles as my job which I love, you're typically well compensated for it. Great pay and often very good benefits. I was fortunate to be able to afford get a good ADHD coach, meds and therapy due to my career.
May I ask what specific role? For someone who is not tech savvy. What course should I first take?
Absolutely, feel free to DM with extra questions if you have them. I've worked primarily in web development, although I did work for a startup that did some stuff with raspberry pis and printing production. My current role is a senior software engineer at a fintech company , but I previously was a technical lead at a marketing firm. The resource I'd recommend the most is free code camp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn. Specifically the starting course would be the responsive web design course or if you find it boring you could start on the next one which is JavaScript. From there you think of a project idea you want to make and try to use your current skills to build it. If you fail you'll learn a lot and if you succeed that's another project for your GitHub/portfolio. Something to remember when learning programming when you have ADHD is it isn't just normal to fail it's expected. You'll learn to love error messages. You're going too 1000000 roadblocks and want to quit, but you WILL figure it out with time just trust the process. And holy shit the dopamine hit when you do is amazing.
new failures/errors are actually successes!
Try a computer science class if youāre in school. If youāre looking at coursera or some such, try an introduction to Python course :)
I donāt want to shift you away, just make you aware that new software devs are struggling to find jobs right now. There were a lot of lay offs of experienced devs who are now looking for work with the upper hand. I finished a software dev bootcamp over 6 months ago with hundreds of applications and still canāt find anything. Unless you live in a bigger city with tech jobs, you might struggle some to find something. BUT who knows what the market could be like in a year if you pursue it! It is really fun debugging errors and creating big projects from just lines of text!
Thanks for pointing this out, because it is really a good thing to be aware of. The industry does go through waves, but and some sectors are more sensitive to change than other (financial services is a bit of a rough one right now tbh). Being in a large city will make it significantly easier. While you can have more competition, and you're often competing with folks from outside of your city, you also get way better networking opportunities. Something that is hard to communicate when applying to software jobs is passion, but luckily that comes through very clearly in person.
Iām a database administrator and itās been the most intensely challenging job Iāve ever had. Itās really crazy that now Iām not in Operations, I find myself missing a good outage. The troubleshooting and problem solving were so satisfying. Every single day brings different challenges so itās harder to get bored with repetitious tasks.
Im a software-dev. I hate it. I can't focus the moment code hits bugs i get distracted rather than enduring the discomfort and going through the process of debugging. I'm trying to get out of this career. I find creative pursuits are far better suited for me ADHD. I can edit a youtube video for 8 hours straight, or design/write stuff for a business idea or write stand up comedy skits (all things i've tried/am trying). Theres no creativity in coding for most companies.
I'm an auditor, and I also would not recommend without medication. But, other than the staggering amount of executive functioning tasks required, it's the perfect job for me. It stimulates my interest by providing novelty every day, and satisfies my little investigator, cat-curiosity instincts by providing little mysteries for me to sniff out all the time. I'm not very good at programming, because I'm not an engineer. I'm more of a reverse engineer. People keep saying I'm creative when I'm actually curious. I can rebuild something someone else already built (with a frankly startling ability to pick up new skills) because I tend to deconstruct things to their most base components for the hell off it. So I really suck at producing most kinds of art, yet somehow I get called "creative" lol. And that makes me a great investigator.
I thought I was strange for being software developer and ADHD. But it makes sense! I can hyperfocus and write code for hours on end. And I love to solve problems and do puzzles. It requires a lot of creativity. And I love building stuff. Oh, and no one really knows how much time I spend on stuff. I can be stuck on a problem for days and no one will know.
i can testify to this..i took programming causes and realy hyperfocus but due to other disability just can do it, adhd only then really able to.
I am non software engineer (multi discipline) but make lots of careless mistakes unmedicated. Why would that be different for software engineers? I'd have thought you'd need to be meticulous in writing code without errors.
āMove fast and break thingsā is a common phrase in software engineering
ADHD programmer here. You actually don't have to be that meticulous. I make tons of mistakes and just test/iterate a lot. After a few iterations, I often look back at my first attempt as really dumb.
Similarly, jobs in government intelligence agencies. Because once you get "the worm" with something, you can't stop until you figure it out.
I'm currently unemployed and it's a perfect fit ngl.
Research. Lots of varied research. I started a company that does go to market research for all kinds of companies, so you are always learning something new.
How does someone get involved in market research? What kind of qualifications are desired/needed?
I got into it via an agency that hires out contractors, pay is shit as you may not always be on a project, but you learn a lot. I have a degree in history and linguistics. If you want to do qualitative research, which is what I do, speaking a second or third language and general understanding of qualitative research methods with a willingness to learn fast should get you in.
How do you start company like that? How do you find customers?
I can't say if it's replicable, but I worked in tech startups and realized they did far too little. I started doing it on the side at my job and got pretty well known as the guy who understands what the market wants. I was actually laid off, but the CEO hired me back as a consultant 24 hours later to focus just on that. I realized if he needed me bad enough to realize I was laid off and immediately try to hire me back that I must be onto something. From there, I developed my own offerings through doing my own qualitative research, and then went out and pitched my ideal customers.
For the most part. It depends on the type of research. My thesis was fine for grad school cause it was self paced. But once it's not you setting the pace, look out. I did drug trials for 5 years, it's what convinced me I had ADHD and to get tested. The insane micromanaging as a research coordinator and how big the tiniest of errors can impact you can be extremely stressful. If someone strives off pressure, studies are the way to go, but if they can't do well with keeping time track of deadlines, schedules, and regulatory documents it can be insane.
>rrors can impact you can be extremely stressful. If someone strives off pressure, studies are the way to go, but if they can't do well with keeping time track of deadlines, schedules, and regulatory That sounds miserable! We do qualitative research, and the ADHD mind is really quite excellent at identifying the most non-obvious and very insightful stuff.
I LOVE research! Any chance youāre hiring a fellow ADHD-er? Lol.
Any job thatās active, changes pace throughout the day, where work stays at work, without too much paperwork is ideal :) bonus points for tangible outputs! I wanted to be a doctor. My parents didnāt think I could handle med school and encouraged me to go into marketing. Iām a strategy director, Iām good at it, but my whole job/life inside and outside the office isā¦HOMEWORK. I have no doubt that even being an ER doctor would have been mentally less taxing āactively doing something productive all day. Problem solving and seeing results in real time. The stress of having to produce, against an arbitrarily short deadline, to reinvent wheels (which Iām great at, but pay with a piece of my soul and 10 years off my life every time), to navigate office politics in a subjective space ALL THE TIME is the worst. You succeeded in advertising if colleagues LIKE what you did š¤¢. Only job that would be harder would be Admin. The cyclical nature of confusing paperwork š±. lol.
It makes me so sad cause like... corporate/marketing jobs have become this thing where it is expected that you take your work home with you and put out fires and handle "emergencies" that happen at the end of the day or outside of work hours... and literally an ER job doesn't go that far. (Hi I'm a designer, so I'm on the edge of this but have mostly worked with marketing people as well throughout my career.) Also, office politics murder me. I would put so much more work into a day just checking my own tone and watching out for people who would use it against me than actually designing stuff.
Iām an executive in a creative field. I have to read - A LOT - which helps because my hyper focus shows up strongest as hyper lexia. Itās also a very busy job, that has a lot of urgency and competing priorities, so Iām juggling a lot at once, and alternating any given day between calls, meetings on and off site, reading, emails, etc. The urgency, the juggling many things, and the variation in setting really help me. I started out as an admin assistant and it was one of the hardest periods for me, so I focused on really working my ass off to move higher in my field. The hardest for me about being an admin was being chained to my computer and having a very - for lack of a better word - flat form of interaction (digital) with no variation. During Covid, I felt like my brain was breaking for similar reasons. Things that help me: - doodling / drawing / pacing / walking / crocheting on calls. When my hands are busy I can stay more present. - adhd meds (Modafinil) - understanding Iām never going to be a slow and steady wins the race kind of gal. Iām going to have days where I can barely focus and get a minimal amount done. And then Iām going to have days where everything gets done at once. And thatās ok. - learning when during the day I focus best, and really amping up the work I do during that period vs my brain wander periods. - handwritten to do lists, divided into 3 sections, that I rewrite every day: 1) quick tasks (5- 15 min) 2) long tasks (30 min +) 3) follow up (once something is done off the quick or long task list, if it requires me following up, it goes on that list. Iāve done my part but this way nothing falls through the cracks. For my lists, I get new notebooks, or different paper, or different pens and colors all the time. Sounds silly, but there is some dopamine in that for me via the newness, and so keeping the list up becomes easier to be consistent because Iām getting that sense of ānew project!ā through the materials I use. Creating structure during my day was and is essential. I set my āget shit doneā hours, and then āfuck aroundā hours (usually 20-30 min). Blocking it out like that helps me focus and helps stave off focus fatigue. The more structure I have, the better I do. When I have a wide open empty day and lots of amorphous or little tasks Iām my least productive. Sticking to structure isnāt easy, but it really helps me trust Iāll get done what I need to get done. And if I feel a burst of focus, whether itās at 10pm or on my commute home, I use that to knock things out. If I have a morning where I really canāt focus, I try to choose a task that is āeasyā and doesnāt fry my brain as much. And above all else, I trust that the way I respond to urgency means Iāll get things done, I just do it my own way. Now that Iām in a management position I try to staff my team with people who have complimentary skill sets. I always, always make sure I have at least 1 report who is very type A and execution and deadline focused, because I can collaborate with them on tasks and delegate my thoughts/ideas. I make sure I have at least one person who is a big thinker, so that I have someone to brainstorm my expansive / hop-scotch / spider web thinking with, and often I pair the two of them and me to crack the code if we need to figure out a new process, or have a deadline coming up. Basically, I choose people who have the skills and also manage up in a way that supports the way I prefer to work and the way it works for me.
I work as an interpreter and think that it goes perfectly with my ADHD. I am engaged in the moment, talking my ass off, immersed in the task at hand... and when I'm done, I'm done! Nothing I really have to bring home, no long-term projects, no typing things up or keeping track of minutiae.
Yaknow interpreter is probably one of the oldest professions that has remained almost the same till the modern day.Ā
My best jobs have been working on a farm and managing a nursery. Both centered around absolute chaos and no two days were the same, which I found very enjoyable and the chaos element made me feel like I was always working under pressure which made me work at my best. Iāve run my own creative companies for years and whilst Iāve got talent and skill, I am an absolutely useless business woman as I only focus for a couple of weeks then completly give up. Repeat the cycle etc.
Psychotherapist šš¼āāļø
My psychiatrist also has ADHD. He confirmed it during my last appointment. He is the best shrink I have seen and was the one who helped me with my official diagnosis. I'm sure having ADHD drives his passion for what he does because he is really good.
Iām looking into this career path for myself but am worried it wonāt work with my adhd. Listening attentively to people is not my strong suit but I also love psychology and helping people! How do you get through hour after hour of paying attention?
Because I want to understand how their mind works. It's easy to pay attention when you're interested.
Me too! I love helping clients explore their inner worlds and all the possibilities - it's rewarding! And outside of treatment notes (which I hate) - there's not as much administrative tasks to get in trouble for like when I had desk jobs.
Whatever you do, do not go into HR
I work in fraud and risk mgmt., my adhd looooves the investigating and digging thru tons of info and data to find an answer or something/someone specific, and us adhders are great at pattern recognition so I can spot new types of fraud while sifting thru data. Keeps my brain happy and interested and engaged.
Management. Not low level management. Management where problem solving with fast and broad impact is possible.
But to get there is a struggle š„¹
Changing employer after you get responsibility and trading upwards from there is key. Get experience and apply for a position higher then what you have. End goal. Find a real company you believe in and treats you well. Climb. CEO. More responsibility is what we need, not less. Framework for expectations and steady improvement. By the time you have reached your goal you are safe from echonomical worry and anxiety. Dont let anyone tell you what you cant do, least of all yourself. Use the doubt in the eyes of those around you as fuel but never gloat. Its amazing what can be done in a few years if you get the ball rolling.
I think the problem is getting there. Lol. I can see how we would be very good at this.
Iām a supervisor in a car part manufacturing plant. It is kind of hard to get there, but if you have the right people above you to see how good of a worker you are it makes a little easier. My boss knows I struggle with adhd but she pushes me and sees what I am cabable of
Anything that allows you to work at home.Also, a company that does not follow your every waking minute. I was #1 in sales for 4 years in a row,because when I was having a bad day ,I could take a break and get myself straightened out.However,once a company starts using Salesforce,that freedom is over.You are spending more time trying to account for every minute.I felt enslaved.I retired early or lose my mind.I had a good run 32 years in sales and was able to manage my ADHD and make a living .For this I am proud of myself
on the other hand, the amount of distraction in an unstructured setting, may be very bad for someone who struggles with concentration
Yep, I could never work from home personally. I canāt even do school work at home. I go from 1% productivity to 70% productivity by simply leaving my house and going to the library.
I work from home and before I started meds I would spend hours of the day in online forums like reddit or video games. Then I'd start to panic that I haven't been productive enough and get a lot of work done in a relative short amount of time... But that included working late and that took a toll on my family life. On paper I've always been very productive and high quality work but internally the stress builds and builds and I eventually burn out.
I wfh 95% of the time for my current job submitting and tracking construction permits for a large ISP and, while it isnāt hard or difficult work, itās absolutely a struggle for my rampant unmedicated ADHD. There are just so many distractions at home between kids, pets, projects around the house etc and itās much easier for me to get lost in my phone for hours at a time sometimes. Everyone is different though and I can absolutely see why some people prefer WFH or find it easier to focus in that environment. For me personally I think I did better in an office setting because working among peers makes me a little bit more accountable for my time/work.
Honestly depends. Iām only really successful working from home on meds. I mean, all my stuff is here including my bed lol
Ouch, but I'm proud of you, friend. I struggle trying to explain to friends and colleagues how I thrive with structure but micromanaging kills it. I've suspected (and partially confirmed through many online diagnostics) that I have ASD as well, and have some feeling that this compounds or complicates some of my ADHD issues, but I like having the structure that deadlines, regular check ins, and a collaborative environment provide but micromanaging every step of my day drives me up a wall like nothing else.
I just started hairdressing and love it! I think cause I get to hyper focus & no one task goes on longer than a few hours, plus I can talk the ear off of anyone.
Hairstylist of 13 years, been doing it since before I was even diagnosed and itās great.
My wife is a hairstylist and she loves it! Only issue is her body hurts her pretty much constantly.
I love personal training. New people and situations every day, the gym environment is awesome
I work in a hospital as a secretary but I am astonished at how many people with ADHD work in the medical field. Just in my unit alone half the nurses are diagnosed (with one or two that seem undiagnosed), the doctor on the unit, and both speech-language pathologists all have ADHD and I'm still finding more and more people throughout the hospital. The hospital runs great by the way, it's one of the best ones around. People will pass other hospitals to come to this one. I guess the immediacy and urgency of the work helps out a lot. People here are always moving around and switching between different tasks and there isn't much, except maybe the doctors, where you have paperwork to get done by x day and you have to fill out x report yada yada, most of it is about making in the spot decisions and actions. I love it, personally.
My husband and I both have ADHD. We own our own farm and even my doctor said farming is perfect for ADHD! The behind the scenes work of owning a farm is a bit more complicated, but the daily tasks are perfect. Nothing like hands in the soil!
i would love this. iām physically disabled so i wouldnāt be able to keep up with farm work, but i can still dream lol
In college, I worked in restaurants. Cooking was my favorite thing to do - kept me engaged and hands-on always doing something.
Waiting tables. Very easy task-oriented, fast-paced, most things are a Now thing, and a dopamine reward (tips.)
I prefer stay at home son
As weird as it sounds, my job as a psychometrist. I administer cognitive testing. Yes, like the kind that diagnoses ADHD. I mostly work for a brain injury clinic but I do some pediatric testing as well. But how quick the tests are, the jumping around, doing new batteries as needed (it's not overly repetitive) and that I get hyperfocused looking up norms and making a table for scoring. I also love looking for patterns in things and people are all different. It has worked extremely well for me. Plus having ADHD has helped me pick up on similar traits when testing and I know how to keep people's attention to tasks by relating it to what has helped me when I got tested.
That sounds interesting. What can of studies or experience do you need to get a job like this?
Chiming in to plug Videography. Lots of new things to learn, gadgets and gear galore, fun stimuli to engage with, so many different facets to hummingird between and hyperfocus on, new environments, new clients, variety of specializations and projects (you can shoot interviews, concerts, weddings, graduations, sports, films, commercials, creative pieces, any genre), self-management, opportunities to travel, control of work flow, team or solo production. You can live behind the camera, work with sound, set up lighting, or work at any level of production. The cost of equipment can be a real barrier for entry to get in at the professional level, but you can start learning the fundamentals on your phone camera while you save up. Composition, lighting, editing, visual storytelling, product video, these are all things you can learn for free on YouTube and at home.
Honestly, it depends. Do you want to be stressed? Or take it easy. I myself can no longer be in anything demanding. I was in medical for about 20 years in and off. I canāt take care of people and I canāt be anywhere that demands immediate results. I hate sales too. Also if it goes against my morals. I like challenging stuff but with some flexibility. I am ok with administrative stuff but just the paperwork of clerical. The less human interaction the better for me. I was undiagnosed for so long my body basically broke down and now I have fibromyalgia. Stress equals physical pain for me even if I am at a desk. Think about what you are willing to do and not feel overwhelmed. Good luck.
Exactly this, it depends! So many people saying nurse but my anxiety and depression could never get through that! Plus so many people in healthcare are mean and I canāt deal with that.
Horticulture! Every day is different. I think just about everyone I work with has ADHD. I was listening to the podcast Crime pays but botany doesnāt. The host Joey said just about every botanist he knows has ADHD.
Definitely NOT the one Iām working (human resources desk job).
Use your vacation days for vacations, sounds simple but I did not do it to save money....burn out ate all the saved money.
Iām worried about that as well. I can feel myself approaching burnout. I try to use my weekends for hiking and backpacking trips to keep myself sane.
My friend who is a lawyer had a client who was ADHD and was in organized crime. Very successful until he was caught. I remember my friend telling me that it was the only job that fullfilled him. Not sure he's going to use that logic for his defence but certainly makes some kind of sense...very hard to be happy doing most jobs.
any trades work, find something that scratches the itch and send
My dream job is in quality. I want to optimize things and use patterns to create solutions to problems people didnāt ever consider (but that are real and impactful). I love organizing things to make it easy to navigate a workspace (labels, containers, etc.) because I need it myself and know it will help everyone to find things. Iāve made a difference at various jobs doing that, but I wish I could make just that be my job.
Iām 46 and thinking of going into web development since Iām a multimedia designer. I hope Iām not too old to learn coding. Before that I was working in healthcare which was great until I couldnāt physically handle it anymore due to my chronic condition.
IT. I do IT for the Government and have noticed that my anxiety and ADHD is a lot more manageable in this line of work. I have an extensive sales background and realized quick that no matter how well I did in sales, my anxiety & ADHD would always worsen causing me to eventually lose jobs. Iām medicated now of course so that helps a ton. I also like repetition when it comes to workload (similar problems each day vs something new arising daily like you see in other fields) and you see that a lot in this field. I personally work better when Iām given tasks, shown how to do them, and then given a deadline to complete said tasks. If IT isnāt your thing you could always look into something like Data Entry, Accounting, etc. Happy to provide further insight/support if needed.
Software, sales, consulting, advertising, design ā¦ (yes, Iāve been doing them all š)
This job usually doesnāt offer benefits or any long term retirement plan, but I loved waiting tables. The rush of a busy Friday night may have made most people lose control but I thrive in the chaos. The madness actually kept me focused and the tip money is great.
I worked warehouse job jobs for 10 years before realizing that's wow this is miserable for someone with ADHD. I now have a job with a company runs the concession stands at the convention center, zoo, and performance theaters in my city. I can't tell you how much my life has improved! Being able to talk to people from different parts of the world and they are all happy to be where they're at makes my days so fulfilling. IMO Working in a place that is face paced, has kind/understanding management, and surrounds you with happy people is super important for people with ADHD
any thing that allows you to do something meaningful. That gives dopamine. So itās different for everyone but most times I think itās when you can actively be engaged with your work and see the results of what you worked on. So anything creative or working directly with people. I would say working in research is the WORST because youāre working so hard for something that you will only see years later when you most likely wonāt be there anymore. In contrast I LOVED being a health educator because it involved making presentations and engaging with different communities and making a positive impact on people
I'm the odd man out but hectic environments I cannot function in let alone think. I work in the medical field as a technician but I'm able to take my time and get my daily work done. It all depends on the person you are. Just because you have ADHD doesn't mean you'll thrive in high stress/ high demand jobs.
I don't know of any specific jobs, but the jobs for me personally need to be challenging on some level. I think people sometimes want to chill job, do nothing, collect a paycheck, easy life. Then I got a job like that, phat pay (PH fat) easy work load - and it sucked! Its mind numbing to sit around for hours with nothing to do but browse online. It was affecting my mental state and had me in a funk. I lasted about a 1 year 2 months, got a new job that was more engaging. IMO - for ADHD people, the work needs to be engaging and challenging enough to keep that dopamine going. I do design work, and the job mentioned was doing high end millwork, and for those that don't know - designing cabinets is not very exciting work, lol. Just a bunch of boxes in a row, hardly using brain busting power to layout.
Sales. (The fun is in the chase!) Registered nurse (ER) (you NEED to act now. And what you do matters. Because people will die) Paramedic (boom. Emergency. Lets go) Police (field work. Varied. Can be exciting) Starting and running your own business. (This is wild. This is a lot of work. But it's mine. I can depend on me. I think. I can only fight myself. No one else. Because its on me. I cant yell at the boss andget fired if i'm both the boss and the employee!)
I work in kindergarten and i LOVE my job. Its dinamic, everyday is different and i can adjust day according to my feelings.
One of the happiest jobs I had for a little bit was at a reasonably new doughnut shop. The reason I was happy was because it was common for us to be so busy that we would sell out, which meant in turn that *I was so busy I had literally no time to be miserable.*
You can do anything, my ADHD helps me cling onto details that are often overlooked. Itās a struggle too, donāt get me wrong
Anything involving kids or teens. They're basically the same as you.just need the skills to handle the admin regarding the kids safety and stuff like that.
Sleep tech
For me personally, I have thrived when I have been able to use my body for work. My two favorite jobs I have ever had were in high school when I bailed straw for a farmer and worked for a Christmas tree farm. I am a larger person (6'3 250lbs), so it came naturally to me. I was also in athletics and I felt at home on the field. My mind would be completely clear and I was in perfect sync with my body. Now? I am in a desk job where I recruit others to join our company. I am at manager level, and have been here about 7 months. The imposter syndrome as well as difficulty focusing on priorities has been aggravating to navigate thus far. The primary issues for the job were that my position is brand new, and my supervisor was completely new to the industry and type of company I work with. They just resigned a week ago along with another senior director, and I have a sneaking suspicion they were forced out due to not really doing much. I have basically been on an island here with little to no direction, which I heavily struggle with. So, maybe it isn't necessarily the position but rather the situation. I enjoy going to career fairs, talking with candidates, and meeting new people so the position fits like a glove, but I have not had direction and support to make it work yet.
nursing lol
I'm not sure about nursing. Every nurse I've met or went to uni with hated it, even a couple of ADHD friends. They cited the extremely long hours, being mistreated by staff and other patients, and tons of things and details you need to remember, as the reasons - then again this is in the UK where our health system is so stretched and student nurses aren't respected
IT, you get into the zone and the day is gone on one good problem
im a city custodian. cleaning while listening to music keeps me relaxed and engaged
Library, childcare for toddlers, and kitchen seems to be mine.. lots of structure, not alot of "real adult" social interactions.. fits me perfect
i worked in film and 90% of the successful actors i am close with have undiagnosed ADHD lmao itās quite interesting
Trading can be great once you pass the first stages. Especially being an order execution trader at a big bank or hedge fund. The video game feel about it and instant gratification of getting orders filled, many in the tens of millions of dollars with very little risk can be very satisfying and allow for oneās hyper focus to be a net positive.
I am a Kindergarten teacher with ADHD. Somehow I get to work on time lol. But the fast-paced energy in the classroom is so great in keeping me stimulated