ADHD and Your Career: How to Find, Mold, and Excel in the Right Job
Are you finding it challenging to build a fulfilling career due to ADHD-specific obstacles?
While it can be tricky, it is definitely achievable. This guide will help you create a work-life that works for your unique brain. You deserve this!
1. Find a job that fits your unique profile
The most important thing you can do is find a job that fits your unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. For example, one of my clients discovered that office jobs weren’t suitable for her, so she sought out and found success in other industries.
She feels stir-crazy when trapped behind a desk for hours at a time. To regulate her nervous system and keep her brain engaged, she needs the ability to walk around often. With digital tasks on a computer, she struggles to wrangle her brain, and her executive dysfunction makes it extremely difficult for her to initiate and complete tasks. ADHD task initiation is a significant challenge for many.
She describes feeling as if she is “spinning her wheels” the entire day and not actually getting anywhere. However, when she works with her hands “in the real world,” she doesn’t have difficulty starting or finishing tasks and feels much happier and at ease.
2. Don’t be afraid to explore non-corporate jobs
If you can relate to her experience, you might find you enjoy industries outside of the corporate world. Here are 8 industries you might love:
Education
Healthcare
The Trades (electrician, plumber, carpenter, etc.)
Supply Chain & Manufacturing
Customer Service & Retail
Outdoor Recreation & Conservation
Culinary Arts
Fitness & Wellness
3. How to choose the right corporate office jobs
If you are perfectly happy working in an office job setting, the next step is to ensure you choose a job with tasks suited for your brain.
For example, if you get bored easily from the same daily routine and struggle with organization and attention to detail – here are some jobs you'll probably want to avoid: paralegal, administrative assistant, payroll, data analyst, secretary, etc.
Instead, you might thrive in office jobs that prioritize creativity, novelty, and problem-solving –such as public relations specialist, graphic designer, marketing content strategist, social media content creator, advertising copywriter, etc.
Similarly, If you have a magnetic personality and love meeting new people and winning them over, you might excel in roles like sales or corporate training.
4. How to mold a less-than-ideal role into a better fit
If you’re not currently in an ideal role but need to stay for financial reasons while exploring a career pivot, there’s still a lot you can do to accommodate yourself.
First of all, you can focus on getting as many job tasks and productivity tools into tangible, physical forms as you can. Here are some examples:
During meetings, take notes using pen and paper.
Make your to-do list physical using pen and paper.
Use sticky notes for important things you need to remember or to visualize your progress on projects by making a physical Kanban board.
Set alarms on your phone or smartwatch to remind you of things like going to meetings on time or eating lunch.
Use visual countdown timers that give you a representation of time passing, like a pie chart shrinking. Here's a link to one. This helps your brain better visualize the passage of time than standard clocks and timers.
You can also volunteer for and pursue projects that interest you and are a better fit for your brain. Over time, this can mold your current role into one that suits you better or position you for transferring to a different role in your company.
For example, the husband of one of my clients landed his first web developer role but soon realized he didn’t enjoy the work. He started to volunteer for other projects within the company that he found more interesting. Eventually, a logistics manager position opened up, and he was chosen for it.
Scheduling, managing inventory and procurement, and tracking budgets worked much better for his brain than web development. He was able to make strides in a new career path without leaving the company until he felt ready to do so.
Spearheading different projects can help you mold your current role into one that is a better fit and can even help you transition into a different role –whether at the same company or elsewhere.
5. Enlist the help of the people around you
Another helpful strategy in your current role, whether it’s the right fit or not, is to enlist the help of other people.
One of my clients with adult ADHD, a manager, requested his team members to write their emails to him using short sentences and bullet points, limiting each email to only 2-3 action items.
In this situation with an ADHD boss, it could also be helpful to have team members send short email summaries after meetings confirming the expectations and decisions made. This ensures everyone is on the same page going forward.
Often, ADHD adults can speak in a convoluted fashion, accidentally confusing their listeners with wandering speech patterns. It’s important that team members receive the same message that the ADHD boss is putting across, so clarifying the important points of a meeting afterward via email is a valuable strategy.
If you have ADHD and aren’t in a management position, you can ask your boss for support. You can request more frequent check-ins to help you prioritize projects, get constructive feedback on performance and expectations, and ensure clarity on deadlines.
Another way to get help from others at work is to develop a rapport with a coworker who can clarify expectations, answer questions, and provide moral support.
Outside of work, ask a trusted loved one to check in with you about staying on task and meeting deadlines. They can help you problem-solve any sticky situations and get unstuck when you face challenges.
Loved ones can also help you avoid ADHD burnout by helping you take inventory of how you are feeling over time.
Burnout doesn't happen all at once. It begins slowly, then once it reaches a critical mass – it escalates quickly. If you and your loved ones are paying attention to warning signs of an oncoming ADHD burnout, you can find solutions to nip it in the bud. This way, you can start recovering before you ever reach the point of burnout.
6. Explore workplace accommodations
With an ADHD diagnosis, you have the right to request reasonable accommodations at your workplace, thanks to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Here’s a quick rundown of common accommodations that help ADHD adults in the workplace:
Having your desk moved to a quiet area with less foot traffic.
Using noise-canceling headphones to block out distracting background noise.
Taking more frequent short breaks instead of less frequent longer breaks.
Discussing your performance, deadlines, and expectations with your boss more often than is standard protocol.
Minimizing extraneous job tasks to focus more on core job tasks that play to your strengths.
Asking for more input on prioritizing tasks and projects.
Having a mentor at work helps with understanding expectations, answering questions, and providing accountability for staying on task and managing your time.
Being able to work from home if that helps and if other accommodations aren’t working.
For more information on requesting accommodations in your workplace, here is a link to the Job Accommodations Network.
7. Explore medication options
Medication can make a big difference in workplace success for ADHD adults. The right medication can provide the wind beneath your sails that you need to implement these strategies and reach your goals. A good psychiatrist will help you explore your medication options until you find the right one at the right dosage.
This can truly change your life. Many people have said, upon trying medication for the first time, “Wow, is this what normal people feel like all the time?!” It can make a huge difference.
8. Minimize negative sensory inputs
An important factor that ADHD adults might forget about is managing sensory needs. You need a two-pronged approach here: minimize negative sensory inputs and maximize positive ones.
Here are some examples of negative inputs:
Work clothing that is itchy or too tight.
Background noise that makes you feel overwhelmed.
Overly bright lighting that gives you a headache and makes it hard to concentrate.
Strong smells coming from the kitchen, a nearby trash can, or the bathrooms.
Remember, as an ADHD adult, your nervous system is easily aggravated, so you need to plan accordingly. Forget about trying to push through and white-knuckle it; this doesn’t work and will only backfire. You have to act as your own internal parent and nurture yourself.
Find ways to reduce or eliminate sensory challenges, like wearing noise-canceling headphones, choosing work clothes in comfortable fabrics, and possibly getting your desk moved to a location with dimmer lighting and less distracting smells.
9. Maximize positive sensory inputs
Maximizing enjoyable sensory inputs is just as important because they recharge your cognitive battery. As an ADHD adult, you know how valuable a recharged mental battery is, and how hard it can be to achieve. Here are some examples of sensory inputs that can help:
Taking a walk around the block.
Squeezing a stress ball or fidget toy.
Sipping a piping hot or ice-cold beverage like tea or coffee.
Doodling or coloring.
Smelling essential oils.
Using a weighted blanket.
Playing with kinetic sand.
Using a foam roller.
Doing some light stretching.
Knitting or crocheting.
Petting an animal.
There are many more ways to enjoy a sensory break. Explore different ideas and see what works best for you.
10. Hire an ADHD coach
Last but not least, hiring an ADHD coach can be a game-changer for managing your ADHD-related work challenges. While articles and books provide strategies in an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of way, a coach actually gets to know you personally to help you create an ultra-customized plan for achieving your goals.
You deserve a great career. If you're struggling to figure out how to incorporate all these strategies into your work life, don't hesitate to reach out to a coach so you can get the help you need to thrive.
