Professions

[Liber]

What are the best professions for someone with ADHD? I'm trying to find an area to dedicate myself to, and they say ADHD individuals have an easier time in fields like the arts.

What do you think?

[STEM_Dad]

The attention system of a person with ADHD is very interest-based. Also, people to have ADHD will vary as much in knowledge, skills, and natural talents as people without ADHD do.

The best advice that I've been able to come up with is to follow your interests, and figure out what motivates you.

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For example:

• I am driven by a desire to help people. I'm most motivated to do work that I know will be helping people, directly or indirectly.

• I also like solving problems. (When I was a kid, I loved solving puzzles, and I even liked doing math problems. Yeah, I'm weird!)

• I'm also attracted to novelty, so I like to learn about new things all the time.

The early part of my working career was mostly focused on retail customer service. What I studied in college was mostly computers & engineering.

When I had to drop out of college, I ended up working in information technology support, which combines my natural motivations and my interests. When I worked my first full-time tech support job, I knew that I had found my niche! It took me 18 years after highschool graduation to figure that out.

~~~~~

You might have to try some different things to figure out what will work for you. Along the way, you will probably rule out certain roles.

For people who have Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD traits, a good work role usually includes physical activity.

Beyond that, try to recall some times when you did something that gave you a lot of satisfaction when it was done.

Often, people with ADHD will be good at roles that require being innovative. Not everyone who has ADHD is that way...there are no easy answers to you question, unfortunately.

I will tell you one area that many people with ADHD excel at, and that is being an entrepreneur. (I'm too anxious to go out on a limb and work solely for myself, but I have really enjoyed doing some creative or advocacy work projects...as what might be called an "intrapreneur".)

[Vicster111]

Hiya, I like a lot of people with adhd get bored quickly in certain jobs or tasks and throughout my career I have had so many different jobs it's unbelievable. I also knew I wanted to help people and tried university 3 times before finally getting my degree and for the past 11 years I worked with a trade union. I am now a regional organiser(past 8 years) I think this keeps my interest as I'm in different places every day, speaking to different people, negotiations, meetins to save jobs, my hours are unspecified so it's not 9-5 and I can arrange my own diary, which I get assistance with. Some days it can get overwhelming if I've lots going on but my boss is aware of my adhd and here in the UK it is a protected characteristic under the equalities act. I believe other jobs that are meant to be good with us adhders are jobs like ambulance service, teachers, chef, personal trainers especially if the hyperactivity element is there. Programmes, psychology and entrepreneurs, although that can be scary too. I think something you enjoy is important or it just won't keep your interest. That was certainly the case for me.

[Jiraf]

Like STEM_Dad I am driven by a desire to help people, solve problems, and novelty. I love learning new things. For most of my professional life I have worked in Commercial Property Management which worked well for me because every day is different. You deal with financials, payables, tenants - building relationships and helping to solve their problems, vendors - building relationships and working to accomplish work needed at the property as partners, clients - building relationships and delivering high level service, and the physical aspect of inspecting and learning the building, identifying problems and finding solutions. I laugh that I became a property manager because I could never stand not knowing what was behind the locked door. You have to be able to cope with the unexpected, because it is the rare day that you do what you planned to do.

I totally agree with his advice - find what appeals to your interests and can give you satisfaction.