Pick a job for me
January 29, 2022 12:24 PM Subscribe
I’m a mid 40s woman with adhd that I’ve never been able to get sorted. I’m deciding I need to change what I do since I can’t change who I am. Where can I thrive?
I don’t want to give too much details about what I’ve done before to avoid steering your ideas. My interests and experience have a broad technical generalist vibe crossed with a good helping of social/humanities based stuff. So far I’ve a pattern of taking easy or junior jobs because I am stressed out or anxious, dopamine-raiding myself by showing off, solving problems, etc, getting moved to a position that requires me to be more on top of my shit than I am capable of being, and then I get stressed out and quit, while also feeling like a failure.
I love problem solving, being a hero, I think quite differently to many others and that often gets results. I like quick results thoug. Suff that I have to keep track of or chase down over a longer period or on a continuous basis is poison to me, I will put it off until I feel sick, and if it’s difficult at all I literally won’t be able to learn how to do it or get it done if I don’t like it.
I like communicating and meeting people, again ideally with some form of natural limit to the breadth or length of the contact. I describe myself as charming in small doses. I’m highly honest and ethical though so sales hasn’t been an amazing match and I don’t do office politics well, I assume my colleagues to be grown-ups. I’m good in a crisis, but a worrier when things are going well or seas are calm. Good at starting shit up, but again, bad at the long haul. Im pretty out of shape at the moment. I need to make a middle class income, so pure entry level stuff is out of my budget, otherwise I would love to do customer support. I also need to work nine-to-five-ish. I have an associates degree that gets me past most basic requirement checks. I want to find something sustainable where I can grow.
If there’s anything I can answer let me know.
I don’t want to give too much details about what I’ve done before to avoid steering your ideas. My interests and experience have a broad technical generalist vibe crossed with a good helping of social/humanities based stuff. So far I’ve a pattern of taking easy or junior jobs because I am stressed out or anxious, dopamine-raiding myself by showing off, solving problems, etc, getting moved to a position that requires me to be more on top of my shit than I am capable of being, and then I get stressed out and quit, while also feeling like a failure.
I love problem solving, being a hero, I think quite differently to many others and that often gets results. I like quick results thoug. Suff that I have to keep track of or chase down over a longer period or on a continuous basis is poison to me, I will put it off until I feel sick, and if it’s difficult at all I literally won’t be able to learn how to do it or get it done if I don’t like it.
I like communicating and meeting people, again ideally with some form of natural limit to the breadth or length of the contact. I describe myself as charming in small doses. I’m highly honest and ethical though so sales hasn’t been an amazing match and I don’t do office politics well, I assume my colleagues to be grown-ups. I’m good in a crisis, but a worrier when things are going well or seas are calm. Good at starting shit up, but again, bad at the long haul. Im pretty out of shape at the moment. I need to make a middle class income, so pure entry level stuff is out of my budget, otherwise I would love to do customer support. I also need to work nine-to-five-ish. I have an associates degree that gets me past most basic requirement checks. I want to find something sustainable where I can grow.
If there’s anything I can answer let me know.
This is entirely off-the-cuff, but behind-the-scenes nonprofit admin? Middle class income may depend on your definition of middle-class. But, there's a lot of freedom to advance quickly while not adhering to traditional office politics.
(Also, "technical generalist" is a phrase I really don't understand. Probably because I live in a bubble where it doesn't come up. Is that accounting, systems engineering, editing, interfacing with specific technical specialists? Mathy stuff? Languagy stuff? Peoply stuff?)
posted by eotvos at 12:35 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Also, "technical generalist" is a phrase I really don't understand. Probably because I live in a bubble where it doesn't come up. Is that accounting, systems engineering, editing, interfacing with specific technical specialists? Mathy stuff? Languagy stuff? Peoply stuff?)
posted by eotvos at 12:35 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
So I'm apparently very similar and have had good luck being a general office admin. Tasks tend to be reactive, rather than proactive, and once people realize you can do a bunch of stuff they're more likely to give you an assortment of random overflow from other areas, feeding novelty.
I know many admins who have sat in the same position for decades, quietly being a useful human without the pressure of Career Advancement. Possibly an Executive Assistant, but the pressures of that job tend to depend on who your working with.
posted by platypus of the universe at 12:42 PM on January 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
I know many admins who have sat in the same position for decades, quietly being a useful human without the pressure of Career Advancement. Possibly an Executive Assistant, but the pressures of that job tend to depend on who your working with.
posted by platypus of the universe at 12:42 PM on January 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don't know anything about you. But I have ADHD and I do so much better in physical, intensive tasks.
It's easy to think about the perfect job, remember when we took the little aptitude tests? But realistically, a huge part of a job search/Career is often forgotten - the actual demand for jobs. Certain jobs are few and far between (jelly Bean taste tester, radio host, etc) and others are super common.
So, what jobs/careers exist that both are in demand and are a good fit for ADHD?
Anything tradesperson. Plumber, electrician, welder.
Anything factory/distribution center.
Anything hospital/nursing/customer service/sales.
What jobs are not a great fit for ADHD? Project manager. Individual performers. Research/long term projects.
posted by bbqturtle at 12:44 PM on January 29, 2022 [5 favorites]
It's easy to think about the perfect job, remember when we took the little aptitude tests? But realistically, a huge part of a job search/Career is often forgotten - the actual demand for jobs. Certain jobs are few and far between (jelly Bean taste tester, radio host, etc) and others are super common.
So, what jobs/careers exist that both are in demand and are a good fit for ADHD?
Anything tradesperson. Plumber, electrician, welder.
Anything factory/distribution center.
Anything hospital/nursing/customer service/sales.
What jobs are not a great fit for ADHD? Project manager. Individual performers. Research/long term projects.
posted by bbqturtle at 12:44 PM on January 29, 2022 [5 favorites]
Technical writing? I found it rather forgiving as technicalogy-adjacent roles go, and there aren't really established certifications, etc. that bar the way to employment - you can just self-declare as a TW and get started. In my experience, most people have no idea how to estimate how long documentation takes to create, nor are people interested in creating it themselves, so you tend to be left to your own devices and to set your own schedule.
posted by Transmissions From Vrillon at 1:12 PM on January 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Transmissions From Vrillon at 1:12 PM on January 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Unfortunately I don't have great advice here, but I feel like I'm on the same path 10 years behind you. I also have been having that kind of cycle you talked about: showing up, looking competent, getting overwhelmed and dropping out. I still haven't found a consistent method to help so far. That cycle has been brutal to me and hope you can find some way out of it. I'll be eagerly following this thread.
posted by crossswords at 2:31 PM on January 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by crossswords at 2:31 PM on January 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
Technical trainer?
posted by beyond_pink at 3:11 PM on January 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by beyond_pink at 3:11 PM on January 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
Have you considered IT/helpdesk work or something else troubleshooting heavy? You might look for "service engineering", which is a job that involves long stretches of quiet interspersed with sudden flurries of fire fighting. Some roles involve building longer term relationships with a customer, but some roles would be more of a dispatch kind of position, or possibly one where you help coordinate responses by the frontline team.
Many of these jobs involve strange hours or travel, but a lot of that would depend on the field and the hours that your customers keep - If you're supporting a 9 to 5 lab, they wouldn't expect the service person to show up on a Saturday, but if you're supporting a 24-hour manufacturing facility they would.
This discussion is also making me think of like, my local appliance repair company, they send out a different person every time and they keep mostly pretty normal hours and they aren't just people who fix one kind of one thing, they're in there troubleshooting and looking up schematics and part numbers online just like I would be so I'm sure it doesn't get too boring.
posted by Lady Li at 4:43 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Many of these jobs involve strange hours or travel, but a lot of that would depend on the field and the hours that your customers keep - If you're supporting a 9 to 5 lab, they wouldn't expect the service person to show up on a Saturday, but if you're supporting a 24-hour manufacturing facility they would.
This discussion is also making me think of like, my local appliance repair company, they send out a different person every time and they keep mostly pretty normal hours and they aren't just people who fix one kind of one thing, they're in there troubleshooting and looking up schematics and part numbers online just like I would be so I'm sure it doesn't get too boring.
posted by Lady Li at 4:43 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I also hear good things about event planning for this, for some people. Or at least some stages of it. We need another table! We need a place to hang up this poster! There are some longer term goals but most of them also have deadlines (we need to book a venue by X date to send out announcements!) and often there's a certain level of that frenetic energy that makes heroism feel in reach.
posted by Lady Li at 5:45 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Lady Li at 5:45 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Sales engineer for a software company could be a good fit if your technical knowledge includes reasonably heavy knowledge for some software package or reasonably deep knowledge in some discipline (think CAD user, lab equipment software user, or something). You get to be the hero to help make the sale, and the deal cycles where the sales engineer needs to be involved ebbs and flows. And part of the role is showing off how good you (and therefore how good the software is). You do tend to need to give the same or similar demos over and over, but as you progress, you can get out of doing the basic stuff.
posted by chiefthe at 7:56 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by chiefthe at 7:56 PM on January 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'd hestitate to recommend anyone become a journalist when so many newspapers are dying slowly and painfully, but my days as a newspaper reporter on a daily city paper sound quite similar to your ideal. There are some things that don't match, but I'll punt it out there in case it sparks something in you or is useful for others:
A good match:
* Constant sense of crisis and urgency. Was probably always the case to an extent but even more so now that funding and therefore staffing, are cut to the bone. No matter how few reporters you have, there's still always another newspaper due out tomorrow.
* Endless short-term tasks - very few papers these days (certainly not locals) can afford to pay reporters to do in-depth investigations, everyone has to be constantly working on something that will help fill tomorrow's paper. I used to feel like my brain was a room that I had to hurriedly shovel information into every day to allow me to inform the readers about a topic I'd known nothing of that morning... and then you walk out of the office at the end of the day, pull a huge trapdoor, and let all that knowledge go, leaving an empty room ready for the next day. Most of the time virtually no long-term planning is even possible because you're 100% focussed on tomorrow's paper. You don't leave the office at the end of the day until everything has been crossed off your to-do list, because everything on the list was for tomorrow's paper.
* Interpersonal skills and talking to people are key - while interviewing, you need to be able to put people at their ease and build a rapport at the same time as a section of your brain is running clinically through a check list of "What do I know so far? What are the gaps? What do I ask to get them to fill those gaps?"
* Great for anyone who is curious about the world and the people in it - you'll get to meet people from every conceivable corner of society and ask them nosy questions about their lives, visit all kinds of buildings and organisations and housing schemes and grand homes that you wouldn't otherwise have even known existed.
* Good source of dopamine when you get a decent story, and for feeling like a hero on those days you're heading back to the office knowing you've got a stick-on splash (front page) in your pocket and have saved the day.
* Good for the ego if you like a bit of low-key showing off. It's not actual fame, but you get to see your name on the front page of the paper as people are reading it on the bus around you; people who are active in your community will know who you are; when you tell anyone at a party what you do for a living, there's always a gratifyingly impressed face in response and a little involuntary "Ooh!"
* Generalist with a slight social/humanities vibe is a good background for the work.
Things that might not work for you:
* Hours. Everywhere's different but when I was on a daily, you were in the office until the paper was finished, so your nominal finishing time was often irrelevant. There was shift work, some weekends etc. A weekly might be a bit more forgiving.
* Highly honest and ethical will depend on the paper, I guess. And yourself. I hated in every bone of my body doing death knocks (ie. being sent to knock on the door of the very-recently deceased to ask if their family would be prepared to chat to you) but I had colleagues who saw it as a public interest element of reporting on deaths that were deemed newsworthy, and the reality was a surprisingly high proportion of people were keen to talk and appreciative that their local newspaper was interested in their loved one. And newspapers vary in their love for the death knock. The overall issue is that you're a minuscule cog in the massive machine required to churn out tomorrow's paper and have no power to refuse to do things that you're told to do and might object to (other than the power to quit your job). Nobody says "No" to the news editor and still has a job tomorrow.
* Income. I'm in the UK, this was 10 years ago, I was on around £23K after several years in the business. To get more you need to move into news editing/sub editing, or move to the Nationals and get promoted to more senior reporting roles.
* Sustainability - I found it bloody exhausting. But it sounds like you might thrive on the things that wore me out (stress, having a blank page and starting from scratch every morning) so YMMV. Most of my former colleagues are still in the business, in more senior positions, earning more money and doing fewer door knocks.
posted by penguin pie at 7:00 AM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
A good match:
* Constant sense of crisis and urgency. Was probably always the case to an extent but even more so now that funding and therefore staffing, are cut to the bone. No matter how few reporters you have, there's still always another newspaper due out tomorrow.
* Endless short-term tasks - very few papers these days (certainly not locals) can afford to pay reporters to do in-depth investigations, everyone has to be constantly working on something that will help fill tomorrow's paper. I used to feel like my brain was a room that I had to hurriedly shovel information into every day to allow me to inform the readers about a topic I'd known nothing of that morning... and then you walk out of the office at the end of the day, pull a huge trapdoor, and let all that knowledge go, leaving an empty room ready for the next day. Most of the time virtually no long-term planning is even possible because you're 100% focussed on tomorrow's paper. You don't leave the office at the end of the day until everything has been crossed off your to-do list, because everything on the list was for tomorrow's paper.
* Interpersonal skills and talking to people are key - while interviewing, you need to be able to put people at their ease and build a rapport at the same time as a section of your brain is running clinically through a check list of "What do I know so far? What are the gaps? What do I ask to get them to fill those gaps?"
* Great for anyone who is curious about the world and the people in it - you'll get to meet people from every conceivable corner of society and ask them nosy questions about their lives, visit all kinds of buildings and organisations and housing schemes and grand homes that you wouldn't otherwise have even known existed.
* Good source of dopamine when you get a decent story, and for feeling like a hero on those days you're heading back to the office knowing you've got a stick-on splash (front page) in your pocket and have saved the day.
* Good for the ego if you like a bit of low-key showing off. It's not actual fame, but you get to see your name on the front page of the paper as people are reading it on the bus around you; people who are active in your community will know who you are; when you tell anyone at a party what you do for a living, there's always a gratifyingly impressed face in response and a little involuntary "Ooh!"
* Generalist with a slight social/humanities vibe is a good background for the work.
Things that might not work for you:
* Hours. Everywhere's different but when I was on a daily, you were in the office until the paper was finished, so your nominal finishing time was often irrelevant. There was shift work, some weekends etc. A weekly might be a bit more forgiving.
* Highly honest and ethical will depend on the paper, I guess. And yourself. I hated in every bone of my body doing death knocks (ie. being sent to knock on the door of the very-recently deceased to ask if their family would be prepared to chat to you) but I had colleagues who saw it as a public interest element of reporting on deaths that were deemed newsworthy, and the reality was a surprisingly high proportion of people were keen to talk and appreciative that their local newspaper was interested in their loved one. And newspapers vary in their love for the death knock. The overall issue is that you're a minuscule cog in the massive machine required to churn out tomorrow's paper and have no power to refuse to do things that you're told to do and might object to (other than the power to quit your job). Nobody says "No" to the news editor and still has a job tomorrow.
* Income. I'm in the UK, this was 10 years ago, I was on around £23K after several years in the business. To get more you need to move into news editing/sub editing, or move to the Nationals and get promoted to more senior reporting roles.
* Sustainability - I found it bloody exhausting. But it sounds like you might thrive on the things that wore me out (stress, having a blank page and starting from scratch every morning) so YMMV. Most of my former colleagues are still in the business, in more senior positions, earning more money and doing fewer door knocks.
posted by penguin pie at 7:00 AM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
My ADHD career was classroom teachiing. It was never boring, was always massively distracting in a way that matched my impulsiveness and need for stimulation, and allowed me to "dance" with my students. It was a bear planning lessons, of course, and grading was torture, but the actual teaching in the classroom was just sheer joy.
posted by Peach at 10:12 AM on January 30, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Peach at 10:12 AM on January 30, 2022 [4 favorites]
I was going to suggest teaching or working in a school too. There are lots of non-classroom teacher positions in education. I love it for my ADHD self. Short work day. Regular built in days off and vacations, summers off. No two days are ever the same. If you can get a job at a school with a union, that union will help you to protect your job if any adhd related issues spring up.
posted by momochan at 9:24 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by momochan at 9:24 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
There is a customer service related job on we work remotely.com for $60,000. I don’t know if that’s too little for the middle-class salary that you need. There are a lot of potentially fitting remote positions at that website. For me, the challenge of having ADHD and working from home has been pretty significant. But since I don’t have a choice, I have worked out various hacks. The most useful one has been creating virtual work dates with other folks who have ADHD. In any case, consider checking out that job board for possibilities. Good luck!
posted by Bella Donna at 2:26 AM on January 31, 2022
posted by Bella Donna at 2:26 AM on January 31, 2022
I identify with a lot of what you've written (though ADHD meds did help) and I've found that moving to freelancing/consulting has given me a lot of what you're looking for. It's been this almost miraculous way to get to be a rockstar individual contributor while still being paid like a manager. I don't know if that's feasible for you but it's worth considering. Especially since you probably have a very strong network if you've job-hopped a lot.
posted by lunasol at 2:53 PM on January 31, 2022
posted by lunasol at 2:53 PM on January 31, 2022
I also got late diagnosis ADHD and I also have found teaching (high school, in my case) the best fit for me so far. The constant novelty combined with the structure of the academic day/year/calendar works well for me. I did an accelerated career change program in which I only went one summer without income (although my income was reduced by my contributions to my university program for two years after that), which let me feel like it was a low opportunity cost thing to try.
Where you are teaching makes a huge difference both at the district (pay/benefits) level, and when you drill down, to the school (quality of life) level.
I do think people with ADHD (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) are overrepresented in the teaching profession, and that can be helpful too for a feeling of solidarity and fitting in :)
posted by Salamandrous at 5:40 PM on February 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
Where you are teaching makes a huge difference both at the district (pay/benefits) level, and when you drill down, to the school (quality of life) level.
I do think people with ADHD (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) are overrepresented in the teaching profession, and that can be helpful too for a feeling of solidarity and fitting in :)
posted by Salamandrous at 5:40 PM on February 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:29 PM on January 29, 2022 [2 favorites]