ADHD dad needs to get a job

July 16, 2024 9:50 PM

Brainstorming session for my brother please! Stay-at-home dad for most of the last 15 years has launched the teen and now hopes to find something rewarding that he can do when ADHD translates to everything taking him 5x longer (but is near perfection once it's done).

Four-year business degree. Veteran. Some success a long time ago in sales, but never loved the work. Enjoyed a couple of years in tech recruiting because more than anything it seemed he found great satisfaction in helping his clients find just the right match. Otherwise, youth soccer coaching led to becoming a ref at the collegiate level. Got a Salesforce Admin cert but never used it. Learned a ton as the parent of an elite athlete about the realm of sports marketing and sponsorships and contracts and really gets into it.

Has a good head for businessy things and building relationships. He likes helping people, using his brain and problem solving. Very kind and personable guy, logical head, communicates well, a smart and sensitive dude. I think he'd be great in business strategy, maybe athletics administration. But he has so little recent work experience and is pushing 60.

The ADHD means that composing the perfect 20-min business communication can take two hours. Obv this does not translate well to successful work and can make it stressful. I think he takes meds and experiences limited benefit. His happy place is spending hours reading the paper and going down rabbitholes of news analysis.

Given his age and the ADHD time suck problem, what might be out there for him? Even part time? He's healthy, he can travel, he's near a major metro area.

I deleted a whole paragraph of TMI for context, and have shortened that to: His partner makes good money, so this is more about him finding rewarding productive work that he can do to augment the household income.

posted by AnOrigamiLife to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Soccer stuff seems like a great fit, is he not into it any more? Could he do hands-on work at a sports facility -not admin but more like supervising rentals and games?
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:36 PM on July 16

The youth soccer coaching bit stuck out for me. His adhd head might find favour with teenagers, especially those with a similar orientation.
posted by BrStekker at 12:24 AM on July 17

Supporting some sort of local charitable trust as a trustee / board member, and part time consultant supporter type?

Those kind of skills seem great for a local circus school I know (well out of your area, but I'm sure there would be similar near him).

Helping with grant applications, developing good relationships with possible funders / supporters, helping bring together fundraising events, performances and those kind of things.
Essentially helping people who are passionate about something but may lack some of the business acumen to make it sustainable.

Or perhaps other comunity centres, a tool library, sporting groups for less priviledged individuals, etc.
posted by many-things at 12:24 AM on July 17 [1 favorite]

I'd go for work where most of it is in-person interaction, not things like writing that he has to do on his own. It sounds like you (and probably he) are thinking about higher status things, but given that he doesn't really need the income and just needs something rewarding I would search with a focus on front-end helper jobs (and volunteer roles), setting status aside.
posted by trig at 12:59 AM on July 17 [8 favorites]

(As an ADHD-haver and perfectionist 5x-time-taker I would stay far far away from things like helping with grant applications or pulling off events - anything with a deadline. Interactive, on-the-spot work is where it's at.)
posted by trig at 1:03 AM on July 17 [10 favorites]

(As an ADHD-haver and perfectionist 5x-time-taker I would stay far far away from things like helping with grant applications or pulling off events - anything with a deadline. Interactive, on-the-spot work is where it's at.)
posted by trig


I'm an ADHD myself with the perfectionism thing too. Used to do sales (well) but also never loved the work.
Ran a lot of businesses for quite a while, often concurrently.

I ended up helping my local communuty group with grant application because they kept getting short suiden deadlines (a few days) that needed lots of info pulled into place. As I got more involved, relationship development / networking came in a lot too.

Event management I'd also been doing for years, as so much on the spot problem solving, 'fire fighting', etc. and I felt in my element.

So deadlines often help me much of the time, but I do appreciate all the neuro divergencies can produce very different results for everyone.
posted by many-things at 6:52 AM on July 17

Is he interested in political work or community organizing? His skills are also a good fit for that and there's no shortage of volunteer opportunities to test it out -- he could start out doing some canvassing to get to know your local orgs and make connections that could very well lead to jobs.
posted by snaw at 6:53 AM on July 17 [1 favorite]

If money isn't important I agree with the advice to become an active board member for one or two organizations that are important to him. Because of the ADHD, he'll probably be happier on the board of an organization that is a little larger and has paid staff doing the day-to-day work rather than a smaller, volunteer-run operation--he is probably best suited for an organization where the board is involved in broader strategy, but there are staff to do things like write grants or manage events.

For example, I work at a public community college with a board of directors and we would be thrilled to have a smart, engaged, strategy-minded board member with some time on their hands!
posted by mjcon at 7:20 AM on July 17 [1 favorite]

Learned a ton as the parent of an elite athlete about the realm of sports marketing and sponsorships and contracts and really gets into it.

Private or Catholic/Religious high school Athletic Director / Asst AD.
posted by maxg94 at 7:33 AM on July 17