ADHD and Employment

[Wrestlingwithadhd]

I am struggling in my current job because it is not very adhd friendly (case management, unrealistic expectations, unstructured, a lot of administrative and financial duties, high caseloads, challenging clients, lack of support, cookie cutter duties, a ton of paperwork, etc). I enjoy helping people and I have a masters degree in counseling, but I am starting to second guess this field due to the burnout that I am currently experiencing.

Are there people or tools available that could help me identify a great career match? My dad has undiagnosed ADHD and he changed career fields often. I am hoping to find a satisfying career field for the long term to avoid career hopping. I enjoy helping people and coach sports on the side (which I love), but there may not be an avenue for me to do that full-time right now.

[Anabelle22]

thank you for raising this point. I’m an undiagnosed but self identified adhd.

You job sounds vvvv challenging and you are not Supported

Such a good question. Right fit …. I don’t know - I grapple with finding the right balance at work

I work in health care and I have always struggled with organisation and “preparedness” (leave things to last minute and run late)

What I notice about my work that I like and stimulates me :

Supportive boss/team lead - openness about the struggle and the struggle with personal life too. A Listening ear

Leader and yea that provide Coaching and strategies - encouragement and practical ideas on how to manage / juggle the various demands (schedule time for routine - boring - activities)

Working with patients - working in neurology rehab as an OT - this gives me a stimulating client group to practise with. Every case is different and every person is their own gem of life - I love life stories and OT is a holistic profession and allows for this

Being asked to do something urgently “ this patient needs assessed ASAP - can you take it on” yes I like to please and excel under pressure when it come to patient work

The professional structure - scope for becoming more senior and clear duties and responsibilities within the organisation

I love my work and I think that helps motivate me

Being open with those around

I hope this helps a little

Best to you

[DW44]

I’m in a similar position to you working as a junior accountant and getting quite boring, brain-numbing work to do. The best advice I got is to look forward at what you’ll be doing in a year or three - so this is part of the process to get there and it won’t always be like this. This is what everyone has to do to progress and just need to stick it out for a bit even if it sucks for now.

If this is a long term issue ie it won’t get better in a few years, it’s worth looking into building your own structure and accountability - there are loads of adhd hacks! And only after trying that it’s worth considering other options or just thinking of them and keeping them in the back of your mind to start work until you’re more sure that you really don’t want to do counselling.

[ZtoThePhour]

although different fields, i feel as though your description is exactly what i did for quite some time, with success.

The fact that it's so unstructured with high volume of 'duties' to fulfill, means they haven't figured how to structure it well. You can see the overwhelming oversight of things. break them down and start solving/combining pathways to complete everything. I was amazed at what i ended up pulling off with just excel and dropbox. This includes being customer contact - other venders with other bosses and job requirements that lack structure and efficiency, (soft way of saying - complicated/difficult)