How do you job hunt knowing you have ADHD?

How is your starting Adderall linked to being dismissed from your job?

Why would you get special accommodations on the job for having ADHD? What kind of accommodations would you want?

Will it take time for your medication to become reliably effective? Perhaps you will have an easier time of it once that time has elapsed.

My husband had ADD that went undiagnosed throughout his childhood. He skated through school with minimal grades because he was very smart.

When he was in his 40s a therapist put him on Welbutrin. It changed his life. He can now concentrate and focus. He is able to take tests and ace job interviews. He does not mention it in interviews or on the job. I suggest that you don’t either.

Are you sure Adderal is the right medication for you?

I wouldn’t say anything about it to your employer.

Answer to glacial:
I started it too late to save my job, I think.
Why would I get special accomodations? Because that’s the law. What kind? I really don’t know. This is all new to me. Perhaps a tool to keep a person a bit more organized? I feel that the medication does have an immediate effect but perhaps more time will yield yet more improvements. Thanks.

Answer to Marinelife:
I was told for some years that the depression that set in, quite hard, after my husband’s untimely death, would ‘mask’ any true diagnosis of ADHD. That was awhile back. I don’t feel depressed in any way right now. At least not yet. I am glad the Wellbutrin worked for your hubby. Thank you.

If I may ask, what was the exact reason you lost your job, and how was it related to ADHD?

You should look into Getting Things Done which sounds cheesy as hell, but comes highly recommended by several top-notch indie software developers I listen to on podcasts. These are guys who multi-task like crazy, dealing with very complex problems that require laser focus to solve, but have a lot of balls in the air with trying to manage all of the tasks associated with running a business, plus writing code, doing consulting work and coordinating subcontractors (like designers). I can relate to your struggle with ADD. You might want to give the GTD system a go. I’m in the process of getting it going myself using Omnifocus, and a lot of it makes sense to me.

Try sales, there it’s more about talking and handling people. If you have an outgoing personality this could work for you. Steer clear of a paper work or admin position.

Dutchess, I’m not sure you understand my issue. I further take exception to your comment that this is ‘crazy.’ I am no more crazy than if I had a broken ankle or the flu. It’s simply the way I am.

I understand the law, I function extremely well with writing, research, analysis and communication. What I do, I do well. What I don’t do, however, is multitask well, or follow through on some things. I want to work and there are people who want me to do their work. I want to find ways to do work better and find work techniques that help me. Or find a workplace that helps me.

This is new to me and it’s scary but not unsolvable. There are many people who live full lives with this. I’m going to be one. There are solutions for how to find and perform well at a job with this. That’s what I seek. GorillaPaws helped a lot.

I don’t think you want to provide any suggestions along those lines., so maybe this isn’t a question you will continue to ‘answer.’ Thanks.

All I can say is don’t apply for positions that you can’t fulfill due to your ADHD.

Thank you, Dutchess. I would prefer you refrain from providing further ‘help.’ Thanks.

I was always skeptical about mental disorders. I just thought that most of them, ones like ADHD and AD, reflected a person’s different way of thinking. Don’t fall under confirmation bias either. Make yourself think that you can do things instead of looking for ways to find an out in life just a doctor has diagnosed you with a mental disorder. Have an open mind towards things. If you don’t like working, then it will be a struggle to work anyway.
Either way, don’t say anything to anyone about your mental disorder. You don’t even have to list mental disorder like ADHD on a résumé! Find a job you think you’d like and pursue it.

“Find an out in life” “If I don’t like working”? Where did that come from? Judge much?

Yeah, I’m not going to talk about this to anyone. Anyone. Ever again. Back into the closet with my being ‘the absent-minded professor.’ But GorillaPaws did provide me with a wonderful suggestion and I suppose it was worth it.

@redheaded1 I was just saying don’t let your ADHD limit yourself too much.
And I wasn’t “judging” you either when I sid “If you don’t like working”. I was saying that sentence as a follow-up to the previous one about having an open mind.
[edit to quip above]: [...] just because a doctor has diagnosed…

Hello again, Dutchess.

(1) I CAN do the job if I have the right workplace and tools. I need to find both.
(2) I didn’t get enough work done and some of it had some small errors. They also let go two other people in March and gave me their workload. It was really entirely too much. For anyone.
(3) I don’t think you have any suggestions about finding a workplace or productivity techniques or tools. Or did I miss that? Thus I’m at a loss as to why you are responding.

IDK @redheaded1. Somehow I feel like you’ve put us between a rock and a hard spot. Not at all sure how to answer. Just…don’t apply for a position that you couldn’t do because of the ADHD, and do the best you can in whatever position you get and do NOT tell them about the ADHD. It’ll sound like an excuse to not do your job.

BTW….almost every application I’ve seen asks “Do you have a physical or mental condition that will not allow you to perform the duties of this job?” How do you answer that? If you say “Yes,” then your app goes in the trash. If you say “No,” there goes whatever legal protection you think you might have.

@redheaded1: I function extremely well with writing, research, analysis and communication. What I do, I do well. What I don’t do, however, is multitask well, or follow through on some things. I want to work and there are people who want me to do their work.

This sounds like a classic research assistant to me. There are positions in the academic and literary community for people with your skills. These days you can do these jobs at any hour of the day or night and under any circumstances (and often wearing your pajamas and flip-flops).

Rewrite your resumé to lead to your strengths, if you can actually define them.

I cannot imagine what a ADD accommodation means. Can you give us a specific example?

I like Gail’s suggestion and it also sounds like cognitive/behavioral therapy could make a difference. This article addresses a few of the things you mention.

http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/the-ups-and-downs-of-a-d-h-d/

@redheaded1
I asked for hints on a career direction and approaching a workplace with this condition, and tools.
You actually asked for tips on job hunting. In all fairness, @Dutchess_III gave you a good one that I agreed with—don’t mention your ADHD.

Thanks, DXS. I think our conversation is done. Thanks.

[mod says] Please remember: This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

I don’t list my Aspergers on resumes, even though I have about the same attention span. Unlike @Dutchess_III‘s experience, I’ve never been asked about physical/mental conditions, (possibly because they fear discrimination lawsuits and figure it’s not worth the risk).

If asked though, just remember that it’s not a lie if you believe it! About the only jobs that bars me from are those involving customer service (sadly, one of the most common types of jobs in this service-based economy) but my strengths/skillset lie elsewhere anyways, and for the jobs I tend to go after (things like CNC Machinist), I have no reason to believe that it would interfere with my abilities to perform the duties of my job.

Also, you don’t give up ADA protection just because you answered “No” to the question, “Do you have a physical or mental condition that will not allow you to perform the duties of this job?”, and the personality quirks that go along with ADHD or AS are generally no more of a disability than being a Tea Party member.

Just be sure to be good at what you do because you can only get away with annoying people when you have something about you that makes you more difficult to replace than to deal with. For what I do and where I do it, the only real accommodation I need is to not have a micromanaging boss; give me a work order, a blueprint, and leave me the fuck alone!

The roughest part is the interview process. If you even get called back in today’s economy, that’s almost like winning the lottery anyways, and odds are that you’re up against many other applicants. As for your application being thrown in the trash because you answered “Yes”, the labor market has been tilted int the employers favor for a while now, so it could easily get thrown away simply because they only look at every fifth application anyways and automatically shitcan the other four.

I know how hard it can be. I have pretty bad ADHD and what drives me crazy is that while I do make minor mistakes more than my coworkers, I think a big wedge between me and my bosses is my personality. I drive them nuts because I act weird (at least I think that’s what it is…)

My last boss went nuts and started nit picking things that simply drove her crazy, but she couldn’t really fire me over. My shelving was slightly crooked. I sometimes left my chair to my desk not pushed in. I would leave a light on. I showed up on time instead of 5 minutes early. She actually documented all this stuff in a HUGE file and tried to get me fired. She would even take pictures of crooked shelves and my chair pushed out. She was angry because basically, I didn’t do anything wrong enough to warrant firing, but I made enough little mistakes to drive her up the wall. She was convinced that I did it on purpose.

I’d say it was just her being a nut, but eventually, almost every boss I’ve ever had has ended up acting like this—to a lesser degree—but all would start complaining about the huge number of minuscule careless mistakes I made and somehow got the idea that I did them on purpose to drive them crazy.

I have had bosses who just didn’t care about the nit picky stuff. One would tease me about it, but because I got the job done, he didn’t care about the mess at my desk or the fact that I always goofed the paperwork in some slight way.

Anyway. I am just lurking here except to tell you that you’re not alone. I am actually afraid to apply for jobs now because my last one was so demeaning that I can’t imagine ever working again.