Re: My Job, is it ADD friendly?

[ADDled]

I thought the comment was funny and I certainly didn’t see a political side to this at all. If you learn anything at all from this website, it’s that despite all the pain and suffering we endure, we can still find time for our unique sense of humour. Besides, I’ll trade Harper for Obama any day.

As to the original intent of this topic about jobs that are ADD friendly that’s like saying what are good jobs for someone with blue eyes. If you are aware of your ADD, and what flavour it is, I think any job is suitable…if you know your limitations and CAN and DECIDE to work within them.

I think that’s the issue. Whether an ADDer can make the adjustments to their brainstyle to accommodate whatever they choose to do is what it really boils down to. I hate working in a corporate cube farm, but I try to adapt to that by changing how I approach my work. Instead of working on single project at a time, I’ll work several concurrently. Drives my boss nuts. When I work on a single project, well, you all know to well what happens. But when I work multiple projects confined to tight deadlines, my brain now fires on all cylinders and stuff gets done. I’m focused. In the zone. At one with the Tao.

I try to bend the world to me as much as I can.

Would I have chosen this career if I were aware about my ADD? Probably not, knowing how it was going to turn out.

My job started out interesting because I was allowed to get away from the computer all the time, go into the factory to do what I had to do, find out stuff, talk to the people I needed to talk to and go back to the computer. So when I found myself getting bored or loosing focus, I could find an excuse to get away. Even if I didn’t need to go into the factory, I’d go anyways just to keep stimulated. It doesn’t happen now at all. Now it’s starting to drag me down.

Everything is now provided to me on the computer, so now it’s eight hours a day (even on weekends, frequently) staring at a computer screen in a gray cube-farm. Very boring. The paperwork, procedures and policies used in my workplace have drained every bit of enjoyment. Not to mention computer network that is so slow that I frequently forget what I’m to do next, I just “gap-out”. I think even the “neuro-norms” find it tough going now. I can say that corporate life sucks if you have ADD. Oh, in addition, I think I’m burnt-out.

What would I have chosen knowing I had ADD? Something creative, perhaps stayed with photography which I have done most of my life. That was stimulating work. A paramedic, fireman or bush-pilot perhaps. Something that requires regular stimulus, with little or no paperwork. A lion-tamer? Entertainment field is good: ADD is frequently called the “comedian’s disease”. Journalism?

I read that we like to work on things we find really intrinsically interesting (almost obsessively), highly detailed or complex, and to work mostly by ourselves if we can. Places that require out-side-the-box thinking and that our input is needed and valued, like software design. When I look at how computer software is designed with poor user interface, that makes me nuts. I think my hyper-awareness makes me really sensitive to that. Why is the checkbox up here and the Accept box why down over there? Why is it most ON/OFF switches in a car are in the middle of the dash, but some are on the left side of the steering wheel requiring the driver to switch hand during driving? That sort of thing. Because when you have ADD these things really stand out.

So, at mid-fifties, I’m contemplating another change, perhaps working on a series of small contracts at different places, doing different projects to provide stimulus and change.

When I have the answer for what is a good career choice for someone with ADD. I’ll let you know, but in the meantime, the search continues…stay tuned.

Hope this helps…and good luck.

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