For many adults with ADHD, employment history is more about quantity than quality — lots of jobs but none that inspired them.
Adults with ADD are rarely able to tolerate a job that is a bad fit. They either get bored or frustrated and quit, or they get fired. The good news is that there is a lot to be learned from those crummy jobs to help you find a position in which you can be successful.
Take Sandy. After bouncing through a series of administrative jobs that required strengths she didn’t have — strong attention to detail and the ability to tolerate repetition — Sandy sat down and took stock of what she liked and didn’t like about those positions. She loved interacting with colleagues and didn’t like managing piles of paper.
Sandy looked for a job that engaged her passion, and she landed a position as a substitute teacher. She enjoys it so much that she is pursuing her teacher’s certification. And although there is no shortage of paperwork in her job, she manages it well because she likes working closely with her students.
You can find a better job if you do what Sandy did: Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses; learn from your work history; apply this information to the job search. The goal is to find a job you can keep and grow in. It’s hard to meet that goal when you make an impulsive career decision. Take time to figure out which job would be a good fit by using the following strategies.
Know Yourself
Before you start a job search, assess your strengths and weaknesses.
Divide a piece of paper into four quadrants. List your work-related strengths in the top left quarter. These can be personal qualities or tasks that you’re good at. Write your weaknesses in the top right quarter. Ask people who know you to contribute to the list. Be honest. No one is good at everything.
Look into Your Past
Look back at your career history and think about what you did and didn’t like about each job. Recall specific tasks (filing and handling customer calls), as well as company culture or workplace atmosphere (competitive versus collegial).
In the bottom left quarter, write down all of the things you liked and the tasks you excelled at; in the bottom right quarter, write down all the negatives. Once again, ask family and friends for suggestions.
When hunting for a new job, be honest about compromises you won’t make. Write down these deal-breakers in the bottom right quadrant and circle them, so you won’t talk yourself into taking a job that you know will make you miserable.
My client, Tom, found a position that suited his strengths — except that it was an hour’s drive away. Commuting, for him, would get old quickly. He passed.
Make the Right Choice
Based on your lists, start looking for a job that matches your strengths and passion. After creating a career checklist, Andrew realized that data analysis was the right job for him, but he also knew that he needed a position with flexible work hours, to allow time for his volunteer activities and hobbies. And he liked being his own boss. As a result, he took a nine-to-five position for contract work, where he could control his work pace.
Sometimes my clients realize that a job tweak — like working in an office with an assistant who can schedule appointments for them, rather than going it alone at home — can make their current career track work. Sometimes you may need a job that is completely different from your previous ones, as Sandy discovered with teaching.
Use your lists to evaluate every job offer. By making a well-informed choice, you are likely to find a job that brings out your best.
This article comes from the Winter 2008 issue of ADDitude.
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