I got to thinking about the actual number of jobs and positions I have held over the years. I am 44 years old so that means that I have been working on jobs off the farm for 17 years. in that time counting both different jobs and the diferent positions i have held within the workplaces, I count 25. Is it just me or does that number seem a little high?

I've held at least 24 different jobs since the age of 17. I probably forgot one or two... I'm 52 now.

In all, I have worked as:
farm laborer, psyciatric nursing aide, cab driver, factory worker, janitor, electronics technician. broadcast announcer (radio), salesman, tv repairman, radio repairman, engineering technician, cook, vending machine repairman, geologist, curator, software vendor, programmer analyst, electronics engineer, computer systems administrator, web master, systems engineer.....

ME :D

I think it is pretty common for ADDers to have more than the "usual" amount and "variety" of jobs. We have a tendancy to get bored and make impulsive decisions, where as non-ADDers think about things first before they make a move to another job. Or, we get let go.

I have had 13 jobs since the age of 16 and I am currently 44. I switched jobs on an average of every two years and have only been layed off once. After much trial and error, I have finally found a job that I love and have been with my current employer for 5 years. :cool:

i was with one componey for almost ten years, but in that time i switched postions at once every two years if not more. there have been other times where i have held multible jobs in a single year.

26 jobs now

4.

1st job - 10 years
2nd job 9 months
3rd job 3 years
4th job3 years

Hello,

Here's my breakdown:


1st Company - 2 years - but left to finish getting degree


2nd Company - 21 years, but held about 9 different positions and was formally laid off 4 times.


3rd Company - 10 months


4th Company 15 Months - Laid off


5th Company 11 months - Leaving this company Nov 30.
BTW, They usually lay-off the no so great workers:(

Diagnosed with ADD 30 days ago. I see the problem with my professional life and I am working to correct it as we speak.

Andy

the key is to working with what u have.

I'm hyper - even with ritalin i am still moe up than most... i find postions that are a challenge and constantly change.

My boss knows i had ADHD and that i require constant stimula.

Let's see... I'm 32 now, and I got my first job just before I was 16.

#s 1-7 were all part-time (<25 hours per week, except during summer)

1. McDonald's in the town where I grew up, for about 13 months.

2. McDonald's in the town where I attended Grade 12, for about 9 months.

3. Misc jobs for my father's new business for a couple of months. Probably doesn't count.

3. Just as my first year an university was winding down, I needed to start working again, at McDonald's #3. Was there for about 2 1/2 years. Each of the three McD's I worked at, I started off working the grill and worked my way back up to front counter, drive-thru, "production caller" and crew trainer...

4. Photo/electronics counter at London Drugs, for about 8 or 9 months. The manager was very unhappy with my performance and "attitude" after the first couple of months.

5. Computer department at a different London Drugs store, for 8 or 9 months (partly overlapping with #5). I'd been trying to get into the computer department anyway, but they weren't hiring the previous year and I got picked up by the electronics dept instead. I started working some shifts in the computer dept at another store on my own initiative, which annoyed my photo/electronics manager even more. Eventually that manager gave me one month to get my act together. When he was satisfied that I was putting a lot of effort into learning the things I was supposed to know about photography, he let me transfer to that computer department at the end of those 30 days.

6. Internal tech support at a software development company. The first year and a half was part-time while I finished my university degree (I was on the 6 year-program, apparently), then another year on a full-time contract. Had several conflicts with my manager, who always saved up all negative feedback to dump on me in yearly or twice-yearly reviews. Thanks, that helps a lot. This was my first corporate job, and it took me a while to "get" some aspects of professionalism, particularly in being more discerning about what I say to whom. Got laid off when the company let about 40 people go.

7. PC support technician for the local hockey (and basketball, at the time) stadium. I only made it about 3 months before I resigned, as I was bored out of my mind. I had been hoping that my manager would have long-term goals for me that met with my own (at that time, getting some industry certifications in Windows NT and networkign). He was envisioning me implementing better inventory control systems for old PCs and stuff like that. It took me about 4 months to find a new job after that, which taught me to never quit one job before landing another.

8. Got a job with a company that had support contracts with a couple of provincial government ministries, doing on-site PC hardware and software support. I got my industry certifications and then quit after a total of 11 months at that job. The actual day-to-day work had little to do with the certifications that they wanted us to have to maintain their Microsoft partnerships. It was a lot of work on old, crappy computers and several hardware roll-outs where we spent a couple of days setting up PCs and then three days cleaning up the old computers and cutting apart cardboard boxes. I could feel my skills eroding every day.

9. Got a position in systems integration for the software company I had worked for in #6. Got to travel to England a few times, and to South Africa. Unfortunately, every project that I was assigned to was a total mess and ended up getting cancelled before we got underway. After a year, I felt like I hadn't learned much and the frequent travel was wearing me down -- I have major sleep issues already, and the jet lag was killing me. I'd typically arrive on-site on a Sunday afternoon, after a long flight during which I couldn't sleep. I was mostly useless for the first 3 or 4 days at the client site because I was too tired to think and I kept dozing off if I sat down for too long. So I made the move to development.

10. Junior Web developer at the same company. I started off with almost no professional programming experience, but by the end of 6 months I had gotten sick of how poor the quality of the project's code was and built a standardized framework to use for the next version. Most of the "senior" programmers had trouble understanding it, but it worked very well. I was in this role for over a year, and then I moved to a new team...

11. Assistant Software Architect. The initiative that I took didn't get me ahead on my own team, but the architecture team wanted me, so I moved over to that team to work on tools and future research instead of just working on the current version fo our product. About 8 months later... oh, you guys aren't actually contributing to the current product that we need to finish, so ... we're laying you off along with all these others.

12. Tried to start up a business doing Web site development, advertising, etc with former co-workers who were also let go. We tried for about 6 months, but most of the team wasn't totally committed to it -- probably because we were all out of work and our severance packages were running out. Well, and I have issues with following-through anyway.

13. A friend got me a job doing systems administration where he worked. I had been looking for programming jobs, but it had now been almost a year since I got laid off and I really needed work and this position paid well. There wasn't a whole lot of work to do in the position, and I was already bored out of my mind after a month. The manager extended my 3-month probation to 6 months because he didn't think I was enthusiastic enough about the job. And of course he kept all of this negative feedback until I was scheduled for a formal review. Can't work on problem areas if I don't know about them, geniuses. And just around the 6-month point, major re-organization was happening, and oh surprise, lay offs. I sense a pattern here.

14. Been working on a software development contract for the past two years. And I'm bored out of my mind. I can't focus on my work most days. I get paid by the hour and I can theoretically work 40 hour weeks, but I honestly can't stand to be here more than 4 or 5 hours a day. By the end of the day I'm usually feeling dead inside.

So that's... 8 full-time jobs since I graduated from university in 1998. And I see and hear of people working the same job for 10 or 15 years or more. I'd freaking shoot myself in the head. I can't imagine doing the same administrative work day after day for 10 or 15 years.

I am 33 and I have had 2 jobs in my lifetime. The first was after school and when school was out that one was gone. I got my current job at 18 and lucky for me they don't care that I constantly stare out the window as long as my work gets done eventually. :D

This is what is reported on my resume:

1 - First Job -- 26 Months (the longest job I have held so far)

2- Second Job -- 16 Months (Termed at the end)

3 - Third Job -- Present Position 15 Months (On a PIP and about to be fired)

Note: All three of these company's were in financial services and had high turnover & generally bad work environments.

Maybe someone can help me with responding to 'leaving so soon' at positions #2, & #3. Get plenty of interviews but they don't go anywhere because the short duration makes them uncomfortable and they always assume that there is something sinister that I am leaving out of the reason for leaving.