i want to know what kind of job us ADDers have and is it a good job for you?

so whats your job?

Advertising - media

Case manager at a non-profit. What's yours dc?

I'm a lawyer. I LOVE what I do. I have fun at it. I feel good about it. I get to do creative things and learn new things all the time.

It's hard for an ADDer, I guess. But for 15 years I thrived at it without knowing that I had ADD. So I think that that means that I can safely say that it is a good career for me, even if it's now a bit difficult.

i am a chef and caterer and im very good at it. it allows me to be creative. i blank out a lot of times which definitly makes it hard but i work through it.

Mmmmm, a chef and a caterer in Kentucky, dc? What sorts of stuff do you cook? Just curious.

I'm a Maintenance Manager, and a controls electrician / engineer. I love my job because there is always something new, and my ADD ability's actually help me with problem solving & troubleshooting. Being able to be creative is another plus.

The only down side to my job with ADD is, sometimes (OK most of the time) I have difficulty prioritizing things. The things that I think are most important, often times, are not that important to others. Thankfully my bosses try to work with me on these things and help me put things in there order.

I'm an electrical designer and have had a bit of problems with details in the past. The company I'm with now it seems will be better. I told them in the interview that I paint with broad strokes, other people can do the filling in. So I'm in a decent position now where I don't have to worry so much about little things and their constant changing. Now the only problems I have are dealing with the controls engineers and their ever changing P&IDs! I'm going to school for industrial management now though, figuring that my thoughts and ideas can be executed by other people's abilities.

I'm a Construction Inspector. Although I have returned to school for a degree in a different field. That's a story for another thread.

What I like about my job: I work "around" very specific project and test requirements. Everything is written in stone regarding how something is supposed to be done.

However, nothing is EVER done by the book. Every project is different. I have an eagle eye when it comes to something being "off." The ADHD is a benefit to me in this case. I can take in everything I am seeing, reconstruct the processes in my head, and mentally compare it to general and project specifications. It's like being a detective. Real fun stuff.

I also enjoy the daily travel, going from project to project and meeting different people daily. I'm an ENTJ, and seek out interaction with others. Also, I'm not a cog. I have a lot of personal freedom in my schedule.

I've managed lab's in the past, and the environment really messes up my psyche. Always in the same office, same seat, same people, day after day. It takes a toll on me.

Eventually, I hope to be my own boss, possibly doing some consulting work in my new major. But that's somewhere down the line.

Mmmmm, a chef and a caterer in Kentucky, dc? What sorts of stuff do you cook? Just curious.

your question seemed kind of sarcastic but ill explain.
louisville kentucky has the 3rd top acredited culinary school in the USA.
Im only here for school
and louisville is a event city. every thing come here.
i am get ready to work the derby train a.k.a. the governers train for the kentucky derby which carries all the rich, famous, drunk people around.
o and i cook some of everything.
my favorite style of food is seafood.
one dish would be something like baked cedar samon over a cheese risotto severd with a bur blanc or pamadora sauce.
its really good.

I'm a unix Systems Administrator, specializing in designing and maintaining reliable high volume internet services.

I'm also developing a new business startup. I'm drawing from my technical experience as well as learning a lot of marketing and business aspects of entrepreneurship. It's a lot of fun.

your question seemed kind of sarcastic but ill explain.
louisville kentucky has the 3rd top acredited culinary school in the USA.


I got the impression she was thinking southern cooking - mouth watering cooking which can can only be found in the south - literally

I wouldn't know that except a couple of years ago I went to visit my sister in Ohio - the restaurants didn't even know what a chicken fried steak was. .. .

so whats your job?


I run a recycling business with my husband

I got the impression she was thinking southern cooking - mouth watering cooking which can can only be found in the south - literally

I wouldn't know that except a couple of years ago I went to visit my sister in Ohio - the restaurants didn't even know what a chicken fried steak was. .. .

o i guess i got the wrong impression.

imma blame it on the ADD cause i wasnt focusing. lol

really! what restaurant were yall at.

when you past kentucky, which i do not consider the south because im from all across the south but lived in tennessee for half my life and kentucky is noting like it, you have gone way to far to ask for a chicken fried steak.

I am a lawyer, I do criminal work. I need the fast pace and entertainment value. I have the hardest time at home managing house and family. Can't sit through a movie or a major league baseball game either.

I was just diagnosed and the meds help me at home but I am used to performing without a net at work. It's hard to adjust after all these years.

Chef here as well. Well i don't get to cook nearly as much as I would like any more, but....I am an asst manager right now. I supervise 30ish employees many of which i am convinced have ADD themselves!

I sell computer software. I used to sell mostly over the phone, but now doing more face to face sales. I like the challenge of having to think quickly to adjust to the needs of the customer. I like that there is a monthly deadline to hit your sales goal. I like serving my clients. My style is more consultative than a hard sale. I love meeting people and my conversations often divert from the product to what are children are doing at school or books we are reading and on and on.

I've gotta dirty job but some bada bing's gotta take orders. Aluminum foil wrapping ... smell of baccala' ... dumpin' this & that ... :cool:

Shoot ... justa missed my footin' on da truck ... will the Union contract cover long term disability? :rolleyes:;)

I have been a newspaper writer for the last year and half, and the experience is showing me for the first time that my ADD is a major problem. In fact, it's the source of most of my depression and anxiety, and I'm amazed, frankly, that it's taken me 32 years to figure this out.

The job is a perfect match for my talents and skills and a nightmare of a bad fit for my ADD: sporadic deadlines, vast amounts of unstructured time, and almost complete control over which stories I choose to pursue. Sounds like a dream, right? I waste most of the time procrastinating and avoiding work. I blow right through my editor's artificial deadlines and always come dangerously close to missing the real deadline (which is when the story must be on the page and in the printer's hands). My reporting is simplistic and my stories are slapped together in last-minute haste because deadline-pressure is the only way I can force myself to get the job done.

All my life I thought my problem with procrastinating and failing to plan was just laziness. I didn't WANT to take on big writing projects, even when I had to.

But that's such an obvious falsehood. I DO want to write. Desperately! I sit at my computer in my free time at home almost every night trying to make myself write, and I can't. Clearly, I want to do the work. But I now understand that, without some changes, I literally can't do it.

As I have started to deeply research what ADD is and how it affects people, I've come to see that it's not a lack of desire preventing me from working, and it isn't the ability to sustain attention that makes ADD a big problem for me. It's the inability to summon attentiveness when I need it that is shutting me down. Without heaping doses of stress and adrenaline to charge my brain, I can't concentrate, I feel frustrated, and my mind instinctively looks for something else to do. That's not laziness. It's my best attempt at survival.

I did much better at work when I was a copy editor and page designer. The work was structured, easy, and I would be absorbed in a state of flow where the hours would fly by. My work was never the fastest on the copy desk, but it was consistently the best. Yet I felt unchallenged and bored.

Anyone else find that their best talents are the kinds of things that people with ADD find to be the hardest? I have had many teachers, from elementary to college, tell me I'm one of the best writers they've ever taught, even though my writing assignments were usually late or incomplete. I've never published anything other than the slapdash stories I file for the newspaper. As a result, I feel creatively bottled up, and my self-esteem has been in the toilet for years.

Professional classical musician-in-training, as I like to say :) So, right now, that means temp/private music lesson teacher/retail sales/soon-to-be-full-time graduate student. My most recent "real job" was in the development department at a large non-profit.

Anyone else find that their best talents are the kinds of things that people with ADD find to be the hardest? I have had many teachers, from elementary to college, tell me I'm one of the best writers they've ever taught, even though my writing assignments were usually late or incomplete. I've never published anything other than the slapdash stories I file for the newspaper. As a result, I feel creatively bottled up, and my self-esteem has been in the toilet for years.

I recently changed jobs. I am in computer software sales. I went from a job with a sales cycle that averaged 90 days to one that has a 6 month to 3 year sales cycle. For me the follow-through to stay motivated on such a long sales cycle is hard, but it allows me to do other things that I enjoy and I am good at. I have been struggling with this. I have a life coach that had me do a strength survey as part of our first session. This was free to do at you can find it at AuthenticHappines org I am also a big fan of the Kolbe Index. This gave me specific strategies and tips on how to get the most out of how I am wired. For example, for me working on multiple projects at a time is good for me, because it fuels my energy, while other people would say that I am not focusing and that multiple projects would be a distraction. That is definitely not the case. This survey cost money, but for me it was worth it. Now people have accused me of having some affiliation with her company. This is not the case, I am a firm believer and I like to share what I know to help others.

i want to know what kind of job us ADDers have and is it a good job for you?

so whats your job?

I am a software developer. I love it, and I think it is a great job for me. I love solving puzzles and that's primarily what appeals to me about the job (I'm a female House :p.) I'm in my element when analyzing a process and solving user problems, which makes me an excellent maintenance developer. If the software does this and you want it to do that, I'm your gal! Give me something completely new, however, and I'm in heaven only until I run into a snag that requires extreme concentration, or worse, support. It's not that I don't like collaborating with other programmers, it's just that I work in my own little world, and I don't communicate well using "industry terms." There are many hurdles, but for the most part, I adore my work. It is challenging and fun and I am trusted to manage my own time, of which, thanks to technological advances, I am capable. I've mentioned my reliance on MS Outlook remiders in other threads. Truly, I owe at least a portion of my success to MicroSoft. <icrosoft.>:p</icrosoft.>

I was a special ed teacher up until last year when I quite to deal with my son's ADHD. I loved it. I understood my students and they know it. After I quit, the special ed director offered me a special ed consulting job that allows me to at stay home and in my field. I get to work with the teachers and help them address the "No Child left behing" stuff that is so hard for special ed kids.

Chef here as well. Well i don't get to cook nearly as much as I would like any more, but....I am an asst manager right now. I supervise 30ish employees many of which i am convinced have ADD themselves!


O wait. let me guess

always late

wait wait wait wait wait
even better

never show up
excuse: i forgot

or if they do they dont do no work

i know how it works
lazy bastards

I have been a newspaper writer for the last year and half, and the experience is showing me for the first time that my ADD is a major problem. In fact, it's the source of most of my depression and anxiety, and I'm amazed, frankly, that it's taken me 32 years to figure this out.

The job is a perfect match for my talents and skills and a nightmare of a bad fit for my ADD: sporadic deadlines, vast amounts of unstructured time, and almost complete control over which stories I choose to pursue. Sounds like a dream, right? I waste most of the time procrastinating and avoiding work. I blow right through my editor's artificial deadlines and always come dangerously close to missing the real deadline (which is when the story must be on the page and in the printer's hands). My reporting is simplistic and my stories are slapped together in last-minute haste because deadline-pressure is the only way I can force myself to get the job done.

All my life I thought my problem with procrastinating and failing to plan was just laziness. I didn't WANT to take on big writing projects, even when I had to.

But that's such an obvious falsehood. I DO want to write. Desperately! I sit at my computer in my free time at home almost every night trying to make myself write, and I can't. Clearly, I want to do the work. But I now understand that, without some changes, I literally can't do it.

As I have started to deeply research what ADD is and how it affects people, I've come to see that it's not a lack of desire preventing me from working, and it isn't the ability to sustain attention that makes ADD a big problem for me. It's the inability to summon attentiveness when I need it that is shutting me down. Without heaping doses of stress and adrenaline to charge my brain, I can't concentrate, I feel frustrated, and my mind instinctively looks for something else to do. That's not laziness. It's my best attempt at survival.

I did much better at work when I was a copy editor and page designer. The work was structured, easy, and I would be absorbed in a state of flow where the hours would fly by. My work was never the fastest on the copy desk, but it was consistently the best. Yet I felt unchallenged and bored.

Anyone else find that their best talents are the kinds of things that people with ADD find to be the hardest? I have had many teachers, from elementary to college, tell me I'm one of the best writers they've ever taught, even though my writing assignments were usually late or incomplete. I've never published anything other than the slapdash stories I file for the newspaper. As a result, I feel creatively bottled up, and my self-esteem has been in the toilet for years.


because i procrastinate so much i do my best work when im under pressure.

and if its not hard i am totally unfocused to do it.

thats why i like catering. there is always some problem to slove and a lot of work to keep up with.

I work as an airline passenger service attendant ! ... Ground staff of an airport in other words !....

I check passengers in, give them info regarding their flight and onward connections and escort the elderly, frail and dis-abled via wheelchair to the aircraft !

Hospital pharmacist and Firefighter/EMT. Not at the same time though....

I am a registered nurse on a stroke/tele unit. I started as a nursing assistant, respiratory tech, nurse tech, graduate nurse and RN. It is difficult but I LOVE being a RN. I like hearing what everyone does for a living. Sounds like many of you are professionals with advanced degrees.

I am a nurse too.

Right now being a fairly new graduate, the growing pains of becoming a professional nurse make it difficult to love my job. However I am considering that I'm just not in the right kind of floor, rather than the job itself. But I love the possibilty that this job can take you in so many different directions.

I am a filmmaker.

For me it provides me with everything I need to thrive with ADD.

1.) I can hone in the craft of filmmaking and be good at something, and yet have never ending variety which always keeps me riveted and challenged.

2.) The process of filmmaking requires a vast set of attributes, which most people with ADD have naturally, and those who don't spend years trying to obtain.

3.) Filmmaking is nebulous (did I spell that right?), yet has an underlying structure- again for me a perfect environment.

4.) All of those thoughts, images, ideas that somehow get into my head, get let out and put into a film- thus freeing me from them.

5.) I silently relish the fact that all those types of people who used to tell me that I am not good enough for this or that, or that I am not performing according to expectations now get fired by me for not being able to perform outside of expectations.

(A few months ago I fired a gentleman for having a perfect attendance record. This might seem mean, and it may very well be, however he was in my environment and in my world, I will not tolerate perfection.)

6.) Filmmaking has a very enjoyable process and has a wonderful reward when a film is complete. You gain recognition and a very concrete sense of accomplishment.

7.) Even if people don't like your film, or are critical about it you can always take comfort in knowing that someone paid you to have their time wasted!

Whatever you do decide to go with as far as a career goes I hope you will realize that us ADDers are that which is rare, and its not something you need to find or really uncover, its something that you need to let happen.

Right now, I'm a student (again... for the 3rd time - hmmm, 3 times a charm??) - But my last job, a seasonal job during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays each year since 2003, I worked in the office area, proofreading orders for Greenberg Smoked Turkeys (http://www.gobblegobble.com/)... It was great... it got hectic.. but the kind of hectic that I like, doing what I like.

I have worked in so many other jobs: from dishwasher, part-time cake decorator (got bored with it - didn't do that much. Definitely not my thing), Teacher Aide, Data Entry Operator (which I LOVED), Medical Records (I only loved that when in a dr's office - NOT the main medical records department in a hospital), Secretary/Office Assistant at a college (not for me, either - can't multi-task too much).

I have been a newspaper writer for the last year and half, and the experience is showing me for the first time that my ADD is a major problem. In fact, it's the source of most of my depression and anxiety, and I'm amazed, frankly, that it's taken me 32 years to figure this out.

The job is a perfect match for my talents and skills and a nightmare of a bad fit for my ADD: sporadic deadlines, vast amounts of unstructured time, and almost complete control over which stories I choose to pursue. Sounds like a dream, right? I waste most of the time procrastinating and avoiding work. I blow right through my editor's artificial deadlines and always come dangerously close to missing the real deadline (which is when the story must be on the page and in the printer's hands). My reporting is simplistic and my stories are slapped together in last-minute haste because deadline-pressure is the only way I can force myself to get the job done.

All my life I thought my problem with procrastinating and failing to plan was just laziness. I didn't WANT to take on big writing projects, even when I had to.

But that's such an obvious falsehood. I DO want to write. Desperately! I sit at my computer in my free time at home almost every night trying to make myself write, and I can't. Clearly, I want to do the work. But I now understand that, without some changes, I literally can't do it.

As I have started to deeply research what ADD is and how it affects people, I've come to see that it's not a lack of desire preventing me from working, and it isn't the ability to sustain attention that makes ADD a big problem for me. It's the inability to summon attentiveness when I need it that is shutting me down. Without heaping doses of stress and adrenaline to charge my brain, I can't concentrate, I feel frustrated, and my mind instinctively looks for something else to do. That's not laziness. It's my best attempt at survival.

I did much better at work when I was a copy editor and page designer. The work was structured, easy, and I would be absorbed in a state of flow where the hours would fly by. My work was never the fastest on the copy desk, but it was consistently the best. Yet I felt unchallenged and bored.

Anyone else find that their best talents are the kinds of things that people with ADD find to be the hardest? I have had many teachers, from elementary to college, tell me I'm one of the best writers they've ever taught, even though my writing assignments were usually late or incomplete. I've never published anything other than the slapdash stories I file for the newspaper. As a result, I feel creatively bottled up, and my self-esteem has been in the toilet for years.

Oh buddy can I relate. I too am a reporter and I can empathize completely with your situation (blowing through deadlines, low self-esteem, the works). I can't manage the mind-boggling number of contacts it takes to be a good reporter, and I'm never organized enough to execute my ideas. My boss has seen my problems, and while he thinks I should be a feature writer, has assigned me to the news desk. That way, I'm usually given two assignments in the morning, to have finished by the evening. When assignments run into days and weeks, I invariably screw it up. :(

Well, up until Yesterday. I was Market Research Anaylst and Trainer for a Wireless Manufacturer. But not anymore, I guess I would classify myself as a Professional Job Switcher. LOL!! Don't wanna be though

I'm a police officer. For the most part, it's perfect with AD/HD. You just get in a patrol car and roam around and stop when you feel like it. There's very little structure and you don't have to focus. But when a call comes in (and that's stimulation, and that's good), you don't have to prioritize (usually) because it's pretty much done for you.

I'm a school resource officer now, and I have an office in a high school. I deal with a lot of paperwork and focusing is hard for me. But I still love the job.

I am a general manager of a telecommunications firm. I do well when on a new project, but get bored after it is up and on autopilot. Good thing corporate is 600 miles away.

I think I may want to get into the business of organizing stuff, like selling systems for closets, pantries and garages. At least every job would be different

Oh buddy can I relate. I too am a reporter and I can empathize completely with your situation (blowing through deadlines, low self-esteem, the works). I can't manage the mind-boggling number of contacts it takes to be a good reporter, and I'm never organized enough to execute my ideas. My boss has seen my problems, and while he thinks I should be a feature writer, has assigned me to the news desk. That way, I'm usually given two assignments in the morning, to have finished by the evening. When assignments run into days and weeks, I invariably screw it up. :(

Well now, that's just eerily similar. I left a two-stories-a-day operation for a features writing job because I thought it would help me to have more time. I've since learned this is a common ADD mistake — assume you need more time and then waste it when you get it. I dread Wednesdays, the day when I inevitably have almost nothing to do, even though I should be using it to get ahead of schedule and put more effort into my projects. Instead I spend the whole day berating myself for not doing more.

I am a Library Systems Manager at a large Pharma company. I keep track of the 26 applications that run in the Digital library.
It is a great job, just hard to handle sometimes because I have 12 things coming at me at once.
I tend to get overwhelmed at times

I currently work at the front desk of a resort. I love it because it constantly changes and I can use my personal skills on a day to day basis. I am a senior associate and I basically control the 2000+ rooms of the hotel. I am lucky because my daily routine consists of a checklist which helps me stay on task, but when I have to answer phone calls from associates who need assistance, I find that I can be distracted from the work at hand. I am prepping to move into management as soon as I finish school, so hopefully the future role will be more dynamic. I just hope that I can handle the pressure!

I just read this and I know that probably makes no sense to people not in the hotel business. lol.

I am a filmmaker.

For me it provides me with everything I need to thrive with ADD.

1.) I can hone in the craft of filmmaking and be good at something, and yet have never ending variety which always keeps me riveted and challenged.

2.) The process of filmmaking requires a vast set of attributes, which most people with ADD have naturally, and those who don't spend years trying to obtain.

3.) Filmmaking is nebulous (did I spell that right?), yet has an underlying structure- again for me a perfect environment.

4.) All of those thoughts, images, ideas that somehow get into my head, get let out and put into a film- thus freeing me from them.

5.) I silently relish the fact that all those types of people who used to tell me that I am not good enough for this or that, or that I am not performing according to expectations now get fired by me for not being able to perform outside of expectations.

(A few months ago I fired a gentleman for having a perfect attendance record. This might seem mean, and it may very well be, however he was in my environment and in my world, I will not tolerate perfection.)

6.) Filmmaking has a very enjoyable process and has a wonderful reward when a film is complete. You gain recognition and a very concrete sense of accomplishment.

7.) Even if people don't like your film, or are critical about it you can always take comfort in knowing that someone paid you to have their time wasted!

Whatever you do decide to go with as far as a career goes I hope you will realize that us ADDers are that which is rare, and its not something you need to find or really uncover, its something that you need to let happen.


now thats funny. you fired him.

you sound like you live by my pholosiphy (i know i spell it wrong)

ORGANIZED CHAOS

i work at a dog kennel. nothing better than 300 dogs that depend on you. it keeps me VERY busy. but ive done all sorts of stuff, research lab, customer service at an airport, retail, art gallery, animal hospital, started a vitamin business (didnt last long), audio visual tech, horse farm, and this is all within the last 4 years. haha. im in the process of looking for a new job....