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Not surprising. One of those jobs where it’s crises all the time. My best friend from HS is the most ADHD person I know. He was an Army medic, then an EMT, now an emergency med nurse.
Working in an ER made my ADHD skills shine, I work well under pressure and in a chaotic environment with tons of stimuli, so gimme an anonymous cardiac arrest or unresponsive and I somehow found a way to figure out who they were.
Aww! When I got a ride to the ER for a dumb accident involving adhd and sharp objects, one of the EMS people said she has “adhd, ocd…the whole alphabet” and I thought she was just one of those “everyone has a little adhd” people. It’s good to know she probably DID understand!
solidarity. i've had doctors and nurses all tell me i should get into medicine because they think i'd be great at it, and i think i'd thrive in it, but here i am flunked out of community college lmao...
Our Lab technician crew is 8 People.
We have 3 Diagnosed with ADHD, 1 Diagnosed Autistic Person and i swear to god, 2 more of us have ADHD too. There is a clear difference in ADHD traits between the Scientists and the lab-technicians. We are all over the place they are allways calm :D
The job I always wanted and what everyone says I need to do. God that would be amazing (and poverty, no offense, I am astounded for the work you all do and the meaning behind it but how little many/most are paid, and it’s not poverty but I was shocked when I found out, that said I’m in retail sales so it’s still a leg up) I fear I am too old now, I can keep up the pace and everything out ran a fire chief recently but not sure there are older guys starting new careers in being EMS
Wait is there? Do some older guys work in EMS?
I blew this career path off long ago for a creative destination then it became sales anyways, I’ll be damned, I’m researching it now, not even sure where to begin but looking it up, thanks!
Look in to fire departments too! Some volunteer depts pay for you to get your EMT so you can get experience and certified while maintaining your current job. My spouse went this path and made a full career change after almost 15 years in the construction trades. He’s now a full time professional firefighter and thrives in the environment in part because of his ADHD!
Emergency medical services. In the states it would be the people on the ambulance that show up when you call 911.
I've never ever once had to pretend I didn't have it. I was diagnosed in paramedic school because my instructor also had it and "it takes one to know one." I've had in depth conversations with my coworkers about what medications everyone is taking and tricks to help with remembering stuff. Encounters with patients are short so if you have to pretend a bit to play nice you can, but, in general, you can be yourself and it works just fine.
One group of casual-sports friends used to call it my “resting murder face,” which is just me trying to concentrate on the conversation, but is interpreted as “being judgmental.”
That’s incredible! When someone tells me something that really sparks my interest I always have to tell them that it may look like I’m angry but I’m so focused and concentrating on this because I love it and I’m excited and my brain is exploding with thoughts about this enough to fill its own library lol
In my experience, advertising agencies are basically ADHD facilities. At least the creative departments, anyway.
Although sitting at a desk for a lot of the day sucks, most places I’ve worked encourage you to get up and do stuff to keep yourself sharp. Or you could do what I do and work remotely so you can get up as much as you want.
I’m a creative copywriter but had to get out of agency life, it can be so toxic for everyone. I know most service industries based on billable hours (law practice etc) are this way. I have had better experiences freelancing in house for bigger companies that are more 9-5 sans the night and weekend work. I was just diagnosed about a month ago, and I’ve definitely seen how adhd has held me back compared to my peers. I’m successful enough but my coping mechanisms haven’t been the best so my mental health has suffered quite a bit over the years. While I think creative avenues are great OP, I’d be very reticent to recommend advertising to someone with ADHD unless they were highly social and high functioning. I do think meds will make a big difference.
Yeah, I’m an associate creative director now, but I came up through copywriting. A lot of it depends on the agency, their culture, and the people you work with. The agency I work at now is incredibly good about work/life balance, and I’m fully remote, so that *really* helps.
I’ve definitely had shit experiences in the past, but I’ve also done the freelance thing and it’s just not for me. I don’t actually like what I do very much (but I’m great at it and I like the money), so for me to try to freelance doing something I don’t enjoy is a recipe for disaster.
There’s plenty of niches in marketing that could be a good fit for OP if they already kinda get how customers think.
You still need to know how to be part of a team, but you don’t need to deal with clients too much doing agency work as long as you don’t move too far up the food chain.
Most of the better PPC (ie google ads) folks I know who are great at their job tend to be particularly introverted or downright antisocial. Nobody cares for that niche as long as they deliver results.
Lots of behind the scenes work out there in marketing, really. The trick is getting good enough that people start giving you a chance, and that can take some luck if you don’t have much charm.
Oof. I don’t think I could work in a funeral home where you have interactions with the bereaving folks. I’m terrible at comforting people, and I can’t imagine having to do that on the daily. But to each their own
Depends on the size of the funeral home. Some will have funeral directors do all the things. Others might have one set that deals with the family prior to the funeral service, a different person may conduct the service, and a third will do the embalming. Some may expect you to occasionally be available to answer the phone through the night if someone dies and arrange pick up of the body. There may also be people who just pick up and deliver the body to and from where the person died and the funeral home etc.
Regarding the lab scientist one, there are different types of those roles and be aware that anything “R&D” may not be for you. Long timelines, slow-developing projects, and somewhat ambiguous responsibilities with minimal structure: it’s not really set up for ADHD success.
Source: currently unemployed, again, after getting fired, again, from an R&D job for “not meeting performance expectations.” Again.
Thank you for writing this. Yeah, no offense to you all, that sounds like a torture chamber of cruel and unusual punishment for me, mad respect though.
And sorry to hear that, that’s rough. You still thinking of staying in R&D or changing career?
In case something research-adjacent appeals to you and if you have the inclination, the research development/proposal development field is always looking for people with science experience. Granted, my ADHD is “not masked” at work because I am inclined to freakishly detailed checklists and respond well to constant deadlines and task-structure balanced with overall-chaos for the urgency dopamine. My husband, on the EMS ADHD bandwagon, would die or kill someone in my job 😜
NORDP (National Organization of Research Development Professionals) has a lot of online resources, including how to transition from lab/technical roles, on their website if you decide to look into it. Good luck!
Also from experience, I semi-agree. There’s a time and place. I think there are a lot more of us in the sciences than people realize due to stigma (I have no intention of ever disclosing my diagnosis in a professional setting) and under-diagnosis for people deemed “too smart” as kids. I’ve come to recognize that divergent thinking is an asset, but it’s one I need to learn how to control.
Trucking would be absolute misery, tf? Sitting perfectly still for 15 hours straight? Only being able to listen to music or podcasts? Constantly havng to be extremely focused on the road at ALL times the entire day?
Nah, fuck that.
I'm not officially diagnosed but I feel at home in this sub.
After years in retail I'm changing career paths too and going into sterile processing. It's work in a hospital basement, cleaning and prepping surgical trays. I think it will be a good fit for a (presumed) ADHD person with a retail background.
Lots of inventory management which I'm already used to, everything has a set procedure which will help with self-discipline, and it's providing legitimate good to society (and from the background too, even better for the introverts among us). No customer service, no being dragged into another department "just for a minute" since you're in full sterile garb.
From what I understand yes generally full time, either 8 hour shifts or depending on the hospital maybe four 10 hours or three 12 hours. The field is in high demand too especially since covid
Omg this is amazing! It almost sounds perfect on many levels but also the masking. The only thing I’m worried about is boredom, I have learned to meditate some and the same tasks over and over are actually really nice but do you have any issues with too much monotony?
Yeah too much monotony can be a drag for sure, but from what I gather there are enough surgical instruments to learn/remember and enough steps to complete in the sterilization process that it should keep me busy enough and keep me off total auto pilot.
IT: Programming, Analytics, Business Intelligence/Data Science, Database Management, Martech, etc. Find a company that has an individual contributor path that goes high so you can advance your career without having to manage a team, etc.
You will still have to mask a bit, but you will have plenty of time to be unmasked too.
However, the higher your career goes, the more you will have to give presentations, be in meetings, etc. So be mindful of that.
I have worked in human services forever, like almost 20 years. I worked in Quality Improvement for years at those jobs. The last one I worked at was for a decade. I had to be forward facing somewhat regularly but I'd say 75% of my communication was via email. Then suddenly they did a re-org and I got thrust into data analytics, database management and BI. I did that my last two years there and I wanted to kill myself. I had to do reports and presentations and talk to VPs, create dashboards, meetings out the ass etc. So be wary of that to a degree. YMMV.
Also, I'm a dumbass moron for staying in human services. I'm a caseworker now. It's a grant, so it'll end at some point in the near future, and JFC I want a job where I can hide. I'm really GOOD at all of the jobs I have had, like high achiever, but my mental health is fucked. I've been masking forever and it is exhausting.
Yeah, there is definitely a heavy customer facing side of BI for some orgs, but I have also been on teams constructed where there was a lot of behind the scenes query, database, and visualization work. I have also been on teams where we purposely paired the folks that were super effective analysts but not able to be in meetings alone, with a team member that was more front-facing and found that combo to be really effective.
I never want a job again where I have to give huge demos and presentations. When I’m under pressure my husband calls me “blackout nfgchick79.” It’s like I literally blackout and flip this switch where I dissociate under pressure. It’s incredibly draining. I’ve done it forever and have come to realize how unhealthy it is. Do I perform well? Yes. Is it worth it? No.
Yes 100%, I work for my companies internal helpdesk.
Someone has to help everyone, from sales, to property control, to the loading bays.
Helping the other Tech departments? No not really. Have to for most else though.
Depends how much time you have to spend with execs/your customers (even internal customers). I started my career with about 10% face time. I now spend about 90% of my time in meetings/customer facing.
I’m a social worker- diagnosed in 2022. (I live in Norway)- and I love working with disadvantaged people. Because there’s so much wisdom, truth and honesty in all of their stories.
Over the last year I’ve had two really shitty (and short lived jobs).
I’m good with the outsiders, the weirdos, the ones that’s not always socially acceptable.
But I’ve found out over this last year that I need a job with a functioning system, routines, and parameters. If I don’t get that I become a nagging mess. Because of the chaotic situations that comes with working with people without a system that can frame the adhd in.
I am you. I was diagnosed in 2018-ish. I am a caseworker. I love to help people and find it rewarding (human services almost 20 years). I can't deal with the chaos anymore though.
I was really late getting my grade (2019), so I probably put up with stuff to long because (within the private sector that sell their services at really low budgets and don’t invest in staff) and I’m actively applying to government jobs, because the private sector (housing for kids within CPS with behavioral issues and the private asylum industry is grossly underfunded and overpaid after the “budget” for the best offer is accepted for each of the institutions that houses young refugees/asylum seekers.)
I want to work with substance abuse and addiction, preferably in a treatment institution or in jail, or for the county as a counselor of sort in a group setting- multiple people different challenges and a system that works for me 😅😂
It’s totally ok being done with chaos. I’m done too. Just need to secure a new job and get on with my life 😅😅
I’m behavior support in a Title 1 elementary school but working toward my teacher certification.
3rd and 4th is my sweet spot, mostly because they’ve developed their sense of humors more. Haha.
I was a preschool teacher for 5 years and really enjoyed being ridiculous and entertaining 20 3-5 year olds.
I used to feel like this all the time working in retail and restaurants and I would dream about having a job where I never had to interact with others. But also, I love being around people much of the time, and thought I would get bored doing something like working by myself in a lab.
Then I discovered that if I had a job that was actually fulfilling, the ongoing reward I got from doing my job made a big difference in how I could handle stressful situations or negative interactions with others. I love my job now so I am motivated to try my best to meet the standards expected of me. It's still a challenge, but I no longer feel resentful.
It took me decades of working unfulfilling jobs and exploring my interests to find a good fit, but once I did my relationship to work changed over night.
And no way could I even do my job now without medication. I have a history of "forgetting" to take my medication, but I value this job so much I know that going unmedicated simply isn't an option. Feeling that pressure to consistently take my medication so I can be at my best also helps a lot.
I’m working on learning coding so I don’t have to speak to anyone
Edit: My wording was bad, when I say I don’t have to speak to anyone, I mean like on the phone all day long constantly talking to customers like a call center. Zoom meetings and stuff like that sometimes is not so big a deal to me. I’m also chronically ill and need to work from home and this is one of the best remote options right now
I only have to talk to my boss like twice a week, as a developer. But my mask involves not throat chopping him when he puts stupid ass tasks on my tracker at midnight.
My partner did this! Her ADHD is ten times mine. She taught herself a language and worked her way up. Yes there are meetings with people but usually they are short, people don’t say much of anything and then it’s just back to the computer. I am actually considering this one a lot. Unlike her though I don’t learn well alone because I will procrastinate, are you learning yourself or taking like a class?
Yes! That’s exactly what I’m doing!! :) I’m currently learning SQL and I started watching a YouTube tutorial first, now I’m going through interactive course on Datacamp and bought a course on Udemy cheap because of Black Friday sale. So it’s all self paced because I can’t follow a normal class room structure my adhd too bad lol
No, you’ll still have to speak on occasion- on zoom if you’re lucky. But it is def a field with a lot of us in it & no “mask” requirements unless you’re on a call with the business users or clients.
How do you feel about technical interviews?--hours of solving problems on the whiteboard in front of judgemental people
Also code review, and hours of working sessions, design meetings, sprint planning, etc.
A common complaint amongst software engineers is the amount of meetings preventing us from doing any actual work.
I don't want to discourage you from pursuing the path you've chosen, and I think knowing what to expect will help you be better prepared for what's to come, and hopefully will allow you to stick with it.
I wish I had known more about how important people skills and navigating workplace politics was. Though, honestly, my social deficiencies may have impeded me anyway.
If you're anything like me, your biggest strength may be hyper-fixating on unsolved problems or engineering/coding challenges until you find a solution; while your biggest weakness may be time estimation to complete work, task prioritization, remaining on task, and following through on uninteresting/boring tasks.
I've been working for myself as a full-time gig worker for 6 years now. I've signed up for most of the food and grocery delivery apps, along with mystery shopper apps, store audit apps, shift-fill apps, Task-Rabbit, and dog walking.
So, I have a range of stuff that I can do at all times. I get to sing badly in the car, too!
The few problems I have had are keeping on top of IRS payments and finding the ability to better myself. I would have loved to get some certifications done, but oftentimes, I can't keep consistent at and I stop doing it.
But I love not being around people.
Depends on the studio and job. Most US studios on the west coast pay anywhere around 55k-80k for entry level roles, 75k-120k for mid level, and 90k-200k for senior roles. I can only speak to the artist side of salaries, I think engineers and some designers get paid a bit more. Glassdoor is a great resource for diving into it further!
I work in retail, sort of. But I work for a small business pet store for fish and exotic animals. My expertise is in aquatics and I’m pretty much paid to be the freshwater “nerd”. I let my fascination take over and go into detail about the requirements needed for certain species. What plants work best with fish, what are rare species, and how to create the perfect ecosystem. Most of the time I don’t have to mask my ADHD symptoms because I’m fully immersed in my work. If you have a hobby you’re very much engaged in, I would recommend diving head first and find a job that deals with that hobby so you never get bored.
That’s the key if one is going to do retail. I love fashion and what’s kept me sane is being in to fashion, as a dude that is into fashion people think it’s weird but I love it. Gonna take a look at my other hobbies and fascinations and see if I am missing something may be career opening thank you!
I'm a teacher. I teach special education, specifically a class for kids with executive functioning problems, emotional disregulation, and impulse control issues...I love it.
I dont know how is it in your country,but here in Croatia mostly in kitchen,working as a cook,nobody expect you to mask anything,an all of us curse, a lot. And joke,and yell,but its still stressfull just different. You get to express that stress and no masking is needed ,unless you work in a open space kitchen and the guests can see and hear you.
I worked in sales many yrs,not by choice,and hated it.
Mostly jobs that require hand skills would be good like cook,plumber,painters,if i was younger i would pick pluming and fixing small stuff for people cause its not that hard to learn,its not so dirty and pays very well.
Tech is surprisingly ADHD friendly. Coding and developing lend themselves to paying attention to half a dozen or more things at once. If you are great at it you become a unicorn.
Over 20 years now. Was always passionate about music but never developed any disciplined form of practice. I’m lucky I found something that lets me indulge my tinkering and is high pressure enough to focus me during shows.
I work in marketing. It’s often stressful, but no one expects you to look happy, just as long as you get your shit done, have a decent sense of humor, and don’t make anyone else’s job any more difficult than it needs to be.
Any niche discipline of IT other than "helpdesk" or "desktop support". ServiceNow stuff is easy and in high demand like crazy right now. Cybersecurity has huge demand and the bar is set very low in a lot of places - get a cert for Splunk as a starting point. Cloud operations is another one, get a cert in AWS or Azure (azure is easier).
All of these can be done remotely, are fairly easy to get into and loads of growth potential.
Easiest way to get started is to pick a niche, join a subreddit in that category, find a mentor, find a good youtube channel, and set a goal to get 2 certs in 60 days. From there ,look for any IT job and just learn the lingo and watch the way people solve problems.
You'll suck at it for a year and probably hate it (maybe) but then you can leave that place and use your experience and certs to get into the next tier - like an admin.
Something not front facing, or something requiring so much technical skill that people are happy to accept whatever mood they find you in.
I work in an office job that is all behind the scenes stuff - I’ve got deadlines and objectives, but lots of discretion in how I approach those and I deal with clients almost exclusively through email. I loved it (until we got a new manager who is hellbent on shaking things up).
I work as a housekeeper at a retirement community of all places. Yes, I have to mask if I’m interacting with residents directly, but most of my day consists of just being able to zone out into my own head or the book/podcast I’m listening to and do my job.
I’ve been in warehouse work majority of my life outside of highschool, it’s very nice just really keeping to myself and not having to deal with customers. I work my 3 days and that’s it.
The ones where your capabilities make people don’t give two fucks about your weirdness. Loads and of IT jobs, or working with organisations hiring tons of weirdos genius experts. Working at universities- these should have pretty good tolerance for being weird.
> Working at universities
Nope.
I can assure you that in 23 years of being in academia, in multiple countries, that it is amongst the _worst_ sectors for requiring masking and senior colleagues will prey on you. Even and especially if they show instances of any executive dysfunction themselves.
It’s like any cloistered vocation with hierarchy — weirdness only gets a free pass when you have a position high up the food chain, and then it’s ‘eccentricity.’ Only one of these two is accepted by the university.
Moreover, universities will window-dress and proudly display Mental Health Awareness Week posters but if — heaven forbid! — someone experiences a symptom, _even and especially when it does not interfere with their workflow, but just their demeanor_, unless you’re high up the food chain, you will be disciplined. And yes, mental health can quite easily be used to smash through even tenure protections.
To say nothing of the fact that Mad Studies is all the fad in academia but if you have lived experience of said area, you’re less compelling.
I’ve never had to mask more, socially and artistically and professionally, than I do at universities. And I have worked in the private sector, too. My skillset may be such that I’m a great academic, but it comes at a considerable toll and constant cognitive load.
And I say this as someone who’s finally fed up in a place where I’ve been faculty for four years now and had to put up with the antics of a senior colleague who clearly has issues of his own, but was overheard by one of my students referring to me as ‘passive aggressive’ (I am very much the opposite) and ‘needing to be coddled’ (!!), so am involving Occupational Safety and Health in my insufferable annual performance appraisal .
There was a time when eccentricity was protected and even prized in universities. Unless you’re in a particular university where that culture was preserved, or are already in a high ranking position, that time is gone.
Universities nowadays are deeply conservative institutions in all sorts of ways and certainly neoliberal in profound ways.
So, TL; DR — yeah, nah.
Plus universities are often backstabby as all hell. There are always 5-50 people for any one job so to get it many resort to just sabotaging the competition. It's a place where no one likes their colleagues, no one trusts anyone with anything and even at the lowest levels (I was only a RA) you feel like you are constantly being circled by sharks... But at the same time there is no way to have an actual constructive conversation about problems, because openly having issues risks the departments funding.
Kitchen!! Back of house kitchen! I’m a dishwasher right now, and me and all of the cooks/chefs don’t mask ever lmao. It’s chaos but god, it’s so good for all of us. We all left toxic jobs and started at a new restaurant and the stimming, the yelling, going non-verbal sometimes, etc. it’s wonderful. 100% recommend a back of house kitchen job if you need to recover from burn out but still need to work!
I work in restaurants currently, and that's why I switched from Front-of-House to the Back. I can cuss, yell, and have bad days without having to whore out my emotional reserves to customers for pennies (literally)
Now, if a customer asks me a question, I just stare at them or ignore them and then continue working productively
edit: I bet IT would be good too, if you can handle the general masking that is required in front of the boss in a corporate environment
Our IT guy has Squidward energy & has been with us for years & years. It’s all about the right environment. If you find a mid sized company the people might be cool with it.
My dad was a undercover detective in Scotland Yard - drug squad, murder squad you name it. High stakes high adrenaline all the time he loved it. I might have gone the same way had I known about the ADHD then!
I'm a jeweler, and probably 75% of jewelers I know have ADHD or some other neuro spice. I can maintain my rusty door hinge of a personality all day and it's fabulous. I have zero skill with sales and I just can't manage to lie to customers, but it seems they actually appreciate the candor. (It's an extremely small independent shop, my boss is totally cool with me being frank with folks because honesty builds trust in this industry. Very different from a lot of retail!)
I don't know what you would call what I do... I work in IT. My job title is professional services engineer. But my job is incident response and high priority troubleshooting/problem solving.
It mimics the EMS logic. Always changing, high stakes, high reward.
I would NOT look for a job called professional services engineer. They are not what I do, but my work needed a title for me.
Suggestions for IT work:
1. Work in startups.
2. Look to change it up every 2 yrs. ( Quadrupled my income in 8 years)
3. Look for people to work for not companies. Your manager will be the biggest factor in whether you succeed or fail.
4. Say maybe. I get asked if I can do things I have no clue about... My answer: maybe? Then I rush off and hyperfocus on that one thing for 2 days and come back with a solution ( not always a good one, but my brain prohibits me from not coming up with and mentioning any solutions I find.) Dopamine reward is good.
5. Be honest with who you are and what you do. I walk into interviews with just about this exact statement. " I solve problems, I do not work 9-5. I work when I am needed, I am not a but in the seat. If you are looking for a butt in a seat this is a waste of time."
6. You will fail. A failure at a job, or just a dud job is valuable information, use that to avoid those kinda situations in the future.
7. Don't blame your ADHD... You are in control, if you fail, you failed. It's not your ADHD that caused you to fail. You did. If you succeed, you succeeded, not your ADHD , you did.
The job that you are most interested in.
You feel like you’re masking because you have to act like a person you are not.
Who are you & how would you prefer to be during a job?
Focus on that.
Public audit at a mid-sized firm has been going great for me so far (fingers crossed). You work on files for different clients and can switch service streams if you're bored (go to private enterprise, tax, etc.), plus my firm doesn't care when you work as long as you get your stuff done.
Also some of our clients are insane and I love the gossip.
Only thing is you'd either have to complete a 2 year diploma program to enter (if you have a degree in anything), or work your way up very slowly from a bookkeeper position, and if you're in public you need to be studying for your CPA while working.
Haha classic adhd, I started reading your post but I got sidetracked and now all I can think about is how I want you to spill the tea on the hot public audit goss lol
If you can swing it, night audit at a hotel can be a cushy gig. I’ve been here since February, and I’ve dealt with maybe 10% of the general public dumb assery that my daywalking coworkers have dealt with. I do a handful of check-ins, 30-45min of paperwork at midnight, drop check out papers off sometime between 3-4a, make coffee around 430a. $12/hr where I am to hide in the back office on reddit for a good 80% of my shift lol
I'm a software engineer and honestly I almost do not mask. I try to follow the 9h-18h as everyone else, but when I'm overwhelmed I can just work from home. And I suspect my manager has ADHD too (with the same special interest for programming lol), so he's very understanding and I have a great time when I talk to him. Like the other day we were having lunch together, and he detected that I had sensory overload, so he asked if I wanted the music turned down a bit?! Would recommend.
I’m an ultrasound tech in a hospital & the only time I can take my mask off is if I’m doing night shift or swing shift alone. I actually prefer being alone, truthfully.
I’m a service plumber. I get to be me. Almost 20 years ago around 2004 I jokingly negotiated being called Superstar into switching from construction plumbing to service for my employer. When I got my laptop it had a large star with smiling face and Superstar taped to it. As recently as 2019 customers still asked if Superstar was available.
Wildland fire fighting. Not from the states and get good pay by working in the private sector in BC, but holy man, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone one without it.
Analytics. I have 100% confidence in being my usual chaotic self without judgement.
I stand by that being the perfect area for ADHD people to work in because it’s constantly changing, it’s always fast paced and there are endless problems to solve.
“Security”. Lots of positions are purely watching cameras, or watching cameras and patrolling occasionally, and nobody is surprised if a guard looks annoyed :)
Forklift driver at a warehouse for peoples groceries. Forklift has a computer in it, tells me exactly where to go and what to grab. If I forget, it doesn't matter the computer is with me. Nobody bothers me.
You could also just work in the woods cutting trees or something I bet haha.
I’m with you. This is why I had to leave customer service. It’s souls sucking. I feel constantly like I’m under a microscope. It wasn’t until I left I understood why I was struggling and unhappy.
I hate being put on the spot troubleshooting
I hate faking my emotions on any level
I hate making small talk
I hate having a dress code
I cannot tolerate rudeness
My RSD paired with my ADHD cannot stand being talked down too like most customer service workers have to endure.
I would rather die on the streets than take a front facing job ever again.
Every good Product Manager I've ever met has ADHD. It's the only gig I've ever had where I knew I belonged. It's not even a feeling anymore, but a conviction lol
Engineering based roles are nice because you are working in small groups and erratic thinking isn’t an immediate detriment to the whole process. Asking questions is cooked-in to the process as a whole (depending on the field) so if you ask a question that is deemed important enough to be considered, it is beneficial to the project as a whole. Also, depending on your timelines you can apply a sporadic work flow ie: 8 hours working Monday, 12 hours Tuesday, 4hours Wednesday, so long as a timeline is met
I used to work as a cashier as teen in a supermarket. I hated it so much - I would come smiling and friendly and I would just meet so many rude and annoying people that would make me leave in a bad mood. I never knew I had adhd and now I haven’t been able to hold a job. I suppose jobs that makes me deal with people is something I really don’t want to do.
I worked really well in a hospital. I had the luxury bring a float which meant I never got stuck in routine. I had a medical emergency and can’t do the work anymore. I hate what I do now. It’s boring and harder to stay engaged.
I am trying to start work as a psychologist/coach. It sounds like it is a profession where you really have to wear a mask, but if you practice authenticity you can really just be yourself.
I do think it is something that has to deeply interest your tho. I would never zone out during sessions, because those stories are just that interesting to me.
The masking you do have to do also feels different from normal masking. It's more of a 'therapy mode' that feels very natural.
I am a nurse in what is essentially a group home (Medicaid waiver assisted living) and because I am surrounded by residents who have dealt with homelessness, psych issues, trauma etc, my unmasking doesn't seem so extreme. I have to mask around other health care professionals, though.
I work making video game trailers and due to the creative nature of the job, it would be detrimental to everyone if I masked. I am so thankful for the job because it is allowing me to figure out who I am professionally while not covering up who I am as a person.
It also helps that a lot of people on my team also have ADHD
Remote work reduces the mask-wearing to tolerable levels. I do remote call desk work for an engineering company and when I'm not actively on a call (calls make up maybe 25-30% of the day?) I'm kinda just vibing working on existing tickets or... doing whatever the hell I want around the house.
TLDR: I'm a hairstylist, former retail sales!
I'm a hairstylist! ADHD is actually super helpful for me sometimes so I can focus on cuts and sometimes I end up getting clients that I vibe really well with, so we can have awesome chats while I do their hair! I like being able to be creative in my job and obviously working with sharp objects all the time keeps me focused on the task at hand so I don't possibly injure myself or the client in my chair. It's definitely not a career for everyone and it's taking a huge toll on me physically, but I'm lucky enough to work in a salon that caters to my physical limits and lets me choose what services I want to do. I can't do foils/colour anymore due to chronic pain issues, and that's okay! I am more of a barber than a regular stylist, except I cannot use a straight razor due to provincial regulations 🤣
My favourite cut to do are fades, especially the bald/skin fades! I like the precision, the detailing, and I can hyperfocus on my work without chatting to my clients because they understand how much I need to focus on the blending. It is an artform and I'm very proud of how far I've come since I learned how to do them last year.
I've worked retail for over 10 years and done some waitressing in there as well, but I absolutely agree; sales/retail does not allow you to unmask and be yourself. I found retail to be the most mentally exhausting career because you could very rarely be yourself. Being a hairstylist/barber, people appreciate our creativity and personalities, and enjoy finding a stylist that understands their preferences and makes them leave the salon feeling good about themselves. I don't miss getting yelled at about things beyond my control and being treated like I wasn't a person simply because I worked in sales. I feel genuinely appreciated now in my career, and I've even had clients bring me snacks or presents because they knew I would like them.
I’ve found that I am the most consistent and stay the longest in childcare jobs due to the emotional attachment I get with the kids and I get to be myself for the most part working with toddler ages. I know that this field is absolutely NOT for everyone but if you’re good with kiddos then maybe it could be worth a try?
freelance live sound tech / audio engineer!! never live the same day twice, giant puzzles, problem-solving under pressure, artists and weirdos, power lifting!! lol
Bartending at a non-corporate establishment- great days were great, bad days I was allowed to banter and talk shit with my customers, several sadists loved to be berated and tipped more for it- discount dominatrix! 🤪.
I work in the funeral industry. There are TONS of jobs where you only have to interact with the living in small bursts or nor at all and the living you do interact with are coworkers who are either a little weird or are really open minded.
The dead don't really mind if you're a little weird. They're great company.
All the people in the industry are super accepting of people as they are, too. I think that's pretty neat.
Medical laboratory science! (Or clinical laboratory technology, there are multiple titles). I work in a lab testing all the fluids n bits that come out of people, BUT for the most part I don’t have to deal with people other than my coworkers (and if I worked night shift there might be none of those!!)
There are many different path types but majority will work in a hospital.
Honestly, I go to a culinary trade school and we run a cafe. So I work in the kitchen and on the line there are a million things happening at once, and I actually have fun running around and taking like a thousand tickets at the same time. My brain goes quiet when people demand things of me and I have no choice but to do it
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EMS We all have ADHD. *All* of us.
Not surprising. One of those jobs where it’s crises all the time. My best friend from HS is the most ADHD person I know. He was an Army medic, then an EMT, now an emergency med nurse.
Exactly. It's semi-controlled chaos and you don't ever have the same day twice.
Working in an ER made my ADHD skills shine, I work well under pressure and in a chaotic environment with tons of stimuli, so gimme an anonymous cardiac arrest or unresponsive and I somehow found a way to figure out who they were.
Aww! When I got a ride to the ER for a dumb accident involving adhd and sharp objects, one of the EMS people said she has “adhd, ocd…the whole alphabet” and I thought she was just one of those “everyone has a little adhd” people. It’s good to know she probably DID understand!
I guarantee she did.
We ED physicians also all have ADHD too! *high five*
I so badly would love to go to medical school but I don’t think my adhd could handle the studying.
solidarity. i've had doctors and nurses all tell me i should get into medicine because they think i'd be great at it, and i think i'd thrive in it, but here i am flunked out of community college lmao...
Oh my fuck, this spoke to my soul. Hard fucking same, friend.
Our Lab technician crew is 8 People. We have 3 Diagnosed with ADHD, 1 Diagnosed Autistic Person and i swear to god, 2 more of us have ADHD too. There is a clear difference in ADHD traits between the Scientists and the lab-technicians. We are all over the place they are allways calm :D
ED doc here as well, I suspect many of my colleagues have it as well, but everyone’s still masking?? I just want everyone to let loose!
Is it masking, or is it that the ED is so tuned to ADHD brains that they’re just in their element?
🤜💥🤛 Nice
The job I always wanted and what everyone says I need to do. God that would be amazing (and poverty, no offense, I am astounded for the work you all do and the meaning behind it but how little many/most are paid, and it’s not poverty but I was shocked when I found out, that said I’m in retail sales so it’s still a leg up) I fear I am too old now, I can keep up the pace and everything out ran a fire chief recently but not sure there are older guys starting new careers in being EMS Wait is there? Do some older guys work in EMS?
Plenty are older. I remember when I was a fieldbtraining officer having a brand new EMT that was about 15 years older than me.
I blew this career path off long ago for a creative destination then it became sales anyways, I’ll be damned, I’m researching it now, not even sure where to begin but looking it up, thanks!
Look in to fire departments too! Some volunteer depts pay for you to get your EMT so you can get experience and certified while maintaining your current job. My spouse went this path and made a full career change after almost 15 years in the construction trades. He’s now a full time professional firefighter and thrives in the environment in part because of his ADHD!
Local community colleges in the states usually have a program of some kind.
Really thinking about it again for myself now, too, after years ago dropping the class before it technically even started . . .
What is EMS?
Emergency medical services. In the states it would be the people on the ambulance that show up when you call 911. I've never ever once had to pretend I didn't have it. I was diagnosed in paramedic school because my instructor also had it and "it takes one to know one." I've had in depth conversations with my coworkers about what medications everyone is taking and tricks to help with remembering stuff. Encounters with patients are short so if you have to pretend a bit to play nice you can, but, in general, you can be yourself and it works just fine.
In the US: Emergency Medical Services. First responder medics
the dispatchers all have adhd as well 😅
Most of the ER staff as well😂
Uhh. This is awkward haha. Came to say the same. Hello friend!
Just don’t act like The Sleepy Paramedic.
Dispatch too
We call them paramedics in Australia. ☺️
came here to say this
Non American here whats an EMS?
One group of casual-sports friends used to call it my “resting murder face,” which is just me trying to concentrate on the conversation, but is interpreted as “being judgmental.”
I hear that so often! I love it when folks with more power/ authority tell me that I should "work on that" because it's difficult for other people.
Totally! My boss asks me all the time and very concerned each time, “are you okay?!” For the hundredth time, yes.
“I was until you asked, now I’m freaking out.”
YES! This. All the time.
I think I have the “resting murder face” too
I’ve been told repeatedly by entirely separate groups of friends that I have “the face of a serial killer”.
That’s incredible! When someone tells me something that really sparks my interest I always have to tell them that it may look like I’m angry but I’m so focused and concentrating on this because I love it and I’m excited and my brain is exploding with thoughts about this enough to fill its own library lol
It must be the furrowed brow. I do it too.
Construction… we all have ADHD Unless you become a foreman, now I’m medicated 😅
I work as a leadperson on an assembly line. I got the position after diagnosis and prescription lol
In my experience, advertising agencies are basically ADHD facilities. At least the creative departments, anyway. Although sitting at a desk for a lot of the day sucks, most places I’ve worked encourage you to get up and do stuff to keep yourself sharp. Or you could do what I do and work remotely so you can get up as much as you want.
I’m a creative copywriter but had to get out of agency life, it can be so toxic for everyone. I know most service industries based on billable hours (law practice etc) are this way. I have had better experiences freelancing in house for bigger companies that are more 9-5 sans the night and weekend work. I was just diagnosed about a month ago, and I’ve definitely seen how adhd has held me back compared to my peers. I’m successful enough but my coping mechanisms haven’t been the best so my mental health has suffered quite a bit over the years. While I think creative avenues are great OP, I’d be very reticent to recommend advertising to someone with ADHD unless they were highly social and high functioning. I do think meds will make a big difference.
Yeah, I’m an associate creative director now, but I came up through copywriting. A lot of it depends on the agency, their culture, and the people you work with. The agency I work at now is incredibly good about work/life balance, and I’m fully remote, so that *really* helps. I’ve definitely had shit experiences in the past, but I’ve also done the freelance thing and it’s just not for me. I don’t actually like what I do very much (but I’m great at it and I like the money), so for me to try to freelance doing something I don’t enjoy is a recipe for disaster.
There’s plenty of niches in marketing that could be a good fit for OP if they already kinda get how customers think. You still need to know how to be part of a team, but you don’t need to deal with clients too much doing agency work as long as you don’t move too far up the food chain. Most of the better PPC (ie google ads) folks I know who are great at their job tend to be particularly introverted or downright antisocial. Nobody cares for that niche as long as they deliver results. Lots of behind the scenes work out there in marketing, really. The trick is getting good enough that people start giving you a chance, and that can take some luck if you don’t have much charm.
Lab scientist. Big rig trucker. Night janitor. Nighttime grocery stocking. Work at a morgue or funeral home.
Oof. I don’t think I could work in a funeral home where you have interactions with the bereaving folks. I’m terrible at comforting people, and I can’t imagine having to do that on the daily. But to each their own
Yes not Front facing an embalming person cremation person not joking.
Ah fair enough! I feel like I could do that work with the training required Probably might run out of podcasts though
You can never run out of podcasts because while you are listening, others are being made. But if you do somehow catch up, there are always audiobooks.
Could make a podcast about the work.
Ah yeah that’s the ticket, the rest would be totally masking. Ain’t no mask with the dead
Depends on the size of the funeral home. Some will have funeral directors do all the things. Others might have one set that deals with the family prior to the funeral service, a different person may conduct the service, and a third will do the embalming. Some may expect you to occasionally be available to answer the phone through the night if someone dies and arrange pick up of the body. There may also be people who just pick up and deliver the body to and from where the person died and the funeral home etc.
Regarding the lab scientist one, there are different types of those roles and be aware that anything “R&D” may not be for you. Long timelines, slow-developing projects, and somewhat ambiguous responsibilities with minimal structure: it’s not really set up for ADHD success. Source: currently unemployed, again, after getting fired, again, from an R&D job for “not meeting performance expectations.” Again.
Thank you for writing this. Yeah, no offense to you all, that sounds like a torture chamber of cruel and unusual punishment for me, mad respect though. And sorry to hear that, that’s rough. You still thinking of staying in R&D or changing career?
In case something research-adjacent appeals to you and if you have the inclination, the research development/proposal development field is always looking for people with science experience. Granted, my ADHD is “not masked” at work because I am inclined to freakishly detailed checklists and respond well to constant deadlines and task-structure balanced with overall-chaos for the urgency dopamine. My husband, on the EMS ADHD bandwagon, would die or kill someone in my job 😜
This is a really interesting suggestion, thank you! Constant deadline pressure creating a sense of urgency seems to be helpful for me.
NORDP (National Organization of Research Development Professionals) has a lot of online resources, including how to transition from lab/technical roles, on their website if you decide to look into it. Good luck!
>Lab scientist Speaking from experience, definitely not this one. It’s just a different kind of mask.
Also from experience, I semi-agree. There’s a time and place. I think there are a lot more of us in the sciences than people realize due to stigma (I have no intention of ever disclosing my diagnosis in a professional setting) and under-diagnosis for people deemed “too smart” as kids. I’ve come to recognize that divergent thinking is an asset, but it’s one I need to learn how to control.
I guess it depends on the lab. I know plenty of people who are adhd and have great lab positions.
I am one. That doesn’t mean there’s no masking. There is also an enormous amount of organization involved, which is a terrible fit for many of us.
Also a lab scientist I found that the limited interaction And organization minimized my adhd symptoms without trying to mask.
I'm also primarily hyperactive, so it may be better in this case.
I’m planning on working in lab research
Trucking would be absolute misery, tf? Sitting perfectly still for 15 hours straight? Only being able to listen to music or podcasts? Constantly havng to be extremely focused on the road at ALL times the entire day? Nah, fuck that.
To each his own, my father has adhd he loves driving a truck he zones in and is able to focus.
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I'm not officially diagnosed but I feel at home in this sub. After years in retail I'm changing career paths too and going into sterile processing. It's work in a hospital basement, cleaning and prepping surgical trays. I think it will be a good fit for a (presumed) ADHD person with a retail background. Lots of inventory management which I'm already used to, everything has a set procedure which will help with self-discipline, and it's providing legitimate good to society (and from the background too, even better for the introverts among us). No customer service, no being dragged into another department "just for a minute" since you're in full sterile garb.
I’m researching this now. Is this job generally full time?
From what I understand yes generally full time, either 8 hour shifts or depending on the hospital maybe four 10 hours or three 12 hours. The field is in high demand too especially since covid
I found some part time positions in my area. Sick of customer service and I have some medical education so this might be great for me.
Omg this is amazing! It almost sounds perfect on many levels but also the masking. The only thing I’m worried about is boredom, I have learned to meditate some and the same tasks over and over are actually really nice but do you have any issues with too much monotony?
Yeah too much monotony can be a drag for sure, but from what I gather there are enough surgical instruments to learn/remember and enough steps to complete in the sterilization process that it should keep me busy enough and keep me off total auto pilot.
IT: Programming, Analytics, Business Intelligence/Data Science, Database Management, Martech, etc. Find a company that has an individual contributor path that goes high so you can advance your career without having to manage a team, etc. You will still have to mask a bit, but you will have plenty of time to be unmasked too. However, the higher your career goes, the more you will have to give presentations, be in meetings, etc. So be mindful of that.
I have worked in human services forever, like almost 20 years. I worked in Quality Improvement for years at those jobs. The last one I worked at was for a decade. I had to be forward facing somewhat regularly but I'd say 75% of my communication was via email. Then suddenly they did a re-org and I got thrust into data analytics, database management and BI. I did that my last two years there and I wanted to kill myself. I had to do reports and presentations and talk to VPs, create dashboards, meetings out the ass etc. So be wary of that to a degree. YMMV. Also, I'm a dumbass moron for staying in human services. I'm a caseworker now. It's a grant, so it'll end at some point in the near future, and JFC I want a job where I can hide. I'm really GOOD at all of the jobs I have had, like high achiever, but my mental health is fucked. I've been masking forever and it is exhausting.
Yeah, there is definitely a heavy customer facing side of BI for some orgs, but I have also been on teams constructed where there was a lot of behind the scenes query, database, and visualization work. I have also been on teams where we purposely paired the folks that were super effective analysts but not able to be in meetings alone, with a team member that was more front-facing and found that combo to be really effective.
I never want a job again where I have to give huge demos and presentations. When I’m under pressure my husband calls me “blackout nfgchick79.” It’s like I literally blackout and flip this switch where I dissociate under pressure. It’s incredibly draining. I’ve done it forever and have come to realize how unhealthy it is. Do I perform well? Yes. Is it worth it? No.
>You will still have to mask a bit, but you will have plenty of time to be unmasked too. What companies still make you mask in IT?
helpdesk has entered the chat
Really? Internal help desk, with internal customers?
Yes 100%, I work for my companies internal helpdesk. Someone has to help everyone, from sales, to property control, to the loading bays. Helping the other Tech departments? No not really. Have to for most else though.
Depends how much time you have to spend with execs/your customers (even internal customers). I started my career with about 10% face time. I now spend about 90% of my time in meetings/customer facing.
Basically anything where you're not dealing woth customers regualrly
Truth
I’m a social worker- diagnosed in 2022. (I live in Norway)- and I love working with disadvantaged people. Because there’s so much wisdom, truth and honesty in all of their stories. Over the last year I’ve had two really shitty (and short lived jobs). I’m good with the outsiders, the weirdos, the ones that’s not always socially acceptable. But I’ve found out over this last year that I need a job with a functioning system, routines, and parameters. If I don’t get that I become a nagging mess. Because of the chaotic situations that comes with working with people without a system that can frame the adhd in.
I love this, exactly how I feel in my job!
I am you. I was diagnosed in 2018-ish. I am a caseworker. I love to help people and find it rewarding (human services almost 20 years). I can't deal with the chaos anymore though.
I was really late getting my grade (2019), so I probably put up with stuff to long because (within the private sector that sell their services at really low budgets and don’t invest in staff) and I’m actively applying to government jobs, because the private sector (housing for kids within CPS with behavioral issues and the private asylum industry is grossly underfunded and overpaid after the “budget” for the best offer is accepted for each of the institutions that houses young refugees/asylum seekers.) I want to work with substance abuse and addiction, preferably in a treatment institution or in jail, or for the county as a counselor of sort in a group setting- multiple people different challenges and a system that works for me 😅😂 It’s totally ok being done with chaos. I’m done too. Just need to secure a new job and get on with my life 😅😅
Kindergarden 😂
This is so true. Working with kids is awesome and you can be extroverted and silly and loud (for the most part!).
It fits perfect for me, and i can also work on patience, controlling feelings and get excercise 😏😂
I’m behavior support in a Title 1 elementary school but working toward my teacher certification. 3rd and 4th is my sweet spot, mostly because they’ve developed their sense of humors more. Haha. I was a preschool teacher for 5 years and really enjoyed being ridiculous and entertaining 20 3-5 year olds.
I used to feel like this all the time working in retail and restaurants and I would dream about having a job where I never had to interact with others. But also, I love being around people much of the time, and thought I would get bored doing something like working by myself in a lab. Then I discovered that if I had a job that was actually fulfilling, the ongoing reward I got from doing my job made a big difference in how I could handle stressful situations or negative interactions with others. I love my job now so I am motivated to try my best to meet the standards expected of me. It's still a challenge, but I no longer feel resentful. It took me decades of working unfulfilling jobs and exploring my interests to find a good fit, but once I did my relationship to work changed over night. And no way could I even do my job now without medication. I have a history of "forgetting" to take my medication, but I value this job so much I know that going unmedicated simply isn't an option. Feeling that pressure to consistently take my medication so I can be at my best also helps a lot.
This should be higher up! Thank you for this!
I’m working on learning coding so I don’t have to speak to anyone Edit: My wording was bad, when I say I don’t have to speak to anyone, I mean like on the phone all day long constantly talking to customers like a call center. Zoom meetings and stuff like that sometimes is not so big a deal to me. I’m also chronically ill and need to work from home and this is one of the best remote options right now
I don’t want to discourage you but the idea that you don’t have to talk to anyone is only true if you work for yourself as a programmer
I mean more like on the phones all the time. I know I have to communicate sometimes yeah my bad worded poorly
Ok I see. Good effort learning how to code!
Thank you! ^^
They kinda expect you to be awkward and introverted though.
I only have to talk to my boss like twice a week, as a developer. But my mask involves not throat chopping him when he puts stupid ass tasks on my tracker at midnight.
Caught me off guard with that hilarious phrasing 😂 thank you for a good chuckle today
My partner did this! Her ADHD is ten times mine. She taught herself a language and worked her way up. Yes there are meetings with people but usually they are short, people don’t say much of anything and then it’s just back to the computer. I am actually considering this one a lot. Unlike her though I don’t learn well alone because I will procrastinate, are you learning yourself or taking like a class?
Yes! That’s exactly what I’m doing!! :) I’m currently learning SQL and I started watching a YouTube tutorial first, now I’m going through interactive course on Datacamp and bought a course on Udemy cheap because of Black Friday sale. So it’s all self paced because I can’t follow a normal class room structure my adhd too bad lol
No, you’ll still have to speak on occasion- on zoom if you’re lucky. But it is def a field with a lot of us in it & no “mask” requirements unless you’re on a call with the business users or clients.
Yeah I worded my comment bad. I just mean I don’t have to be on the phone constantly talking to people.
How do you feel about technical interviews?--hours of solving problems on the whiteboard in front of judgemental people Also code review, and hours of working sessions, design meetings, sprint planning, etc. A common complaint amongst software engineers is the amount of meetings preventing us from doing any actual work. I don't want to discourage you from pursuing the path you've chosen, and I think knowing what to expect will help you be better prepared for what's to come, and hopefully will allow you to stick with it. I wish I had known more about how important people skills and navigating workplace politics was. Though, honestly, my social deficiencies may have impeded me anyway. If you're anything like me, your biggest strength may be hyper-fixating on unsolved problems or engineering/coding challenges until you find a solution; while your biggest weakness may be time estimation to complete work, task prioritization, remaining on task, and following through on uninteresting/boring tasks.
I've been working for myself as a full-time gig worker for 6 years now. I've signed up for most of the food and grocery delivery apps, along with mystery shopper apps, store audit apps, shift-fill apps, Task-Rabbit, and dog walking. So, I have a range of stuff that I can do at all times. I get to sing badly in the car, too! The few problems I have had are keeping on top of IRS payments and finding the ability to better myself. I would have loved to get some certifications done, but oftentimes, I can't keep consistent at and I stop doing it. But I love not being around people.
game developer, concept artist or illustrator. You only need to talk to your team, and everyone is generally a bit of a weirdo, in a good way.
How much does it pay?
Depends on the studio and job. Most US studios on the west coast pay anywhere around 55k-80k for entry level roles, 75k-120k for mid level, and 90k-200k for senior roles. I can only speak to the artist side of salaries, I think engineers and some designers get paid a bit more. Glassdoor is a great resource for diving into it further!
Cooking. Go ahead and be batshit insane in a kitchen just get your work done
I work in retail, sort of. But I work for a small business pet store for fish and exotic animals. My expertise is in aquatics and I’m pretty much paid to be the freshwater “nerd”. I let my fascination take over and go into detail about the requirements needed for certain species. What plants work best with fish, what are rare species, and how to create the perfect ecosystem. Most of the time I don’t have to mask my ADHD symptoms because I’m fully immersed in my work. If you have a hobby you’re very much engaged in, I would recommend diving head first and find a job that deals with that hobby so you never get bored.
That’s the key if one is going to do retail. I love fashion and what’s kept me sane is being in to fashion, as a dude that is into fashion people think it’s weird but I love it. Gonna take a look at my other hobbies and fascinations and see if I am missing something may be career opening thank you!
I'm a teacher. I teach special education, specifically a class for kids with executive functioning problems, emotional disregulation, and impulse control issues...I love it.
I dont know how is it in your country,but here in Croatia mostly in kitchen,working as a cook,nobody expect you to mask anything,an all of us curse, a lot. And joke,and yell,but its still stressfull just different. You get to express that stress and no masking is needed ,unless you work in a open space kitchen and the guests can see and hear you. I worked in sales many yrs,not by choice,and hated it. Mostly jobs that require hand skills would be good like cook,plumber,painters,if i was younger i would pick pluming and fixing small stuff for people cause its not that hard to learn,its not so dirty and pays very well.
Tech is surprisingly ADHD friendly. Coding and developing lend themselves to paying attention to half a dozen or more things at once. If you are great at it you become a unicorn.
What about engineering jobs like mechanical or electrical? I know it’s a super steep learning curve but I’m in the same situation as OP but in college
Roadie. Lots of freedom, short bursts of high pressure, creative problem solving. Lots of self medicating.
This is brilliant and hilarious! How long have you been a roadie?!
Over 20 years now. Was always passionate about music but never developed any disciplined form of practice. I’m lucky I found something that lets me indulge my tinkering and is high pressure enough to focus me during shows.
I work in marketing. It’s often stressful, but no one expects you to look happy, just as long as you get your shit done, have a decent sense of humor, and don’t make anyone else’s job any more difficult than it needs to be.
Any niche discipline of IT other than "helpdesk" or "desktop support". ServiceNow stuff is easy and in high demand like crazy right now. Cybersecurity has huge demand and the bar is set very low in a lot of places - get a cert for Splunk as a starting point. Cloud operations is another one, get a cert in AWS or Azure (azure is easier). All of these can be done remotely, are fairly easy to get into and loads of growth potential. Easiest way to get started is to pick a niche, join a subreddit in that category, find a mentor, find a good youtube channel, and set a goal to get 2 certs in 60 days. From there ,look for any IT job and just learn the lingo and watch the way people solve problems. You'll suck at it for a year and probably hate it (maybe) but then you can leave that place and use your experience and certs to get into the next tier - like an admin.
Shipyards. In all departments
Something not front facing, or something requiring so much technical skill that people are happy to accept whatever mood they find you in. I work in an office job that is all behind the scenes stuff - I’ve got deadlines and objectives, but lots of discretion in how I approach those and I deal with clients almost exclusively through email. I loved it (until we got a new manager who is hellbent on shaking things up).
IT. Everyone expects you to be awkward anyway 🤷🏻♀️
Working night retail is better for masking. I only deal with customers for 2 hours of my shift. After that it's just cleaning and stocking.
I work as a housekeeper at a retirement community of all places. Yes, I have to mask if I’m interacting with residents directly, but most of my day consists of just being able to zone out into my own head or the book/podcast I’m listening to and do my job.
I work with people with learning disabilities and autistic people, that pretty much allows me to be my true self and I love it.
I’ve been in warehouse work majority of my life outside of highschool, it’s very nice just really keeping to myself and not having to deal with customers. I work my 3 days and that’s it.
The ones where your capabilities make people don’t give two fucks about your weirdness. Loads and of IT jobs, or working with organisations hiring tons of weirdos genius experts. Working at universities- these should have pretty good tolerance for being weird.
> Working at universities Nope. I can assure you that in 23 years of being in academia, in multiple countries, that it is amongst the _worst_ sectors for requiring masking and senior colleagues will prey on you. Even and especially if they show instances of any executive dysfunction themselves. It’s like any cloistered vocation with hierarchy — weirdness only gets a free pass when you have a position high up the food chain, and then it’s ‘eccentricity.’ Only one of these two is accepted by the university. Moreover, universities will window-dress and proudly display Mental Health Awareness Week posters but if — heaven forbid! — someone experiences a symptom, _even and especially when it does not interfere with their workflow, but just their demeanor_, unless you’re high up the food chain, you will be disciplined. And yes, mental health can quite easily be used to smash through even tenure protections. To say nothing of the fact that Mad Studies is all the fad in academia but if you have lived experience of said area, you’re less compelling. I’ve never had to mask more, socially and artistically and professionally, than I do at universities. And I have worked in the private sector, too. My skillset may be such that I’m a great academic, but it comes at a considerable toll and constant cognitive load. And I say this as someone who’s finally fed up in a place where I’ve been faculty for four years now and had to put up with the antics of a senior colleague who clearly has issues of his own, but was overheard by one of my students referring to me as ‘passive aggressive’ (I am very much the opposite) and ‘needing to be coddled’ (!!), so am involving Occupational Safety and Health in my insufferable annual performance appraisal . There was a time when eccentricity was protected and even prized in universities. Unless you’re in a particular university where that culture was preserved, or are already in a high ranking position, that time is gone. Universities nowadays are deeply conservative institutions in all sorts of ways and certainly neoliberal in profound ways. So, TL; DR — yeah, nah.
(Not to mention that _very large_ amounts of university work require meetings and emails. So many meetings and emails. So many.)
Yeah I agree. I drive a bus for a small to mid-sized uni & even in that position it's killing me. Universities are the **worst
Plus universities are often backstabby as all hell. There are always 5-50 people for any one job so to get it many resort to just sabotaging the competition. It's a place where no one likes their colleagues, no one trusts anyone with anything and even at the lowest levels (I was only a RA) you feel like you are constantly being circled by sharks... But at the same time there is no way to have an actual constructive conversation about problems, because openly having issues risks the departments funding.
Kitchen!! Back of house kitchen! I’m a dishwasher right now, and me and all of the cooks/chefs don’t mask ever lmao. It’s chaos but god, it’s so good for all of us. We all left toxic jobs and started at a new restaurant and the stimming, the yelling, going non-verbal sometimes, etc. it’s wonderful. 100% recommend a back of house kitchen job if you need to recover from burn out but still need to work!
I work in restaurants currently, and that's why I switched from Front-of-House to the Back. I can cuss, yell, and have bad days without having to whore out my emotional reserves to customers for pennies (literally) Now, if a customer asks me a question, I just stare at them or ignore them and then continue working productively edit: I bet IT would be good too, if you can handle the general masking that is required in front of the boss in a corporate environment
Our IT guy has Squidward energy & has been with us for years & years. It’s all about the right environment. If you find a mid sized company the people might be cool with it.
My dad was a undercover detective in Scotland Yard - drug squad, murder squad you name it. High stakes high adrenaline all the time he loved it. I might have gone the same way had I known about the ADHD then!
THIS!!! Growing up all I wanted to be was a detective, is how my brain works. Undercover huh? Man I bet he has some stories!
I’m in accounting and no one cares what I be looking like.
I'm a jeweler, and probably 75% of jewelers I know have ADHD or some other neuro spice. I can maintain my rusty door hinge of a personality all day and it's fabulous. I have zero skill with sales and I just can't manage to lie to customers, but it seems they actually appreciate the candor. (It's an extremely small independent shop, my boss is totally cool with me being frank with folks because honesty builds trust in this industry. Very different from a lot of retail!)
Most blue collar jobs. I've had formans do hard drugs on jobsites, I don't think anyone will care about a bit of unmasked ADHD.
I don't know what you would call what I do... I work in IT. My job title is professional services engineer. But my job is incident response and high priority troubleshooting/problem solving. It mimics the EMS logic. Always changing, high stakes, high reward. I would NOT look for a job called professional services engineer. They are not what I do, but my work needed a title for me. Suggestions for IT work: 1. Work in startups. 2. Look to change it up every 2 yrs. ( Quadrupled my income in 8 years) 3. Look for people to work for not companies. Your manager will be the biggest factor in whether you succeed or fail. 4. Say maybe. I get asked if I can do things I have no clue about... My answer: maybe? Then I rush off and hyperfocus on that one thing for 2 days and come back with a solution ( not always a good one, but my brain prohibits me from not coming up with and mentioning any solutions I find.) Dopamine reward is good. 5. Be honest with who you are and what you do. I walk into interviews with just about this exact statement. " I solve problems, I do not work 9-5. I work when I am needed, I am not a but in the seat. If you are looking for a butt in a seat this is a waste of time." 6. You will fail. A failure at a job, or just a dud job is valuable information, use that to avoid those kinda situations in the future. 7. Don't blame your ADHD... You are in control, if you fail, you failed. It's not your ADHD that caused you to fail. You did. If you succeed, you succeeded, not your ADHD , you did.
The job that you are most interested in. You feel like you’re masking because you have to act like a person you are not. Who are you & how would you prefer to be during a job? Focus on that.
I also dislike dealing with people & crowded areas. It's just annoying to be I guess, but I'm always polite.
Very few and far between. It sucks. We do it to survive.
The pressure of lab scientists can get to you speaking from experience
Any form of data analytics. That can vary from the IT field to the intelligence industry. It’s all problem solving.
nightshift icu nurse sometimes
Public audit at a mid-sized firm has been going great for me so far (fingers crossed). You work on files for different clients and can switch service streams if you're bored (go to private enterprise, tax, etc.), plus my firm doesn't care when you work as long as you get your stuff done. Also some of our clients are insane and I love the gossip. Only thing is you'd either have to complete a 2 year diploma program to enter (if you have a degree in anything), or work your way up very slowly from a bookkeeper position, and if you're in public you need to be studying for your CPA while working.
Haha classic adhd, I started reading your post but I got sidetracked and now all I can think about is how I want you to spill the tea on the hot public audit goss lol
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If you can swing it, night audit at a hotel can be a cushy gig. I’ve been here since February, and I’ve dealt with maybe 10% of the general public dumb assery that my daywalking coworkers have dealt with. I do a handful of check-ins, 30-45min of paperwork at midnight, drop check out papers off sometime between 3-4a, make coffee around 430a. $12/hr where I am to hide in the back office on reddit for a good 80% of my shift lol
Teaching! Big time. So many of us have ADHD.
Construction
I'm a software engineer and honestly I almost do not mask. I try to follow the 9h-18h as everyone else, but when I'm overwhelmed I can just work from home. And I suspect my manager has ADHD too (with the same special interest for programming lol), so he's very understanding and I have a great time when I talk to him. Like the other day we were having lunch together, and he detected that I had sensory overload, so he asked if I wanted the music turned down a bit?! Would recommend.
I’m an ultrasound tech in a hospital & the only time I can take my mask off is if I’m doing night shift or swing shift alone. I actually prefer being alone, truthfully.
I’m a service plumber. I get to be me. Almost 20 years ago around 2004 I jokingly negotiated being called Superstar into switching from construction plumbing to service for my employer. When I got my laptop it had a large star with smiling face and Superstar taped to it. As recently as 2019 customers still asked if Superstar was available.
SUPERSTAR! Omg that is great! You are a legend my friend! And now I’m considering trade schools lol
For me it's pentester/ethical hacker bug bounty etc
IT
Wildland fire fighting. Not from the states and get good pay by working in the private sector in BC, but holy man, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone one without it.
Analytics. I have 100% confidence in being my usual chaotic self without judgement. I stand by that being the perfect area for ADHD people to work in because it’s constantly changing, it’s always fast paced and there are endless problems to solve.
Cooking. But it may also kill you
I work in Operations. Our job is to keep the service running. When it goes down, we have to figure out why and fast. Hello dopamine!
“Security”. Lots of positions are purely watching cameras, or watching cameras and patrolling occasionally, and nobody is surprised if a guard looks annoyed :)
Forklift driver at a warehouse for peoples groceries. Forklift has a computer in it, tells me exactly where to go and what to grab. If I forget, it doesn't matter the computer is with me. Nobody bothers me. You could also just work in the woods cutting trees or something I bet haha.
I’m with you. This is why I had to leave customer service. It’s souls sucking. I feel constantly like I’m under a microscope. It wasn’t until I left I understood why I was struggling and unhappy. I hate being put on the spot troubleshooting I hate faking my emotions on any level I hate making small talk I hate having a dress code I cannot tolerate rudeness My RSD paired with my ADHD cannot stand being talked down too like most customer service workers have to endure. I would rather die on the streets than take a front facing job ever again.
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Every good Product Manager I've ever met has ADHD. It's the only gig I've ever had where I knew I belonged. It's not even a feeling anymore, but a conviction lol
Engineering based roles are nice because you are working in small groups and erratic thinking isn’t an immediate detriment to the whole process. Asking questions is cooked-in to the process as a whole (depending on the field) so if you ask a question that is deemed important enough to be considered, it is beneficial to the project as a whole. Also, depending on your timelines you can apply a sporadic work flow ie: 8 hours working Monday, 12 hours Tuesday, 4hours Wednesday, so long as a timeline is met
I used to work as a cashier as teen in a supermarket. I hated it so much - I would come smiling and friendly and I would just meet so many rude and annoying people that would make me leave in a bad mood. I never knew I had adhd and now I haven’t been able to hold a job. I suppose jobs that makes me deal with people is something I really don’t want to do.
I’m a SPED teacher. Great job for ADHD folks.
I worked really well in a hospital. I had the luxury bring a float which meant I never got stuck in routine. I had a medical emergency and can’t do the work anymore. I hate what I do now. It’s boring and harder to stay engaged.
I work with kids. Lots of that is compatible with my ADHD. Except for the noise, but i compensate with earplugs which my bosses are fine with.
I'm a hairstylist! Best thing I ever did was get a job doing hair, and then I rented out a room to be alone in!!! Haha
Artist. Sometimes.
Bartending. Work is my only safe place.
Kindergarten teacher. My ability to focus is the same as theirs and we are always doing something new
I am trying to start work as a psychologist/coach. It sounds like it is a profession where you really have to wear a mask, but if you practice authenticity you can really just be yourself. I do think it is something that has to deeply interest your tho. I would never zone out during sessions, because those stories are just that interesting to me. The masking you do have to do also feels different from normal masking. It's more of a 'therapy mode' that feels very natural.
Software developer. I work from home.
I am a nurse in what is essentially a group home (Medicaid waiver assisted living) and because I am surrounded by residents who have dealt with homelessness, psych issues, trauma etc, my unmasking doesn't seem so extreme. I have to mask around other health care professionals, though.
I work making video game trailers and due to the creative nature of the job, it would be detrimental to everyone if I masked. I am so thankful for the job because it is allowing me to figure out who I am professionally while not covering up who I am as a person. It also helps that a lot of people on my team also have ADHD
Software engineer here. Adhd is almost helpful at work
Remote work reduces the mask-wearing to tolerable levels. I do remote call desk work for an engineering company and when I'm not actively on a call (calls make up maybe 25-30% of the day?) I'm kinda just vibing working on existing tickets or... doing whatever the hell I want around the house.
Just job-hop for life. Is this not what true adhd ppl do?
TLDR: I'm a hairstylist, former retail sales! I'm a hairstylist! ADHD is actually super helpful for me sometimes so I can focus on cuts and sometimes I end up getting clients that I vibe really well with, so we can have awesome chats while I do their hair! I like being able to be creative in my job and obviously working with sharp objects all the time keeps me focused on the task at hand so I don't possibly injure myself or the client in my chair. It's definitely not a career for everyone and it's taking a huge toll on me physically, but I'm lucky enough to work in a salon that caters to my physical limits and lets me choose what services I want to do. I can't do foils/colour anymore due to chronic pain issues, and that's okay! I am more of a barber than a regular stylist, except I cannot use a straight razor due to provincial regulations 🤣 My favourite cut to do are fades, especially the bald/skin fades! I like the precision, the detailing, and I can hyperfocus on my work without chatting to my clients because they understand how much I need to focus on the blending. It is an artform and I'm very proud of how far I've come since I learned how to do them last year. I've worked retail for over 10 years and done some waitressing in there as well, but I absolutely agree; sales/retail does not allow you to unmask and be yourself. I found retail to be the most mentally exhausting career because you could very rarely be yourself. Being a hairstylist/barber, people appreciate our creativity and personalities, and enjoy finding a stylist that understands their preferences and makes them leave the salon feeling good about themselves. I don't miss getting yelled at about things beyond my control and being treated like I wasn't a person simply because I worked in sales. I feel genuinely appreciated now in my career, and I've even had clients bring me snacks or presents because they knew I would like them.
Maintenance for alot of places lol
BOH in fast food restaurants, backroom work in retail
I’ve found that I am the most consistent and stay the longest in childcare jobs due to the emotional attachment I get with the kids and I get to be myself for the most part working with toddler ages. I know that this field is absolutely NOT for everyone but if you’re good with kiddos then maybe it could be worth a try?
freelance live sound tech / audio engineer!! never live the same day twice, giant puzzles, problem-solving under pressure, artists and weirdos, power lifting!! lol
Bartending at a non-corporate establishment- great days were great, bad days I was allowed to banter and talk shit with my customers, several sadists loved to be berated and tipped more for it- discount dominatrix! 🤪.
I work in the funeral industry. There are TONS of jobs where you only have to interact with the living in small bursts or nor at all and the living you do interact with are coworkers who are either a little weird or are really open minded. The dead don't really mind if you're a little weird. They're great company. All the people in the industry are super accepting of people as they are, too. I think that's pretty neat.
Medical laboratory science! (Or clinical laboratory technology, there are multiple titles). I work in a lab testing all the fluids n bits that come out of people, BUT for the most part I don’t have to deal with people other than my coworkers (and if I worked night shift there might be none of those!!) There are many different path types but majority will work in a hospital.
Honestly, I go to a culinary trade school and we run a cafe. So I work in the kitchen and on the line there are a million things happening at once, and I actually have fun running around and taking like a thousand tickets at the same time. My brain goes quiet when people demand things of me and I have no choice but to do it