Many older teens and emerging adults struggle with figuring out what profession to pursue. You may feel pressure to earn a certain amount of money or find a career with a particular status. But this may not be the best approach.
Of course, you need to consider your salary and your opportunities in a given field. But it’s more useful at the beginning of this process if you can zoom out and consider what you actually like to do.
Given that many people with ADHD wrestle with staying focused and engaged in activities that don’t interest them, reflecting on what captivates you before thinking about other aspects of a career points you in a direction of real possibilities. If you don’t like a subject or task, there may not be much longevity in that career for you.
Start by asking yourself these questions:
Once you have some answers, it’s time to reflect on your executive functioning strengths and challenges. There are several work-related challenges for people with ADHD.
First, time management, related to the common ADHD issue of time blindness, can be a real struggle. It’s tough to arrive at meetings or events promptly, to meet deadlines, and to estimate correctly how long something will take.
Second, focus may be a stumbling block. Distractibility and being able to direct the spotlight of your attention to sustain concentration on a tedious or less-than-compelling task will affect your ability to complete things.
Last, supervisors want to see productivity and consistent performance. When you struggle with impulse control, organization, wandering attention, or prioritizing, you're more apt to become easily overwhelmed or procrastinate. It’s harder to order the tasks in front of you and decide what’s most important to accomplish.
Getting the support you need to shore up your executive functioning challenges is a key step towards finding and sticking with a career that fits your ADHD brain. In fact, research has shown a link between job control (what you do and how you do it) and social........