Entering the World of Work

The transition from the structured world of education to a more free-form world of work can be a difficult time for people with ADHD. It certainly was for me: I felt lost and overwhelmed, not knowing what to do, how to start or which direction to go it. My ADHD symptoms of procrastination and inability to self-motivate became strong and a real challenge to overcome.

The way I first delat with it was by running away from it - I got myself back into education for a year. And when that finished, the cycle started again. This time I did the next-best thing to going into education and became a teacher, English language for foreign students here in Oxford.

It would take me many years of struggling with the idea of what I should do as a job, many sidetracks and diversions along the way, and I'm still not sure I've found the answer. What I do want to do is share my experience in different fields and explain why they were suited or not to having ADHD so that others can learn from this and hopefully not make the mistakes I did. Please bear in mind, ADHD manifests differently for different people, so what comes below may be different for you. If so, let us know in the comments how you found it and manage it.

Teaching
I taught English as a foreign language a few times in my career to both children and adults, and I enjoyed it.
Is it good for people with ADHD? Yes! You live by structure and routine, which really helps ADHD symptoms. You also have tight deadlines for which you must be ready and prepared; this too is useful and a spur to motivate some people with ADHD, forcing focus and task completion. The constant change, dealing with new situations and new people frequently kept my ADHD brain happy. Teaching is also an altruistic profession - you are helping others; altruistic acts are shown to have a positive effect on overall mental wellbeing, so you may feel better as a whole for being a teacher.

Editorial Work
For almost a year, I took work as an editor at a journal, proof reading and editing articles, writing short pieces and constructing the magazine's website. I love writing and producing text, so I thought it'd be a great opportunity - I was wrong.
Is it good for people with ADHD? Yes - IF you are able to hyperfocus on text and errors in it. I am not, so it took me a huge mental effort to concentrate and find faults in the thousands and thousands of words I had to read each week. Interacting with a limited group of people all the time and doing the same task repeptitively was not good for my engagement or focus either. I found I couldn't do it, errors slipped through, resulting in criticism and negativity from my (very) neurotypical bosses. I took this criticism and lack of support badly, and it made the workplace toxic for me, so I had to quit.

Charity Work
Wanting to do something for the greater good, I worked at a charity for a while in a general office role supporting the CEO and other senior managers.
Was it good for people with ADHD? Yes and no: I was engaging with a wider group of people and doing something good. However, there wasn't tight deadline pressure to help me overcome my procrastination and I had to make big efforts to motivate myself. The usual pattern of mistakes occurred in important documents and criticism was levelled; though people were much more understanding than the editors and publishers I'd worked with previously. In the end, the variety of work and mental challenge wasn't great enough, and I had to look elsewhere before I became disengaged.

This is just the beginning: there will be more articles on work coming up soon. Check back here to find out more.

People with ADHD are more likely to be unemployed than neurotypicals, and more likely to earn less too, so this is an important subject to address and mitigate. So please share your experience in the comments and share this article if you have found it useful.