Need Help | ADHD Information

For me, I am restless in parts of my career. I have been in my career going on my 17th year and have kept it interesting by moving up the promotion ladder and relocating every 2 to 3 years. I am a Deputy Fire Management Officer in Wildland Fire Management!!!

I am definitely successful in the part of my job that is the instant gratification part of emergency management. I think fast on my feet in a pinch and my brain works best that way!!! The part of my job that is the most challenging for me is the budgeting, filing, paperwork, and MEETINGS!!! I am in a leadership role with the agency I work with and have learned to delegate tasks to folks that have the mind for the paperwork part!!! On fires, I lead anywhere from 20 to thousands of folks through the Incident Mgmt System process we use.

Prior to getting on medication for adhd - I was challenged in parts of my job!!!

The medication I take has helped my hyperness and my mind is able to focus on the tasks at hand much better - I make less mistakes in the paperwork and budget part and have actually come up with a color coded filing system that works for me!!! I am now so organized that I find I have become much more efficient and am able to start following up on some ideas of improvements that our agency needs to institute!!

I think any job for an adhd'er can have its challenges - but, if you are going to make a switch - make sure it is something you are passionate about (if you have that choice). Good luck and I am glad that you found the support you need!!

I was recently diagnosed with having AD/HD. With the right medication and an excellent support team life is so much brighter.

There is however something I need help with. Career advice. Before you move onto a different message please continue. Even if you think you are the last person to offer someone career advice you may have an answer to the question I am about to pose.

My wife, doc and shrink tell me I have been successful up to the point in my life (I'm 40).

I have served in the military, have worked in the music industry, the computer industry, and became a high school teacher. Still like many of us with AD/HD I was restless in all of these professions.

Lately with the right medication, I have been able to better focus. I have started reading like crazy to discover my true strengths to find what it is I can truly provide in this world.

Today everything hit me like a ton of bricks:

-I am a problem solver.

-I love seeking out information and using it to solve problems.

-I love providing answers to other people.

-The hunter in me craves new challenges in problem solving and providing
solutions for other people.

Here is where I need your help.

I would like to hear from others who can relate to my hunter/problem solver mentality. What careers are you in? Do you work for other people on an independent basis or for a company? Do you know someone who has this same skill set/personality?

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Have you thought about the health care industry? All the thing you listed were parts of my job as a Registered Nurse. However, there are lots of other health related fields--medicine, physical therapy, pathology, social work, researcher, etc. Some make more than others :)

Great advice ra!!

Health care is a wonderful and helpful career track - you get to do something that is valuable to society and people and you also can get a job where you must use many of our skills. I thought much about going into medicine as a teen and have pondered going back to school sometime for either biochemistry or psychology.

In high school I also remember those silly aptitude tests and mine said I was suited for only ONE career - cytologist. Sounded great until I looked up the description. Ugh - cancer all day sounds very un-me. Otherwise a great career LOL.

All of your replies have been really helpful. John I am curious as to the actual title of your position. Your job sounds right up my alley. I have always wanted to work with/or be able to provide information to others.

I have similar "hunter/problem solver" leanings. I have a policy job at the state government level...dealing with issues as diverse as taxation, natural resource protection, building codes...you name it!! I'm very lucky because I get to use my adhd brain to see possibilities quickly that others might not, and have others to help follow through when the exciting problem solving is over and the drudgery of implementing the solution follows. I also get called on to help respond to issues raised by others--problems, questions, what-have-you...(everyone is always looking to the state for help!) which provides nice opportunities for me to explore new topic areas.

Welcome Troy!

Sounds like you successfully negotiated the rapids of work failure that often sink us with ADHD. I have had like yourself very diverse jobs that for me go from fire fighting, owning a computer company and now I make potato chips.

I find that you can be happy at any job as long as you can find some part of it that you can focus on that you feel you do better than the average person. If you can take pride in your work you could be whatever you want to be.

I'm 39 so I know that at this point in life you begin to look at the "big picture" more and ask yourself if this life is where you want to be.

I find that I changed my focus in life to the micro and let the macro handle itself for most of the time. I work to live not live to work now. I let my personal life hit the curb often over the last 20 plus years and now I focus towards that part.

Many with ADHD find happiness in places where our life view comes in handy. We see things often that others don't. Jobs as diverse as forensic accountant to lab technician are good as they require good analysis skills and the ability to keep a fresh view on what you are looking at.

Self employment I found hard as you must handle all of the details and if you tend to wobble on things like bill paying and commitments it can fail fast. I couldn't do it before but on meds it would be much easier I think.

[QUOTE=GlenW]

[/QUOTE] LOL my came up Circus trainer and Librarian!Mine came up Gov't Worker

I would have killed to switch the cytologist for a government worker - or heck even a sewage system controller! I just felt that looking at cancer all day would have been the most depressing job around. Well telling the people would have been worse but not by much!

I had been crossing my fingers and hoping for astronaut or something exciting. My friends got police, fireman - you know "normal' jobs. Mine was that single word that got me down.

I have been pondering taking that aptitude test as an adult and seeing what it says. Canada's employment agency has a free aptitude test in order to evaluate newly unemployed people and might go down and take it for giggles.

If it says cytologist again I may just not tempt the fates...

ugh

Troy, I have several job titles...one is the "legislative contact" for my Department, which means I'm the one who tracks all the bills of interest each legislative session and works with staff on bills that may need to go before the legislature and the Governor for consideration. When the Legislature is out of town, I put on my other hat as "Project Development Coordinator" which gets me involved in initiating projects for the Office. In the public sector, there are zillions of different job titles--all with a variety of roles and responsibilities.

If you consider a pubic sector job, my advice would be to look at smaller agencies that specialize in areas/topics where you either have interest or familiarity. Try to find one where your skills, energy and insight can be useful to them and challenging and rewarding to you.

I'm 50, with similar strengths.

I'm semi-retired, self employed as an agronomic researcher, contributing significantly to the green revolution (on the par with diesel tractors, synthetic fertilizers, and modern pest control: I work with PGR's).

I'm a volunteer EMT, saving lives for the fun of it, w/o pay. My pay is the adrenalin rush and the challenge of executing an efficient solution. I'm in search of the Perfect Rescue.

I also have an artistic side that I'm developing that was discovered hidden within society's suppression of my ADHD. I have created my Mona Lisa, and am looking for my Iwo Jima...

So, I feed the world, save lives, and create revelations.

Oh, and smythe words...

Welcome to the world of the diagnosed.

Who says we suffer?

Good luck!