People living with ADHD have strengths and weaknesses that may differ from those without ADHD. When it comes to a career path, the difficulties associated with ADHD may present a challenge. However, these difficulties can be reframed when taking a deeper look at the strengths associated with ADHD and allowing anyone to successfully move forward in their career path.
By taking a look at their strengths and natural abilities, adults with ADHD may discover the perfect career. Finding support through therapy can help a person magnify their strengths to find the best job to work with their abilities.
Levels of ADHD range in severity, but one of the known challenges of ADHD is school and work trouble. It is up to each individual to find what works and what path is the right fit.
Perhaps, with the proper support, learning to navigate ADHD could lead to the perfect career. ADHD is extremely common. According to The Anxiety and Depression Institute of America, 60% of adults have ADHD. That is 4% of the population, and it is common with both men and women.
Symptoms of ADHD are including, but not limited to, low concentration, forgetfulness, difficulty completing tasks, boredom, carelessness, being easily distracted, impulsive behavior, anger issues, mood swings, and procrastination. These symptoms, according to CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), are dependent on the individual. All of these symptoms will vary in degree with each person. In general, people with ADHD have some degree of difficulty with each one of these symptoms.
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Examples of certain issues at work may show up as the inability to remember auditory directions, may forget appointments, make careless mistakes that affect the workplace, and even change jobs frequently due to boredom or getting fired. These are possible tendencies and not inevitable circumstances. With proper tools and support, individuals with ADHD have been known to find great success.
Success becomes greater when a person focuses on their strengths and learns how to optimize these strengths. There are many strengths associated with ADHD. These strengths can show up as certain personality traits that are perfect in certain fields. Focusing on these strengths may present a new outlook for anyone with ADHD who is exploring or even struggling with finding a career path.
ADHD Jobs And Passion
Anyone with ADHD can learn the tools necessary to navigate life in ways that may help to place them in the perfect career for their personality. The most important aspect of finding the right career for a person who lives with ADHD is to find what that person is passionate about. The focus will show up when the passion is present.
Interviews conducted with people who have ADHD, such as those found in cdc.gov, support the evidence that those with ADHD perform better when doing something they love. This alone can make for a great employee or business owner.
When passion is found in a certain field, and these positive traits come forth, how may success transform? It is up to the individual to find what they are passionate about and learn how to apply it to a career path. There are many options for support in this journey of finding ADHD jobs. Utilizing this support, such as finding a specialized counselor, can help direct the individual in achieving their career goals while living a fulfilling life that they love. ADHD will present challenges, but identifying a person’s strengths to apply those to their passions will bring them a long way.
Strengths Of ADHD And The Perfect ADHD Jobs
Studies have been conducted with ADHD to recognize the strengths associated with the disorder. Based on a range of studies reported through linkspringer.com, there is a conclusion that navigating ADHD has everything to do with the way the disorder is framed.
Take a look at some of the strengths associated with ADHD and how they can be applied to certain career fields and ADHD jobs.
Hyperfocus
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People with ADHD tend to experience hyper-focus. What is hyper-focus? Hyper-focus is the state of being intensely focused on something so much that the person's environment is often tuned out. In certain scenarios, this can be a pitfall. However, in the workplace, a hyper-focused individual can be a great asset.
The key is to have the individual working in a career that interests them. Once an individual with ADHD is engaged, their hyper-focus intent can go a long way to produce amazing results.
ADHD jobs for hyper-focused individuals include, but are not limited to, scientists, researchers, project managers, graphic designers, artists, and software developers.
Spontaneity
Spontaneity is a very common trait among those with ADHD and can be applied to certain careers as an advantage. This is a trait not easily won by everyone in the general population. Someone spontaneous tends to go with the flow, responds easily to change, and can come up with ideas off the top of their head. ADHD jobs that benefit from spontaneous personality traits include school teachers, first responders, travel guides, and many creatives.
High Energy
According to the CDC, most adults lose the hyperactive part of being ADHD as they age. However, this does not mean that they have less energy.They just know where to put their energy. People with ADHD tend to have high energy, which is great for keeping up with a group of co-workers on a busy schedule. ADHD jobs for those who like to exude this energy would include athletic trainers, kindergarten and preschool teachers, hiking guides, camp counselors, restaurant owners, and any other job that requires movement or working many hours in a day.
Ability To Multitask
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Those individuals who multitask well know who they are. Their friends and family know who they are too. Multitaskers are busy. They tend to fall into the category of ADHD. Being able to do many tasks at once is a skill set. ADHD jobs for these multitaskers include personal assistants, secretaries, creatives, social media influencers, teachers, professors, and CEOs.
Willing To Take a Risk
ADHD individuals are often less afraid to take risks. This could have something to do with a spontaneous personality or a less fearful relationship to failure. In any case, someone who is willing to take a risk is likely to follow their passions and do what it takes to get there. This is a great trait for entrepreneurs. The research reported through an article on entrepreneur.com states that people with ADHD may make better entrepreneurs. Some ADHD entrepreneurs in an interview stated that they feel happier, creating their schedule, and not dealing with pressure from somebody else.
Being an entrepreneur requires the willingness to take a risk, and an ADHD individual certainly benefits from doing things their way. Risk-takers with ADHD also do well in the art scene, which often leads to entrepreneurship.
Conversational Skills
People with ADHD tend to be thinkers. Many love to share their ideas and to verbalize what’s in their head. These individuals usually have great conversational skills. They have an abundance of ideas. Most of these people have sparkling personalities and love to keep up a good conversation. ADHD jobs for this skill set can include customer service, sales, public relations, counselors, and therapists. ADHD individuals especially make great counselors and therapists, as they easily empathize with others.
Persistence
This is another quality that makes ADHD individuals great entrepreneurs, but persistence is a quality valued in a lot of positions. Persistence is the act of never giving up. Anyone who works in the arts knows persistence, and the artistic field is a great home for someone with ADHD. Actors, photographers, dancers, comedians, and athletes are all careers that require an extreme amount of persistence. Being hyper-focused on their dreams, people who live with ADHD will persist.
Meeting The Needs Of An ADHD Individual
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People with ADHD benefit from knowing what their needs are and asking for support. Medication may be needed, but it is not always necessary. A certified therapist can help with these questions. Knowing a person’s strengths and weaknesses can help a person gain navigational tools for this disorder. The person must learn how to navigate the weaknesses while learning how to utilize their strengths.
Challenges for people with ADHD are variable. When challenges are identified, the person’s needs are also identified. Knowing the needs of an individual will help greatly in learning navigational skills for ADHD. Navigational skills may include asking for visual cues, taking extra steps to become better organized, learning what fuels their passion, and learning how to follow their passions.
A counselor or therapist may help with mental navigational skills. One example would be helping the person tap into their imagination and visualize an image to help process a large chunk of verbal information. Mental health professionals are very good at this. Regardless, learning to navigate the challenges and re-focusing on the strengths will help a person pave their way to success.
Many adults assume they have ADHD, but they go undiagnosed. Living with ADHD can be a challenge, but it does not mean that it needs to hold anyone back from living a fulfilling life. Anyone who identifies with the symptoms associated with ADHD can access a test online. If you would like to find out if you have ADHD, check out this online test.
