People With ADHD Are Sharing The Jobs They Actually Love Doing And It's Super Eye-Opening
Reddit user dosentmatterreally recently asked, "What jobs should someone with ADHD pursue?" and the answers are super insightful.
Note: ADHD affects everyone differently, and what works for one person might not work for another.
Here are the top-voted responses:
1."I work in a 24-hour TV newsroom, and it's great because last-minute deadlines are very common. I took a break from news to work in a nonprofit for a couple of years, and it really didn't work out. When I went back to the newsroom, I realized it really was where I belonged."
"This! Tight deadlines are essential in my experience of living with ADHD. Loose deadlines mean it ain't getting done. Immediate consequences are essential to success. If you tell me to get something done in two weeks, it will be put off and at best completed five minutes before the deadline. Hence, why jobs that are fast-paced work well for me. Some ADHD folk tend to be good in stressful, high-pressure environments where there are multiple things going on. But bear in mind that ADHD is multifaceted, and not everyone's experience is the same."
2."I'm a librarian at a public library. During librarian masters training you learn about classification of information, which is highly rewarding if you like to hyperfocus, and then, working with the public, you spend part of the day on your feet buzzing from one patron to another to help them. I help with various tasks like assisting with technology, finding books that would appeal to them, even performing during story time or helping kids with craft projects."
3."Personally I work as a nurse and found out that emergency care works for me. You have a fast tempo and a team of colleagues that have your back. Find something that is interesting to you and where you can use your ADHD as a strength."
"Being able to do 30 things at once while listening to the conversation behind you is a very useful nursing skill."
"Best job ever. You're always moving, assisting nurses and doctors, no two cases are the same, and you learn so much. It’s an ADHD wonderland, and there’s always something to do. I draw blood. I do EKGs. I participate in emergencies/traumas."
4."I work as a tour guide, and I find it fascinating. You're always on the move."
5."Weirdly enough, I've done well with customer service and tech support. For me, I'm taking 20–30 calls a day and constantly answering emails and chats from both customers and coworkers. I'm always switching between tasks, and I can resolve most issues within about 20 minutes or less. I work from home, so I can step away for a moment if I need to as well."
"Same here! I did extremely well in this environment and got promoted several times. I found that my ADHD was a virtue and allowed me to simultaneously complete several tasks with relative ease and excitement. I now make well into the six figures, and it was all because I started in tech support and really enjoyed the percolation of issues in rapid succession."
6."Pharmacy compounding (preparing custom medications for patients) is a fiddly, tedious job where you have to pay very close attention to doing everything right or else a patient will lose an eyeball to infection or something. I'm ADHD as hell and...I'm great at it! I like complicated fiddly tasks because they actually occupy my brain so I can't distract myself with my internal monologue. For simpler tasks, I use Bluetooth earbuds, and I can listen to music or a podcast while I work. I make $22.50 an hour, and I don't have student loans. It rules."
7."I work at a plant nursery, so it’s a blend of selling plants, caring for plants, propagating them, gardening work, and general maintenance. I really enjoy it, and I think it’s a perfect fit for my ADHD. Sure there are some tedious tasks, endless watering and weeding, but even that can be meditative, and every day has a new problem to solve, or mystery to unravel, or new project to plan. The only issue is the money isn’t great."
8."Any busy service job. I love the constantly changing customer needs because they keep my attention. However, if you also have anger issues, it may still get tough (speaking from experience as someone with ADHD who worked at Burger King)."
9."Bartender here, and definitely agree. I'm rarely ever bored, always switching tasks, and have to work under high pressure. You're totally right about the anger issue part. I have definitely learned a lot of patience!"
"I'm the opposite. I can't handle a customer service job. There's just too much sensory overload for me and my ADHD. I also go mute in stressful situations. It really goes to show that ADHD is a personal experience."
10."I teach special education. I like it because you have to think on your feet and react quickly to situations that are always changing. You never know what to expect."
11."I'm going to culinary school, and now I’m saving up money to move to France. I want to cook in a high stakes and high pressure environment. Because of my ADHD, I somehow seem to thrive in extremely stressful environments."
12."I’m a mechanic with ADHD, and I’m the top producer at my company, by like, double. I treated it like an asset and learned to make it work for me. I have systems set up to make myself remember what I need to and habits formed around focus times and when people can talk to me. I’ve been so successful in this that my company is paying me to train other techs in my methods."
13."I worked as an EMT for a long time. People with ADHD often do well under pressure! Even though it's extremely difficult for me to succeed in medical school compared to most of my friends because of my ADHD, I've been persevering because it's something I've always wanted to accomplish."
"Ah, I once said to my mother, 'I work well under pressure,' and she quickly replied, 'You ONLY work under pressure!'"
14."Being a service technician for a water and sewer contractor has probably been the most enjoyable. You always have to come up with solutions on the fly and travel to different jobs and areas every day. Doing the same thing for 10–12 hours a day would drive me up the wall."
15."I work in the restaurant industry. This is what I tell people when they ask how the job is: 'I thrive in chaos, and I enjoy it.' I started at 14 working at the family restaurant, and every time I try something else, I just get bored."
16."I'm a photographer and run my own small business. Here are the things I like: I'm my own boss, I set the hours, I work when and where I'm feeling it, and I can step back when I'm not. If I wanna go answer my emails outside on my deck or from my bed I can, and if I wanna go play video games for two hours midday, as long as I don't have a client or a call scheduled, I can usually do that (though I will have to make that time up later)."
"I like that each photography shoot is its own little project with a start and a finish. I can also gauge how I did on each session by looking at the final sale amount; it's a concrete number. It has a nice established work flow, but I still get to be a little creative. And when I hyper-fixate on a new idea, I can implement it quickly."
"But there are for sure some annoying things too: I also have to be my own boss. Sometimes the me makes me work late, and she's also a perfectionist so she has high expectations. I also have to be my own marketing division, my own IT expert, my own data analyst, and my own social media manager. And when something goes wrong, it's always my fault. There's no one else to shift the blame, and it can be really hard when you make a mistake and there's no one else to help pick up the pieces."
17."Firefighting and being a first-responder. The adrenaline rush gets insane. It’s the only time I get tunnel vision for a task at hand."
18."A job in physical therapy! I’m constantly moving and performing many different skills throughout the day. There are different entry levels, so almost any level of education can work in a clinic."
19."I've been working at a cat shelter for the last four years. Working with animals honestly is a great thing if you love them, and it leads to having a different type of day every day. One day, you get to snuggle a batch of kittens. Another day, you have to calm down the angry cat. Another day, you're getting through the woes of putting a cat down for medical reasons. It's never the same, which makes every day worth coming back."
20."After ER nursing for five years, I’ve started doing it as a travel nurse, and it’s PERFECT. Fast pace, purpose, and novelty without staying anywhere long enough to start dreading it. Highly recommend to all my fellow ADHD emergency med peeps."
21."Hairdressing is a good one. I love constantly learning new ways of doing hair more efficiently, and there are hundreds of different styles and color combinations to try out. You're almost always busy doing something, whether it’s doing hair, folding towels, answering calls, scheduling clients, or cleaning."
22."I've had good success in IT. There are new challenges every day. Finding the fix for the different issues is rewarding for me and gives me that dopamine rush, but if I can't get something to work I'll be stuck on it until I get it working."
23."I have ADHD, and I’m in beer sales. I get in front of people all day. I do lots of work emails and driving around. It’s different every day and has surprises."
24."I am a lawyer with ADHD. I can think of about 10 people from my graduating class off the top of my head that also have ADHD and are all practicing attorneys now. A few of my friends from when I was a teenager are medical doctors now and have ADHD. Another friend is a university librarian with ADHD. It really boils down to what you find interesting and challenging. I could probably work a data-entry job or something similar and make a decent living, but I think I would lose my mind with the monotony, and it would exacerbate my symptoms. In law, things move quickly, your plate is always full, and the dynamic aspect of the field makes it really engrossing in a way that mitigates my ADHD by keeping my brain working and problem solving."
"Really, like most things, it comes down to what your personality is. Are you introverted? Extroverted? Are you a morning person? Night owl? Once you figure out who you are, it gets a lot easier to start filtering out jobs based around your personality, and that's how you end up with a job as suited to you as you are to it."
And finally...
25."I love my job as a clothing retail store worker! The cash register is fun, running around grabbing stuff from the changing rooms and putting them away, chatting with people who come in, etc. Truthfully it's like a game to me, and I really enjoy it."
Do you have ADHD, and have you found a job you love? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
