Moments of panic all through Monday and Tuesday as you check again which day this is, and confirm that you haven't somehow missed the Wednesday morning appointment.
I’m also finding it a bit overwhelming but liking the community here so far. I rarely commented on Reddit but feel inspired here to support the posts I see.
I’m testing the Memmy app (for iOS) and slowly adding new communities as I find them.
I’m fed up with Reddit and it’s kind of exciting to be part of something new.
I feel like that still sometimes. I hope that I will achieve my education goals and maybe build up some working friendships. Mostly I have to learn to engage with people and not drift away if they are not talking about something I find interesting.
To give a concrete example of a job* where you're doing all the things all the time (at least in my experience) is office manager at a start up company. It doesn't sound glorious, but it's super varied!
I currently do, among things I'll forget to mention :
invoicing and payments
basic accounting
hr
day to day office running (making sure we have supplies, watering the plants, organising lunch, answering operational questions)
set up and maintain the company knowledge database and teach people how to use it
same for client database
event planning (fairs, team building, company parties)
organise courses and learnings
research
agenda keeping for the CEO
man the phone
random things that you can't really pin down like remind people to clean their desk (we don't have a cleaning service), run to the supermarket because it's hot and the boss is buying us ice cream, give info to new employees moving to the country on where to buy the best coffee)
It's never boring and also not stressful (for me, I thrive on organising thing).
*I don't know if this is a career. Personally I just want to go to work, work, go home and get paid to have money to do the things I like. I don't need fancy new title or promotions that come with more responsibilities and stress.
A few people have mentioned this, but it's worth reiterating: take advantage of your strongest skills and focus on a career that keeps things interesting. I work as an analyst (data and reporting), and I get paid to solve problems and dig deep into unique projects where the major structure of my tasks are defined around me. My job description is nebulous, and that's how I like it. It means I don't get bored. I thrive when I can hyperfocus on novelty, and there's always something new to explore and learn at my job.
As folks with ADHD, our constant cycling of interests tends to make us a jack of all trades, master of none. That is absolutely a marketable trait, and not only in the field of data analytics (though based on your interests you might do really well in it). I don't think passion is necessary in a day job, though it helps. I believe the more important thing is finding an environment where you'll never be bored.
I also want to add, there's no pressure to pick the right path the first time around. In fact, I think having a wide variety of experiences in life can be an asset. Heck, I have a wildlife science degree and experience with seabird research. While I'm glad I had those experiences, and my passion for wildlife is still as strong, I'm not certain that's the best path for my career right now. Maybe that'll change, but it's okay to not have it figured out, especially in our 20's.
I absolutely consider ADHD to be a disability for me, but I'm always having to remind myself of the strengths I have because of, or maybe in spite of it.
I have been there. More jobs than years on the planet. Dozens of hobbies and interests picked up and put down. Four changes of majors in college. It was frustrating and exhausting.
And then this miraculous thing happened: all of that knowledge and all of those skills coalesced into what I needed to build my own business. Each thing I picked up along the way I needed to learn and had no better way to learn them.
That six weeks of fascination with photography gave me the skills to do my own product photography. Eight weeks of obsession with graphic design made my website beautiful. The two week rabbit hole I went down on light and lighting became the basis of my whole business. Each area of study for the four attempts over 19 years it took to get my degree gives me a huge advantage over my competitors that only understand one subject. Two tax seasons of tax preparation prepared me for handling my own taxes. Retail work gave me the skills in purchasing and planning. Customer service is the single most useful skill set I have ever acquired.
I really could go on, but I am now boring myself. My personal goal for my life was to set up a way to support myself while accepting and accommodating my neurodivergence. It took me a long time to gather all of the knowledge I needed to achieve that, but damn when it all came together it was awesome.
My point is that nothing you are doing, or have done, is a waste. It all adds up. It is all useful. It will all add up into something worthwhile. Hell, you would do really well selling hobbyist stuff. You have familiarity with so many different kinds of hobbies and interests you could assemble an amazing storefront.
Therapy was a great help in framing in my brain what I wanted to get out of a job. I then started looking at fields that are constantly changing and evolving as well as ones where there would be a fair amount of research and learning. Tech, medical, marketing, journalism, etc
Day to day style jobs didn’t work for me. Essentially doing the same thing everyday was like pulling teeth.
I landed in tech/marketing and my day to day tasks are so varied and the digital marketing field has so many options for what you can focus(or not) on that it keeps me changing, learning, and researching. With all that, at the end of the day I don’t love my job… but it pays for my hobbies.
I'm not sure if this is an answer as much as reassurance but I have the same issue as you. However, I'm luckily in a job I like. It's not because of the actual job. It's just a desk job where I fill out forms and maybe make some phone calls and do some money movement requests.
But I like it because of the people I work with. My boss treats me like a human. It's a small office (5 people including me and boss). My co-workers are nice. And it just has a good vibe. I never get stressed because we can always fix everything. That's the motto my boss has.
And before that, I worked at Walmart. Honestly. It was mixed. I really liked a few of my coworkers. We really got along and it really helped me enjoy going to work. But also I would have stress at night that I might have forgotten to wipe crumbs off one table which would be cause for write up after a couple times.
Its not like I planned for any of those. They just kinda happened. I'm not passionately writing programs or creating art/logos with lots of love or stuff like that. But I do feel fulfilled because I can do that stuff on my time off. And it doesn't matter that my hobby changes every month since it's my hobby and not something tied to my employment.
And if you do get a job where you're actually miserable at, don't be afraid to move. Some people I've seen seem to think you can only change jobs if you're fired or let go. But you can always look around until you find a place that works for you.
I've changed careers. Started out in health care, now I'm working in energy. Now I'm learning coding on the side.
Get a STEM degree like mechanical engineering or physics or math. Then you can just move into different careers as your interests change. Do you know how many varying jobs have those degree prereqs? You can do all sorts of different stuff.
Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters had an extremely varied career. Look him up.
Having a KnowledgeBase as vast as you with all sorts of different experiences will be extremely valuable to the right company.
You didn't mention if you were taking medication. Are you? Might help as well.
Instead of looking at yourself, for what you enjoy, perhaps look at a career that benefits from how you are wired. I would encourage you to look at the start up world, where learning new things on behalf of the team that you’re in is how you all win. Solving problems is super fun, and changes constantly. Good luck!
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