As some with ADHD, my interest fluantuats wildly. How does an average person choose a job thats suppose to be for life and not worry about loss of interest, let alone some with ADHD.
Most people don’t love their job.
That was not the question, though.
If you are going to be a disposable slave, you want to be the highest paid disposable slave.
Just pick something that pays well and stay focused. It takes decade or more to get it done.
Flop flopping is not a viable strategy. This is a long game and you have 1 shot to get it done.
Alternative is crushing poverty
stay focused
😅
Yeah, you know. They’re very intelligent, they just need to apply themselves.
👿
I’m looking for a second non-career (slave) job to do to fill in gaps when I can’t find a job in my career. Can you think of any slave jobs where you can progress in the skill to be paid better?
That all depends on your local market, ie job access
Practically hard to advise. But white collar is played for now.
It seems blue collar where is some demand but anything with prospects there would essentially require a switch and getting some sort of apprenticeship type set up which is also aint that easy but more viable than office
Hmm true. I was thinking of something artisian like being a cook/chef where even though you just use it as a plan B, you gain tangible skill the longer you do it to fill said gaps
Brutal work though and very hard to break out
True. Idk any other ideas?
I had several careers doing vastly different jobs - both white and blue collars - in seven countries. I can tell you what I did to land my jobs, but bear in mind that I’m close to retirement, so what I did back then may not work anymore, as the job market was probably more more open when I started out.
I basically applied for jobs being brutally honest about what I could and couldn’t do, about my flaws and my strenghs. For instance, one of the things I always said during job interviews was that I’m terminally lazy, and that’s why they should hire me because I will work long hours to put something in place that will allow me to not do something repetitive more than once. Turns out, this line was both true and the thing that sold my application for most of my employers.
Also, when I changed jobs completely - for example when I went from computer programmer to CAD designer - I applied for a job at small companies that didn’t necessarily have the money to pay seasoned engineers and told them I was a fast learner, and proposed a big pay cut for 6 months until I proved that I could do the new job I had no experience in. A few key employers took a chance on me, allowing me to change career. And of course, once I had experience doing whatever new thing I set out to do, I could apply for another job in that field and claim experience.
Finally, I did not hesitate to find employers abroad. If I saw a company I liked that offered a job in another country, I applied, flew over to the interview, and if my application was selected, I relocated. I did that 6 times. It’s not for everybody, but if you’re mobile - or extremely mobile in my case - it increases your chances to find your dream job.
Of course, as the years passed, I accumulated quite a resume with an eclectic variety of jobs I held, and places I lived, and my resume spoke more and more for myself as a proof that I could do all those things, so I had less and less trouble finding jobs with employers that knew just by reading my resume that I can adapt to anything.
Would this work today? Maybe. I know the job market is a lot rougher than when I graduated. So don’t necessarily take what I did as something to follow verbatim today. But maybe some of the things I did would work for you too…
I took the first job I could get, and then when I was tired of that I took the next first job I could get.
This was me. New job every year, eventually stretching to every two years. Bonus is getting a pay rise each time.
I was very lucky. I got my diagnosis at age 44, right when I started figuring out I was good at identifying and resolving process gaps. With meds, I found out I was really good at it, as well as rapidly understanding very complex processes, and being able to explain them to different parties. Suddenly I oversee a bunch of data architects and software engineers who do file ingestion and data analysis. And without me, they function like a squabbling kindergarten, if they function at all.
Money, job security, affinity. So now I’m in Business Intelligence.
Looked up which were the highest paying jobs for people not inheriting wealth or social connections. Realized the field was oil & gas and the highest job was Petroleum Engineer, took Chemical Engineering because of its wide applicability, accepted I’d be working in the boonies for at least a decade of my life, made it work.
5/10. Wouldn’t recommend for the loneliness.
Took apart a computer that I didn’t own… said “oh shit, I gotta put this back together and make sure it works!”. Put it back together, it worked. 30+ years later… I work in the computer industry.
Separate what makes you money and your ability to support yourself from what makes your life worth living. Two massively different concepts!
Good luck!!
I guess I kind of got lucky.
I always liked computers, and I like solving problems. Got hired as a database administrator for a small research center in a large university.
I’ve changed jobs a couple times over the years (decades, actually). As it turns out, computer nerds who like to solve problems are valuable, and I’ve been generally left alone to solve problems ever since.
Current leadership team doesn’t want to solve problems or work more efficiently now because if you depend on one person to make the team more efficient, and that one person leaves, you’ll have to hire someone to replace him.
So instead, you just hire 10 people for the same pay to do the extra work they have to do when you don’t have someone making everything easier.
Oh well.
Wanted to be an officer in Navy. Ended up enlisted, in the engineering department as a mechanic. Got out and use those skills to fix ships as a civilian. Have had a couple other jobs outside of marine repair, but currently working in a ship repair facility.
How I chose:
Look up something I love deeply on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and then go to that most applicable job, then look at jobs that are related in some way and rabbit holed until something made a comfortable amount of money but also seemed interesting enough.
Then I don’t burn out on my passions and have a good paying job that’s cool enough
I found I could not make enough money in the profession I chose that I had a passion for and my interest also fluctuates wildly. I went into tech for better pay (at the time). Tech jobs very often do not last and I do not compromise on pay for anything I have done before but will for roles where I will be working with something new. Thats a bit tough in a time like now where the places are asking for the moon and paying minimally but anyway given the way tech is you can find yourself working with new things.
Something that fits your skills while only being somewhat soul sucking.
I took this one simple quiz online. Can’t remember where I found it though.
Money and stability.
Except I cant get a job that offers that either.
I tried a bunch of different things, mostly in the trades / trade adjacent work (welding, wood working, etc) and really liked it, but I have incredibly unsteady hands so just didn’t do well in the job I did land.
Planned to go the engineering route in college, but then discovered I had a knack with computers. Don’t particularly enjoy it (I do HATE the office work aspect) but it just makes sense to me while not making any sense to most. So found I could make money with my skills and just stuck in that lane.
I’d say it comes down to finding something you can tolerate and have reasonable promise at skill wise and that pays the bills.
