Asking for the most basic accommodations- clear expectations, clear directions, (exploratory data analysis, many unknowns, few knowns) reasonable deadlines, clear asks, re-evaluation of the deadline when the ask develops into something more complex or time consuming (lean/agile, scrum, sprint cycle based PM)

I simply get let go.

out of work now, going on 2.5 quarters… job market flooded with NT’s (seems like) and there’s just no room for us ND’s.

Sure, i’m good at what i do; typically accomplish 50-60 hrs of work in 35; but no one cares when you don’t have a portfolio (confidential/proprietary work), when you can’t get through a boot camp (instructor says “google it”, and i end up having to code review and correct both english and coding language for a boot camp where i went specifically to learn the [programming] language) and assignments, that from a developers perspective apply non of the data engineering or software development principles).

Meanwhile- google and 98% of all instruction sets are missing steps. Or it just assumes too much. Or my learning disability is keeping me from being able to get through the “sticky” parts.

Sticky brain… ya, that’s a thing.

Then there’s dealing with people. Sure, i’ve got 30+ years in customer service- but we’re not talking about the same customers from 30 years ago.

the english language has been commandeered and usurped by whatever and whomever feels like it.
there’s no rule book for what words are good to use, and what words are bad to use.

keeping it strictly professional doesn’t work either. it exposes the ND. makes us look rude, or cold, or un friendly. How to work on a team as an ND?

and how to deal with the small-talk-chit-chat-sports-weather asinine topics that don’t actually contribute to the diminishing of my work load?

All this to say…

while it’s “nice” to hear organizations are becoming more accommodating to the ND community, i won’t believe it till i see it.
and i’m not seeing it.

5 roles later, having been dropped for being an ND….
i’m not seeing it.

small heads, giant hands. they’re trying to portray perspective in this art piece… guess it didn’t work so great….

If I may, look into speech to text. If you might make the leap to AI processing on the beginning of a task, you might find that it’s easy to overthink what you’re doing, but if you have a solid idea of your outline before you begin, being less sorting specific at first and more overall descriptive might be a great way to start. Good luck and happy coding.

I’ll admit that I haven’t told this to any employer and have suffered because of it. Even at some of the bigger, open-minded tech companies I’ve worked at, ADHD isn’t treated like an acceptable problem but viewed as an excuse for unproductive periods. I’m able to make up for it during the focused parts to mask it, but I’ve never thought it helped me do anything better.

If you have a severe case of ADHD and are going into development, make sure it’s a changing job where you go from Project A to Project B, etc. When you get stuck on Project C for a few years, it can put you in a very tough situation to pull out of.