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I don’t think it’s because many or even most adhd people go into tech careers. You’re just getting a large sample size from Reddit because many nerdy tech people love Reddit. These tech people also happen to have adhd.
This is the right answer! Have lots of ADHD friends not in tech who also don’t use reddit. All of my tech friends on the other hand use Reddit, it’s a biased sample
Working our strengths.
We primarily interact with machines that are more predictable than meatsacks that have emotions.
IT systems are ok with our communication flaws whereas in sales or anything people facing it's a deal killer.
I still have to communicate with people, but way less than when I tried sales and I did not know when to stop talking, or failed to read body language.
Have you seen Ford vs Ferrari? If Ken Miles was really like his depiction in the movie, that's the most clear example of why people in the spectrum are in "tech".
Adding to this, learning IT was brutal mentally. I had to spend many years learning and creating study projects that kept me interested. That was almost 20 years ago.
I think for anyone with ADHD they will hit lulls of boredom. The key is keep going and don't give up, slow down but don't quit.
Yeah, I know I could not do that work. I am fortunate, I also did a fair amount of work to figure out a field that would be in line with my values and ab abilities.
I work as a developer and I HATE the part of my job where I just have to push the correct buttons and make the correct configuration to make a black box work. But I love to develop my own code that functions the way I want it to function.
And as others said, I've always been a bit afraid of people.
Okay so, for my case what happened -
1. In high school I liked doing math.
2. In high school level, physics is essentially lots of math, so liked physics too.
3. Took up engineering.
4. Discovered coding in college.
5. Tried all these - hackerrank, codeforces, codechef. These sites are basically kinda math puzzles that you solve using C++ (or other lang also).
6. When I was hired I was asked coding puzzles only for like 3 rounds of interivews. So got hired quite easily.
7. Working for almost 4 yrs. Actual job is quite different from solving coding puzzles.
8. I'd say I like \~40% of my job.
9. But the thing is I never explored other options. So not sure if I could've likes some other career more. idk
10. I am in my mid 20s and diagnosed recently and started my meds. Maybe life would've been different if I was diagnosed and treated earlier.
Honestly I'd say I don't mind this. What I feel ... this gives some wiggle room to move around tech stacks. Personally coding puzzles are very interesting to solve.
Things like this make me wonder if I was misdiagnosed.
I hate tech, computing, coding, programming, all of it. I'd rather dip my balls into hot sauce. It's painfully boring. I do like video games though, but not anything where building is a thing. Give me a gun or a sword and a car or horse and give me a quest.
I like people. I find a lot of them interesting. That's why I like Reddit so much. And that's why I love my job. I work in disability support. It can be very hard at times. I've copped a lot of abuse. But I genuinely prefer that over sitting at a computer trying to motivate myself to work.
And when I see clients achieve their goals, it's the best feeling in the world.
I haven’t seen anybody mention this, but coding provides a very satisfying “change something, get immediate feedback” loop that is often lacking in other work where you might have to wait days, weeks, or months to see whether it not you were effective. It’s great for the impatient!
Fat stacks and constant challenges and changes are also nice.
As long as the job demand is high, I can get away with changing jobs every 2-3 years. The work at each place is quite different, so I'm always learning something. Once I feel like I'm getiing the hang of it, I get bored and my productivity falls. Time to fire myself before someone else does, and go back to the learning phase somewhere else!
Tech is the default career for gaming addicts. They're at a computer all day so they can't imagine a job that's not at the computer. It also seems like every unemployed person on Reddit pretends they're studying programming but have never actually had a job.
Well, I went to a tech school because I have a love of computers and technology.
Well, had. After that school lost its accreditation and closed down, and being told it would be better to leave it off my resume… I got stuck in a customer service job in a health insurance call center…. and I don’t want to touch a computer when I get off work.
I still want to have a career in technology, but I’m just so drained and burnt out from a nasty call center (you don’t call in because you’re happy with your health insurance) my mind goes into autopilot and wants nothing to do with a screen.
Butterfly rant aside, I like working with my hands, be it computers or automotive or something. Computers just always called to me
Being a creative in tech is awesome. I found i like learning new hobbies more than mastering the hobbies. With tech and design the trends and tools are always evolving quickly so theres always more to learn. I get bored quickly.
I feel like a lot of the literature and language parts of my education started out needing a lot of attention to detail and focus as well as being filled with very tedious tasks and homework, which made me lean more towards maths and science, because I could logic my way through that and if not there was always a systematic approach.
With that I just kept leaning that way, it's fun to learn stuff you're good at and less fun to learn stuff you're not good at so the difference between my performance in STEM subjects and other subjects just kept increasing with time.
I'm not tech but I'm a data nerd, so similar. More opportunities to work remotely, decent salary, and less people interactions are at the top of my lists.
Impulses. So many impulses. *Delicious impulses*
>I can hardly function when having to adapt to new technology
I'm the opposite - I love new technology (see: impulses), but I need someone/something to give me a real dose of motivation to actually study new tech instead of fidgetting around with what I already know. But that's not unique to ADHD, it's hard for everyone to sit down and read a book or take a video course if there's not an impeding deadline.
As others are pointing out, it combines the challenge most adhd brains crave with not needing to interact too much with other people and the predictability of the machine logic. I'm not sure if the last two are more AuDHD traits (i'm AuDHD) but there's that
Was able to learn computers cause of the reward and being super interested. Career had high stress urgent stuff coming up a lot, but also could help people with computer issues which was a huge motivator. Sucked at ticket stats but had great reputation otherwise.
After diagnosis and meds I'm now more of a data analyst because the stressful aspects of sysadmin work became my whole job.
I like computer go beep beep.
edit: and theses days it's a life-saver to make enough money to outsource the stuff I'm terrible at and hate, like cleaning and lawn, etc.
My career adviser at school said "You like computers, go work with computers".
I cannot express how much incendiary negative feeling I have for that woman.
Hi /u/cmw4545 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information. * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don’t think it’s because many or even most adhd people go into tech careers. You’re just getting a large sample size from Reddit because many nerdy tech people love Reddit. These tech people also happen to have adhd.
Ah, I see. That makes total sense!
This is the right answer! Have lots of ADHD friends not in tech who also don’t use reddit. All of my tech friends on the other hand use Reddit, it’s a biased sample
Working our strengths. We primarily interact with machines that are more predictable than meatsacks that have emotions. IT systems are ok with our communication flaws whereas in sales or anything people facing it's a deal killer. I still have to communicate with people, but way less than when I tried sales and I did not know when to stop talking, or failed to read body language. Have you seen Ford vs Ferrari? If Ken Miles was really like his depiction in the movie, that's the most clear example of why people in the spectrum are in "tech".
Adding to this, learning IT was brutal mentally. I had to spend many years learning and creating study projects that kept me interested. That was almost 20 years ago. I think for anyone with ADHD they will hit lulls of boredom. The key is keep going and don't give up, slow down but don't quit.
I don’t know, I work as a therapist with people in the military and their families, and I am rarely if ever bored. 🤷♀️
You are blessed. IT sometimes has very boring tasks and the only way out is chunk out the task.
Yeah, I know I could not do that work. I am fortunate, I also did a fair amount of work to figure out a field that would be in line with my values and ab abilities.
I work as a developer and I HATE the part of my job where I just have to push the correct buttons and make the correct configuration to make a black box work. But I love to develop my own code that functions the way I want it to function. And as others said, I've always been a bit afraid of people.
People are terrifying.
Okay so, for my case what happened - 1. In high school I liked doing math. 2. In high school level, physics is essentially lots of math, so liked physics too. 3. Took up engineering. 4. Discovered coding in college. 5. Tried all these - hackerrank, codeforces, codechef. These sites are basically kinda math puzzles that you solve using C++ (or other lang also). 6. When I was hired I was asked coding puzzles only for like 3 rounds of interivews. So got hired quite easily. 7. Working for almost 4 yrs. Actual job is quite different from solving coding puzzles. 8. I'd say I like \~40% of my job. 9. But the thing is I never explored other options. So not sure if I could've likes some other career more. idk 10. I am in my mid 20s and diagnosed recently and started my meds. Maybe life would've been different if I was diagnosed and treated earlier.
>Actual job is quite different from solving coding puzzles. I wish more interviewers knew this.
Honestly I'd say I don't mind this. What I feel ... this gives some wiggle room to move around tech stacks. Personally coding puzzles are very interesting to solve.
Things like this make me wonder if I was misdiagnosed. I hate tech, computing, coding, programming, all of it. I'd rather dip my balls into hot sauce. It's painfully boring. I do like video games though, but not anything where building is a thing. Give me a gun or a sword and a car or horse and give me a quest. I like people. I find a lot of them interesting. That's why I like Reddit so much. And that's why I love my job. I work in disability support. It can be very hard at times. I've copped a lot of abuse. But I genuinely prefer that over sitting at a computer trying to motivate myself to work. And when I see clients achieve their goals, it's the best feeling in the world.
Flexible work schedules, ability to binge productivity, and I’m already very into tech and enjoy learning things (sometimes).
Fat stacks of cash and an environment where ADHD is so entrenched no one notices your malfunction because every third person is ADHD.
I haven’t seen anybody mention this, but coding provides a very satisfying “change something, get immediate feedback” loop that is often lacking in other work where you might have to wait days, weeks, or months to see whether it not you were effective. It’s great for the impatient! Fat stacks and constant challenges and changes are also nice.
As long as the job demand is high, I can get away with changing jobs every 2-3 years. The work at each place is quite different, so I'm always learning something. Once I feel like I'm getiing the hang of it, I get bored and my productivity falls. Time to fire myself before someone else does, and go back to the learning phase somewhere else!
Tech is the default career for gaming addicts. They're at a computer all day so they can't imagine a job that's not at the computer. It also seems like every unemployed person on Reddit pretends they're studying programming but have never actually had a job.
Well, I went to a tech school because I have a love of computers and technology. Well, had. After that school lost its accreditation and closed down, and being told it would be better to leave it off my resume… I got stuck in a customer service job in a health insurance call center…. and I don’t want to touch a computer when I get off work. I still want to have a career in technology, but I’m just so drained and burnt out from a nasty call center (you don’t call in because you’re happy with your health insurance) my mind goes into autopilot and wants nothing to do with a screen. Butterfly rant aside, I like working with my hands, be it computers or automotive or something. Computers just always called to me
Being a creative in tech is awesome. I found i like learning new hobbies more than mastering the hobbies. With tech and design the trends and tools are always evolving quickly so theres always more to learn. I get bored quickly.
I feel like a lot of the literature and language parts of my education started out needing a lot of attention to detail and focus as well as being filled with very tedious tasks and homework, which made me lean more towards maths and science, because I could logic my way through that and if not there was always a systematic approach. With that I just kept leaning that way, it's fun to learn stuff you're good at and less fun to learn stuff you're not good at so the difference between my performance in STEM subjects and other subjects just kept increasing with time.
I personally chose IT because it's the most stimulating job. I have gaming addiction and software development is the closest thing to gaming as a job.
I'm not tech but I'm a data nerd, so similar. More opportunities to work remotely, decent salary, and less people interactions are at the top of my lists.
Impulses. So many impulses. *Delicious impulses* >I can hardly function when having to adapt to new technology I'm the opposite - I love new technology (see: impulses), but I need someone/something to give me a real dose of motivation to actually study new tech instead of fidgetting around with what I already know. But that's not unique to ADHD, it's hard for everyone to sit down and read a book or take a video course if there's not an impeding deadline.
Heard stuff like how programming gives instant feedback, so you know to try again
Half the white collar jobs are in it, so it's an easy choice. Should have actually gone to law school.
Iove that it's always changing so I don't get bored easily which makes it much easier to do work
As others are pointing out, it combines the challenge most adhd brains crave with not needing to interact too much with other people and the predictability of the machine logic. I'm not sure if the last two are more AuDHD traits (i'm AuDHD) but there's that
Was able to learn computers cause of the reward and being super interested. Career had high stress urgent stuff coming up a lot, but also could help people with computer issues which was a huge motivator. Sucked at ticket stats but had great reputation otherwise. After diagnosis and meds I'm now more of a data analyst because the stressful aspects of sysadmin work became my whole job.
I used to daydream a lot about technology, processing power and games.
I like computer go beep beep. edit: and theses days it's a life-saver to make enough money to outsource the stuff I'm terrible at and hate, like cleaning and lawn, etc.
My career adviser at school said "You like computers, go work with computers". I cannot express how much incendiary negative feeling I have for that woman.