Well, as I posted before I made job switch about 6 months ago. I took a contract to perm position and I have been given an offer to go perm. Hoping to sign the offer if the money ends up being correct. I am hoping to be not to far off from those six figures.

I can’t say again how much being in the right environment, well and the correct job/ responsibilities, is the key to how successful we are as ADHD/Right brainers. My last position was with a very conservative company with very conservative managers, who were very risk averse. These were also the type of managers that hate the new guy/girl with big ideas. I can remember the first day I wrote one of the those footers on my email, the one down by your name. Mine was something like “If you don’t like change you will like irrelevance even less.”, people were freaking out. Its a foot note, what is the big deal? The managers are type that micro manage you and worry about if your taking to long of lunch and coming in on time. The kind that expect you to work overtime if need be, but an extra day off forget about it. The kind of managers that are focused on your 40 (hours) and your every move rather than on your deliverables. Anyway, this company is the type of place where all the managers are in the maintenance mode of their careers, which means they are sitting pretty and just along for the ride and good paycheck.

Of course, these are the types of companies and managers where we ADHD/Right Brained people don’t fit in. We clash with the management, because we are fast paced and we want change that will help make the company better and stronger. So we either get demoted, get forced out, or get fired.

Fast forward to today, I now work for company (startup) where they only worry about what you deliver and if your doing your job, not if you are working 40 hours. Need extra time off no problem I will make it up some day when I work overtime to finish a project. I never see my boss unless we go run together at lunch or if I have a question for him. As long as I am doing what needs to be done, he doesn’t care. No ideas are shut down, as long as they make the product better. Nobody being territorial.

All I can say is I love my job and they would have to force me to leave. No boring repetitive tasks either!!! I am doing development (a.k.a programming). Yes, ADHD/Right Brain people can be developers, as long as its with programming languages that allow you to be creative, Ruby on Rails (ROR) and Flex work for me. Sure you can be creative with any language to some extent, but with ROR and Flex/Flash the a lot of the details are handled for you, especially with ROR.

Plus, I still get to work with graphics.

So I have decided to take a new position doing what I used to do, well I had been doing this job at home in my spare time. I also had been doing this work at my last job having transitioned from Marketing Manager to Developer in the BA department developing R&D applications.

So what will I be doing? Well I will be building Flex applications and Flex components for a startup. Yeah, I get to go back to the startup world again. Its exciting. Its going to be intense and require fast paced worked in an office with not to much design or furniture. Its funny when I moved to marketing I would develop applications and learn new programming languages in my free time and when I have programming jobs I do a lot of reading about marketing, product development, and business strategy/behavior/organization.

I enjoy reading to learn so I always keep busy. I might even read a few new ADHD books.

Its ok to change jobs and careers, life is would be so boring doing the same thing all the time.

Sorry about not posting lately, but I have been on vacation and went to a week of training (programming) and yes I was being lazy.

So I wrote post on my other blog about programmers who are right-brained that I think is worth mentioning here since this blog gets a lot of traffic from searches on ADHD + jobs. I have written or mentioned good jobs before, but this time I am focusing on some specific details. You might be asking, how can programming be a good job for someone who can’t seem to stay focused? Well, because most people have misconceptions about ADHD. The first being the people with ADHD cannot focus. ADHDers actually focus (hyper-focus) continuously for most part of the day. This is actually what happens when we are day dreaming, as we are so overly focused on what we are thinking about that we shut out the entire world. We also go into hyper-focus when we are playing video games, watching television, or when working on things we really enjoy. A second misconception is that we get bored easily, which does have some merit, but its actually not as simple as getting bored. It is actually that ADHD (aka right-brained) don’t have a creative outlet that lets our minds work how they were meant to. This second misconception is where I will focus this post.

As I have written in one of my other posts, an ADHD person can be successful in almost any job if they are given freedom. Their is a great essay written by Paul Graham here called “You Weren’t Meant to Have a Boss” that explains my thoughts about freedom better than I can myself. I am sure most individuals who are not technology savvy probably think you need to be a mathematician to be a developer. That once was probably true, but each day that is less so. I won’t go into here, but programming languages are becoming easier and easier to use do to things such as frameworks. Frameworks remove all the mundane task that developers use to have to do mainly each time they programmed something. And these frameworks are where ADHDers can make huge strides. A lot of people think that ADHDers are lazy and just don’t want to do work. This isn’t true. ADHDers actually just want things to move at a fast pace and don’t like dealing with details as they side track us.

So if you are someone with ADHD then look for a job that allows you to remove the mundane. For me I have chosen the creative route, which includes marketing, graphic design, and yes programming. They all provide creative outlets and FREEDOM. As far as programming I have chosen Flash, Flex, and now Ruby on Rails. All of these are mediums to me, which coincidently have frameworks that remove the mundane tasks so that I can let my right-brain flow with ideas without getting bogged down with to many details. To compare this to painting, working without frameworks would be like a painter having to mix each color, make their paint brush, and weave their own canvas. Ruby on Rails (aka ROR) is the perfect programming language for right-brained people (ADHD) because it allows you to easy get started developing functionality into your programs. If you are interested in programming, but never knew where to start here is a good tutorial that will get you up and running in no time.

So yes, even those with ADHD can become programmers, but we do have to still sit through the boring classes we don’t like in order to become successful. You can’t expect to become a good painter just by picking up a brush or you can’t become a great programmer without taking some math classes or computer classes. We need to learn the basics and the foundations first.

Very short post here. So my son has started a new public school as of January and he has dramatically improved his behavior scores already. I think their are a couple of reasons for the improvement that I think everyone can learn from here. First the new school is new. The school opened just 3 years ago so its clean, shiny, and has all new equipment. The school even smells new. Whether we like it or not or recognize it or not ADHDers are products of our environment. If things are old, tarnished, and messy our thoughts and actions will be the same. This is due to the fact that we are right-brained thus we less analytical and feel our way through life. I will post more on this in the week.

The other reason for the dramatic change is that my son has one of the most strict teachers in the school. His old teacher at the other school was a teacher who didn’t like nor wanted to discipline her students. She thought disciplining students was bad for their self-esteem. Its funny she wouldn’t discipline him in any way and wondered why he hadn’t improved. Hmmmmm I wonder what it could have been. I once told this teacher that if my son acted up in class that she should let me know and he won’t get to play baseball. She gasped and said “that is sort of mean”. That kind of wrapped up opinion on her and I stopped worrying so much about his behavior because if she isn’t going to change her tactics or do anything to help him then she can deal with it. So whats the message I am presenting here? Your ADHD child needs discipline…more than the average child. But the good news is they need it and want it. I still need this today in order to succeed. My wife is my constant discipline as she is very structured so it evens me out. Its kind of like having a compass you can check every so often to make sure your on course.

You need to be your child compass. Children, especially ADHD children, need and want discipline as it helps them function. They need to know what is right and wrong. This doesn’t mean spanking or verbal abuse. The best way is by removing privileges and not giving second chances EVER! We find positive reinforcement works best in our home, meaning your child has to earn video games, tv, or friend time.

So I ran across this statement while conducting some more research on ADHD.

Research has shown that ADHD is often accompanied by other brain-related problems. The findings of genetic studies indicate a strong correlation and a genetic link between ADHD and a number of other disorders. These disorders include: conduct disorder, adult antisocial personality disorder, criminality, mood disorders (anxiety and depression), substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Ok, duh! Maybe the link is because schools are not set up for those who think differently (right-brained, visual learners, etc…), which means those who think differently and learn differently don’t fit in the system. We struggle with the mundane, slow pace, and generic teaching style teachers use. So when we start struggling and the teachers can’t or don’t change their curriculum and/or teaching style we get yelled at, made fun of, or just shut down. This is the start of the spiral that leads to conduct disorder, antisocial disorder, criminality, mood disorders (anxiety and depression), and substance abuse.

Imagine if you, non ADHD (right-brained) people, went to work and were told to be creative and spontanious and come up with paintings, drawings, creative and innovative new products, or make some sales/ get some new accounts or just fly by the seat of pants in an unstructured environment with no routine. Or do that thing you know your not good at. Then when you couldn’t come up with those innovative ideas that combine several industries and technologies your boss stopped paying you complements, lowered your salary, was on your case for listening to closely and taking every word literally, and was sending you home with discipline tickets and bad reviews how would you feel? You would probably turn to alcohol or drugs (illegal and/or prescription), get depressed, become antisocial have some mood swings. Now imagine if you couldn’t leave that company or job for the next 15 years.

Oh, and then when you do leave that job, 15 years later, you are stuck in another system that is structured the same way.

You might break some laws or become destructive.

Idiots (not you the Dr’s who found these to be correlated)! You think they might be related?

Again we ADHD (right-brained) individuals are misunderstood and frustrated.

So there is an online personality test free for everyone to try out. Its like the Myers Brigg test. You can find it here (be sure to use IE as they are not following web standards design).

So here are my results I am interested in see the results from all the other ADHDers out there. Be sure to comment your results.

Here is mine: Can you say Right Brained?
For INFJ the most important preferences are Introverted Intuition. Your ‘dominant function’ is Intuition, oriented towards the inner world. You use your imagination to create new and different ideas and perspectives. You observe the world around you, and use your imagination to consider what you have observed from a number of different perspectives. You dream up new ideas and insights, often producing radical solutions to problems. You have a long term vision, and demonstrate an apparent understanding of what (as far as other people are concerned) cannot be clearly known.

For INFP, however, the most important preferences are Introverted Feeling. Your ‘dominant function’ is Feeling, oriented towards the inner world. This means you give importance to particular thoughts, ideas, or beliefs. You are value driven, and you often bring a sense of priority that is derived from your strong convictions. You seize upon and emphasise ideas or thoughts that have the greatest import, bringing them to the fore and stressing their significance. You assess the inherent value or importance of new ideas and beliefs, focusing on those about which you feel most strongly.

So I have decided to start writing more about my personal experience so here goes…

I have decided to change careers again, well move backwards I guess you can say. I have been involved in product development, product management, and marketing/branding for the past 3 years or so, but have recently decided to return to web application design and development. The reason is that I have several great product ideas per day, mostly web based applications since that is what i know.

I have been playing around with a consumer product idea and a magazine idea as well. I am also very interested in green energy (wind power).

So why am I writing about this? Well lets dive in.

Over the past 10 years I have held all these different job titles:
Help Desk Tech.
Telecom Engineer
Designer
Programmer
Marketing Coordinator
Marketing/Brand Manager
UI designer/developer

So you may be saying thats a typical ADHD adult switching jobs…well yes and no. Right-brained people do have a tendency to switch jobs, but its usually because we are stuck in jobs that do not take advantage of our skill sets. We have problems in schools because the school system is setup for left-brained people to succeed. So right-brained people usually choose not to go to college, thus leading to jobs they dislike.

I did go to college and did finish though it took me a lot longer than most. I am glad I did take longer and go later in life, but I will save that for another day. I do find that I am more happy and more successful in jobs that allow me to use my creativity and that allow me to switch projects often. So when things are fasted paced and always moving I am happier. Creativity doesn’t have to be design. It can be product ideation, business consulting, and anything else that takes advantage of my right-brains ability to see patterns and see things in pictures.

So to any kids in college or in high school that are right brained (ADHD) I suggest you get a degree like advertising, something that requires you take art classes, but gets you a business degree. If you don’t go to college (please reconsider) then take a career in sales or start a business. If your not sure you want to go to college I suggest you go and live on campus and at least go for two years to get your basics so when/if you decide to go back you can jump right in to two years of whatever you think you want to do….get the basics out of the way.

So my son started back to school yesterday, fourth grade! First off, I can’t believe how fast time fly’s. A couple more years and he will be in middle school, wow.

This will be a quick post, but its something all parents with ADHD children should read. DON’T LISTEN TO YOUR CHILDS TEACHER WHEN OR IF SHE TELLS YOU TO YOUR CHILD SHOULD GET ON MEDICATION (DRUGS).

Your childs teacher has a conflict of interest. I am not sure how other states are, but the Texas school system (setup by no child left behind, thanks a lot Bush) is screwed up. Why it is screwed up is that teachers in Texas are rewarded on how well their students do on TAKS tests. These tests are kind of like SAT for younger children. So what do you think the teachers do? They only worry about teaching what the children need to know to past the TAKS test. So what happens? Children only end up learning what they need for the test and then end up forgetting it. By teaching this way its hard for children to get the overall concept or theory, which would end up helping them solve future problems or questions. It’s kind of like those people you knew in high school who were book smart, but couldn’t really get a joke or figure things out on their own.

Oh, getting sidetracked…sorry about that. So my son’s 1^st grade teacher and 2^nd grade teacher said my son was the worst behaved child they had ever seen. His first grade teacher told the story of her child and how she put him on one of those ADHD drugs that is now being found to cause liver or kidney problems…NICE. She couldn’t tell us to put our son on drugs, but she was sure hinting at it over and over and over.

My son ended 3^rd grade with one point shy of having straight A’s. He does still have issues with paying attention (see my other post about being bored), but his behavior grades are almost even with the rest of the class. All it takes is a little discipline and for parents and teachers to quit being so negative (still working on this myself). Your ADHD child is probably constantly told by his teacher that he is a screw up….well in those words, but your child probably feels that way. Again before you put your child on drugs please do some things to help your child besides looking for a quick fix. I know it might be hard for you to look into the mirror and tell yourself your parenting skills probably aren’t perfect and you need some help. Please get a copy of “Transforming the Difficult Child”.

Please disregard your child’s teacher when they start discussing a quick fix like drugs. Just because they have worked with kids for 5, 10, or 25 years doesn’t mean they know what is best for you child’s mental and/or physical health, as it just means they know how to teach. Their goal isn’t to do what is best for you child, but rather what is the easiest way to do their job and still get their rewards. That being said I do think teachers are underpaid, overworked, and lack the proper training on dealing with and teaching right brained children.

So my son is exceeding without being on drugs. Thanks Kelly and Shailagh for all your help!

I am not sure how many of you out there have the same mental visual ability (seeing in pictures) as I do, but if so, this post will seem familiar. For those parents out there with child who truly are ADHD will hopefully give you some insight into why we are so internally focused and have empathy toward others.

Lets jump right in shall we. When I have mental images they are so detailed that are almost real. They make me feel as if I was really in that place or touching what I am seeing. There times that if I am visualizing an unpleasant circumstance it can affects my physical body, such as a sad scenario it can cause tears. You might be say well anyone has that, so what! A better example is sometimes an unpleasant or happy slideshow of images forms in my mind and I almost scream out. What I scream out is directly related to what I am visualizing, sometimes “no”, “watch out” or just plain laughter. The images are so real that I almost feel what I am seeing in my mind. Also there are times if I am doing something with my hands, in the visuals in my mind; I will unknowingly be moving my hands in real-life imitating what I am visualizing. I don’t make the full movement, such as hammering a name, but I might be holding my hands as if I were holding the tools or I might be slightly moving them in that fashion.

And how about the daydreaming while driving? There are times my…aaah ummm…friend day dreams while driving and gets to a place and doesn’t remember the drive there or it seems extremely vague. Even though day dreaming, my a friend, can avoid quick stopping cars or animals in the road. I guess it’s like those old Kung Fu movies where they say “Do without thinking.”. I will get into more on this later, but sitting (Zen) comes very easy to me and probably will to most other ADHDers.

Getting back to the visuals… For myself the visuals are more like a movie or 3D world. Its like being the director of a movie, you’re in one of those chairs where you can go high in the air or low and go in a full 360 view of a scene navigating around each side top to bottom. I can visual what a scene would look and feel like to move from room to room. By the way if you have a movie script and the resources call me I think I could direct a mean movie.

I have been reading the book “Thinking in pictures”, which describes how the author can visual mechanical things in detail and even visualize how things not built would function in real life. It’s a great book and I suggest you read it (there is a link on the right side of my blog). This is the same thing that I do in my mind. Whether it is mechanical or things on paper I immediately start visualizing the solution via images. I am personally into developing web 2.0 applications, inventions, and accompanying business plans and I have several of them stored in the back of my head in these little image files or mini movies. When I have an idea I create the business plan via images in my mind, holding the numbers, business partners, vendors, and even the marketing plan and branding.

These visuals do have a downside though. At work they tend cause conflict for me, usually with management. It starts with the fact that I can’t tell my employer what I have written in this blog as they would probably think I am a little spacey, or loopy. They might even call in the authority or tell me to seek help, so I of course keep this visual ability to myself. When working on projects I am able to look at things in multiple ways (3D perspective) so I can get the customers viewpoint and how they interact, the markets, and other department’s viewpoint. I can do this sometimes in just a few minutes other times a few days depending on how large the project is. It’s giving my assessment where I get into problems at work. Management usually other department’s management gets defensive when I say it won’t work or you need to change this feature or that feature. I usually get how “do you know we haven’t built it yet”. Sound familiar to any of you visual thinking people out there? So imagine if I broke out with “oh I can see it in my head in perfect detail even see its flaws or short comings”. Not a good scenario. Or imagine trying to interview to get a job and they ask, “What are your strengths?”, and you give the same answer as above.

So with visuals this detailed and real it’s probably a good idea to get your children involved in art and creativity early on in their lives and as often as you can, like daily and with a professional. If you can give them the skills to create these visuals either via painting, film or musical instrument they will be well on their way in using the natural ability they have. Your ADHD children have this ability so take advantage of this, help them in their career path. It doesn’t have to be art though, as I have mentioned it can be mechanical or even creating business plans. It’s more about getting them to channel the visuals or images and how to verbally and physically create them so others can see them. I would start with drawing, painting or music, as it’s a little hard to get a 5 year old to create a business plan.

So I got an comment from a reader the other day and I have decided instead of writing more in the comments I would write a post so its more accessible, plus I have been lazy lately and need a new post.

So here goes. I am not sure if I am the poster boy for ADHD college succcess. It took me 11 years to finish college, not that I was stupid and could not pass, but because I had to pay my own way (SMU is expensive) and I had a child to take care of. Out of the gate I had no issues in college as my first two years were at a community college in Nebraska. My first year I was on the deans list (3.8 GPA). I did have to change my study habits from high school. Instead of flying by the seat of my pants and winging it I did have to study a little more. Looking back the thing that helped me the most was a small tape recorder. I bought one of those small hand held recorders to tape all the lectures because I would day dream and end up missing half the lecture. So what I would do is record the lecturer and anytime I caught myself day dreaming I would look at the numbers on the recorder and write it down in my notebook then later rewind the tape and fill in the notes I missed. For those in high school this will probably work for you as well.

It was funny/weird but when I played the tape back I would actually remember the professor saying the things that I missed. So it was like a dream where I was hearing things, but thinking about something else. And if you have enough cash you can keep the tapes and listen to them over and over to help you memorize everything. Now I guess you could take a laptop and record it to your ipod or something then make them into a podcast and sell them to your friends. Their I go getting creative…must..stay..focused.

If you like business then get a BA in marketing, but focus just as much on the finance and MIS stuff. Or better yet get an art degree. If I had to do it over again I would study Industrial Design as I am creative and like things to be perfect. Whatever you do take as many classes in as many things as you can while your parents are paying for it. The way ADHDers minds work is associative thinking or lateral thinking. So this means we are able to cross 3 or 4 different things to create something better or solve a problem. Its like TRIZ look it up. Lateral thinking is what you will be good at so just bite the bullet and do it. BUT be sure to take classes that teach you hard facts accounting, finance, etc… and also take only classes that teach you how things work or how solve problems or find answers. Classes like anthropology or psychology. Learn how the mind works or how society works as that will benefit you in the long run. ADHDers can find patterns in things very quickly so if you know about how the human mind works or how society works you will be able to figure things or situations or problems out faster.

So keep a balance between art, the mind, society, and whatever else your interested in. If you are trying to become an accountant…good luck with that. Unless your going to do creative accounting like Enron.

Also I haven’t tried it, but next time your taking notes try doing with only drawing pictures and almost no words. Since we are visual thinkers it might work, just be sure to give it a try for a couple of weeks as it might take some time to get used to.

Second try to sit in the front row as close to the professor as you can. Use him to keep you focused. If your at a smaller school under 40 students per class try conversing with the professor. You have to keep your mind stimulated and its a good way to show your interested and gets all your questions answered.

Since most colleges have the same class on opposite days see if you can sit in on other classes day for the those classes you are struggling with. Also I find that if I explain the topic to someone else it helps me learn it.

Just stay focused on your college and don’t follow the rabbit (day dream or switch topics). If you feel as if you are wanting to switch majors then I suggest studying business as you will always need that and then take some other classes that interest you. Just remember business is your number one priority. This way your creative side gets what it needs. I would suggest though you take art classes even if you aren’t naturally gifted. When you get older the creativity will hit you so you will have the basics out of the way.

I suggest art school, but that is what I would have done if I could go back. I am also a part-time programmer, which is a creative outlet for me.

Well I hope I have answered some questions for everyone. If not just write me a comment and I will continue this in another blog.