13 Ideal jobs for people with ADHD

Focus
May 12, 2024
Chahat Suri

According to Forbes, 8.7 million adults in the U.S. have ADHD, and worldwide 2.6% of adults have ADHD. This is the most common mental condition in children, estimatedly 6 million children under the age of 3 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. There is a stereotype that people suffering from ADHD might not be able to contribute to the economy as much as the average person. This assumption has been proved false as per the statistics, as ADHD adults are contributing $122.8 billion to the economy.

Many famous people with ADHD like Emma Watson, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and several others have shown us that ADHD is not a weakness but an ability to thrive. In this blog, we will describe some ideal jobs for people with ADHD.

In this article

What is ADHD

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a neurodevelopment disorder that is prevalent in children but can persist in adulthood. Researchers are still searching for the root causes of ADHD, however, genetics and environment are the two factors that are known to the researchers. People with ADHD may struggle with short attention span, impulse control, and hyperactivity, which may disrupt their daily activities.

ADHD is diagnosed based on specific criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Treatments for ADHD include behavioral therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes to help in daily functioning. Despite the challenges, there are many ideal jobs for people with ADHD in which they can excel, even though numerous people have excelled.

Ideal Jobs for People with ADHD

Let’s try to look at a few jobs for people with ADHD, and understand how they’re perfect for the job.

Related to Technical Fields:

IT is one of the best domains where an ADHD brain can thrive by hyperfocusing on solving problems. Both Software engineers and computer technicians are optimal jobs for people with ADHD.

Many developers with ADHD feel their job is a perfect fit for how they think and approach problems.
The reality is that while some forms of neurodivergence might lend themselves to certain careers (I’ve always thought that my obsessive-compulsive disorder makes me a better copyeditor, for example), individual results will continue to vary.
But it’s good news that many programmers with ADHD seem emboldened to share their experiences, offer advice, and ask for support and accommodation when they need it.
There are many things about ADHD that contribute to being a wonderful nurse. For example, individuals with ADHD are likely to have high levels of empathy, they are spontaneous, high levels of courage, the ability to hyper-focus on a task, and amazing attention to detail.
Self-awareness is the first step to creating tactics that help overcome your specific challenges. Foss has discovered that the medication prescribed to her is her No. 1 asset.
“Taking my medication is like putting on my glasses in the morning,” she says. “Everything goes from equally foggy and blurry to clear and obvious.” Foss also has created an assignment sheet. The sheet has tick boxes for most of the information she must track for patient care during her shift. “More neurotypical people make their sheet on a blank piece of paper, I assume, because their brain is more organized,” she says. “My brain isn’t so organized, which is why I need my report sheet to be over-organized with a spot for everything.”
“People with ADHD tend to work well in a fast-paced, high-intensity environment, like that of an emergency room or ambulance,” says Dr. Stephanie Sarkis, a clinical psychotherapist and assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Related to Creative Fields:

Another important one on the list of jobs for people with ADHD is painting. Artistic vision is always associated with ADHD brains such as Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. Individuals with ADHD explode with creativity so it is natural for them to succeed in any creativity field.

Children with ADHD build mental flexibility by problem-solving any obstacles they encounter while making art – like coloring outside a line, or gluing a piece in the wrong spot.
Making art creates natural moments to express thoughts and feelings in an environment that is often less threatening than talk therapy.
“Many scientists, writers, and artists with ADHD have had very successful careers, in large part because of their ability to focus on what they’re doing for hours on end,” says Kathleen Nadeau, Ph. D.
There are thousands of adults with ADHD in executive and managerial positions in every profession. The challenge for Ami and Jim, and many others in their position, is to learn to manage their ADHD well, so that their jobs will be less stressful and exhausting.
Some adults with ADHD flourish in the culinary arts because the work is creative and relatively unaffected by ADHD-related deficits. Cooking requires you to focus on the task at hand and take immediate steps to create a finished product, while not demanding long-range planning or lots of working memory.
Professions like artists, hairstylists, chef and more seem to be pretty accurate for people with ADHD.
For writers, these symptoms can manifest as challenges in organizing thoughts, staying on task, and completing projects. However, it’s also associated with high levels of creativity, the ability to make unique connections, and a propensity for innovative thinking.
Results showed that teachers report students with elevated levels of ADHD symptoms and impairment to be more stressful to work with than students who do not exhibit these symptoms (d = 1.52).