Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi!
I am currently waiting for an autism and ADHD diagnosis but it’s looking very likely that I have both conditions.
I am struggling with employment and wondered if anyone could give any advice. I always did well at school, have a maths degree and ended up in the career that I had always dreamed of. Unfortunately, the career that I thought would be fairly numbers based is very heavy on written work, specifically explanations. I have always struggled with explaining things, so unfortunately am really struggling at work, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by my team. People I work with are often frustrated as I don’t pull my weight, despite me putting in a lot of effort. The writing and explanations just isn’t clicking with me.
I am at a complete loss as I always wanted to be in this career but it obviously isn’t suited to me. I feel like I would be better suited to a problem solving/analytical (non-writing) role, but just have no idea what is out there and am very scared of choosing the wrong career again.
I had a similar role at a different company but found that far easier since the work had a template format, making it far easier to know what I needed to write about.
Has anyone been through something similar? Or do you know of possible career paths forwards? What do you do for work?
It may be worth finding a career advisor or mentor that can help you discover your options. Do you think you could be dyslexic?
I’m definitely not dyslexic. I just struggle to think and write in the way that my team wants me to
I have exactly the same issue and I'm a diagnosed dyslexic waiting for an ASD assessment. I wondered for a very long time why I could write pretty complex code (I'm a programmer) but couldn't explain how it worked to colleagues even though I have two engineering degrees, think technically, and have a clear understanding in my head of how it works, then found out I may be on the spectrum which I suspect may be the reason.
Have you seen this career coach?
https://www.autism.org.uk/directory/r/ros-evans-coaching
CupOfG said: I just struggle to think and write in the way that my team wants me to
Could you ask if there is a way to template the work output to make this easier for you?
There may well be more of a team effory to put this together but you can sell the idea on the basis of efficiency, working to standards, speed of training new staff and re-usability of work.
This would focus the unpleasant work up front to get this done then life gets a lot better afterwards - plus it is a great thing to have on your CV