Well-Ordered Chaos

The ADHD Job Search: Stupid Interview Questions

Addy — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:38:39 +0000

As a job searcher, I’ve joined a lot of jobs boards and employment sites. One of them recently sent an e-mail with a link to an article “The Seven Stupidest Interview Questions and What They Really Mean.”

This is just the kind of thing that tends to stump adults with ADD. It’s one of those social situations with unwritten rules, where everyone else seems to know what’s going on, and we don’t. Interviewing for a job can be like navigating a mine field for someone like me — I need to accurately parse the question, and the subtext of the question, and THEN I need to answer it without going off on a tangent.

It turns out that there are reasons why interviewers ask seemingly dumb questions. For instance, according to this article, “tell me about yourself” is often about testing your ability to interact with others (*gulp*). “What’s your greatest weakness” is not about determining what your weaknesses are, but whether you can overcome them.

So now I know why they ask all those stupid questions … but how do I answer them? Before my last interview I looked for advice in that area, and I felt like this article from the aptly-named “jobinterviewquestions.org” provided some useful advice — specific answers to 50 questions you might encounter in an interview. For example, to answer the question “what qualities do you look for in a boss”, they advise: “Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.”

Yup. That’s straight talk.

Organizing the ADHD Job Search: Get Help

Addy — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:38:26 +0000

Well, I didn’t get the job I interviewed for last week. But that means that my ADHD job search series will be all the more real! It will be an honest, up-to-the-minute look at what I’m actually doing for my actual job search! Yay!

Sigh.

Since I didn’t get the job, I’m going back to my Job Search Plan. After a few months of job search frustration, it’s occurred to me that I should follow my own advice about coping with ADHD: Get help. Ask for advice. Don’t try to go it alone. I didn’t get organized by myself — I had a clutter buddy to give me advice and support. I didn’t learn time management by myself — I worked with an ADD coach. Since I don’t know jack about finding a decent job, why the heck would I think I should rely solely on my own resources?

So while I’m trying to settle on the sort of work I’m looking for, I’m also fixing up my LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t heard of LinkedIn, it’s a professional networking site where you can create a profile based on your resume, and by importing your e-mail address book, you can figure out who you know, where those people work, and who they know. This is a great way to figure out who you can network with in various industries, or even at specific companies. It’s completely free, which is always a good thing when you’re unemployed.

Ever since I looked for my first job, I’ve been told that only a tiny number of job seekers find work through ads. According to this site, the actual figure is 5%, and only 15 or 20% of jobs are even advertised in the first place. This is why networking is so important. You’re much more likely to find a job through someone you know than through any other means. And so, I am finally putting myself out there, talking to people I know, asking them for advice and assistance.

This is a hard thing for someone with my history. Like a lot of learning disabled or ADHD adults, I was blamed for my own problems from an early age. When I asked my teachers for help I was scolded and ridiculed, told that I didn’t “really need” help, because I wouldn’t be having trouble if I’d “paid attention the first time”. This is why I’ve never been able to network effectively before now — I’m only just now getting to a point where I have the confidence not to see myself as a troublesome, needy nine-year-old child.

Even though I was turned down for the job I interviewed for last week, it turned out to be a valuable experience in one important way. I realized that I was incredibly excited about the company I was applying to — and that’s valuable information, especially to an ADD adult who’s too overwhelmed to figure out what sort of work even to look for. The things that attracted me to the company are that it’s small, it’s a creative environment, and it’s built around a really innovative idea. Now, at least, I know that those are the things I should be asking my network about.

Organizing the ADHD Job Search: Focus on What You Want

Addy — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:00:27 +0000

I made myself pretty miserable over the last several weeks by applying for literally every job I could. This included a lot of jobs I didn’t really want, for companies and organizations I really don’t care about. I did this because I wanted to have money coming in, and in the past it’s been pretty easy for me to pick up retail gigs in a hurry, so I was applying for these along with jobs that were more aligned with what I actually want to do.

Well, this is one of the Worst Economies Ever, and no job is easy to pick up in a hurry. My vast retail experience doesn’t matter to the stores I’ve applied for — if I apply for a job as a stock clerk in, say, a health food store, I’ll be outdone by the applicant who has vast retail experience in the health food business. Or who has vast experience managing a health food store. Or who has vast experience running a health food company. Things are tough out there.

The only upside to this is that it’s finally forcing me to focus. If nothing else, I won’t get stuck in another retail position because I’ve stopped applying for those positions. I’m finally doing what I should have done a long time ago: I’m carefully considering what I want from a job.

A few days ago I wrote about the job interview I had earlier this week. I’m really excited about the possibility of working at this company. I’ll be really sad if I don’t get the job. But one thing that I can take away from the whole thing is that I find this company so exciting — and there’s a reason for that. If I can narrow in on what those reasons are, I’ll be in a better position to research companies and jobs where I’ll actually be happy.

So far, the best and most succinct job search advice I’ve seen has been on the Bay Area Video Coalition’s website. BAVC does a lot of training in multi-media stuff, but their advice works for anyone, and they do a great job of breaking it down so it makes sense.

Organizing The ADHD Job Search: Always, Always, ALWAYS Follow Up

Addy — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:56:28 +0000

After spending much of June in the pit of blackest unemployment despair, I wound up with a job interview early this week. I think it went well, but the company is interviewing a few other candidates, so I just have to wait and hope that they’re not as awesome as me. But that’s not what I want to write about. I want to write about the fact that if I hadn’t followed up on my application, I never would have had the interview at all.

When I applied for this particular job, I was answering an ad on Craigslist. I followed the instructions and sent my resume and cover letter to the Craigslist-generated anonymizing email address at the top of the listing. The listing said that not everyone would receive a response. A week went by — no response.

Nonetheless, I took the precaution of sending a follow up email to the anonymizing Craigslist-generated email address. I wrote that I had applied the previous week, and wanted to confirm that my resume had been received, and reiterated my interest in the position and the company.

I was expecting yet another rejection — but it turned out that my resume had gotten eaten somewhere along the line, and the company had never received it. They asked me to send it again, and within 24 hours I had an interview!

Following up is something a lot of job seekers slack off about, and I suspect those numbers are higher among job seekers with ADD. When you’re sending out a lot of resumes, it’s hard to keep track of where you sent them and when, and it’s easy to get bogged down in just sending out more resumes and cover letters instead of tracking down the ones you’ve already written. It can also be hard to follow up, knowing that you might get rejected — and that this time it’s final and official. In the long run, though, I’ve found that it’s best to know one way or another, so you can put your energy into finding new opportunities.

The ADHD Job Search

Addy — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:52:52 +0000

It’s been almost a month since I last posted anything here. The last time I wrote anything I was preparing for a job interview, which I then proceeded to bomb so badly that even though I’d been told at the actual interview that they wouldn’t be making a decision for a few more weeks, I received a computer generated rejection notice less than 24 hours later informing me that they were going with someone else.

“Yeah … we’ve got a ton of applicants … and a few more weeks of interviews … so we don’t know who we’re going to hire yet … BUT WE KNOW IT WON’T BE YOU.”

Ouch.

Now that I’m another month into my job search, I can tell you that the automatically generated rejections have been the highlights of the whole experience. spending several hours each day for two months tweaking resumes, agonizing over cover letters, respecting the wishes of the hiring manager not to be contacted by phone (or often at all), I got some sort of response! OK, not from a human being, but still, a response! So now I know for sure I’ve been rejected! Yay!

To make things worse, I’ve felt like if I’m not spending every waking minutes combing jobs boards, I am somehow slacking off on my job search — in short, I’m “not trying hard enough” (gee, nobody with ADHD has ever heard THAT one before!). And if I’m “not trying hard enough” on my job search, how can I justify taking time away from it to do something I enjoy, like blogging?

I dug myself into a pretty deep emotional hole with the whole experience. Now I’m trying to dig myself out of it. I’ve realized that a major problem with my job search is that it hasn’t been … well, organized. I’ve been applying for things from job listings, in several different fields, for several different kinds of work, and regardless of whether it’s actually the kind of work I really want. I haven’t asked anyone for much in the way of help, and I haven’t drawn on my network of friends and colleagues.

I realized a few days ago that this is going at it the wrong way. I need to be organized, deliberate, and thoughtful about this. Therefore, in this space, I will be documenting my new, improved ADHD/dsycalculia/dysgraphia job hunt. I know I’m not the only one out there; unemployment is higher than its been in 70 or 80 years, and folks with learning disabilities face employment challenges to begin with. At a time like this, we can really help each other by sharing what we learn from the job search trenches.

Stay tuned for my next installment!

The Riding with Despair image was retrieved from here on 6/24/10.

How to beat tooth decay caused by ADHD meds

Addy — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:44:05 +0000

About six months ago I wrote here and at AddaptAbilities about a very nasty shock I received at the dentist: a whopping SEVEN $#%^&@ING CAVITIES. Twice as many cavities as I’d had in my adult life thus far. All of them between my teeth.

The culprit, it turned out, was my Vyvanse. My dentist assured me that he’d seen this kind of thing before, due to all types of medication, and if I followed his instructions — floss EVERY night, use a prescription-strength high-fluoride toothpaste, and chew high-strength xylitol gum and mints — my teeth would be fine.

And they are! YAY!

Job Interview

Addy — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:13:25 +0000

I have to get ready for a job interview, so I won’t be writing up a full post. Instead, I have to polish my shoes. I didn’t know people still polished shoes. But mine came home from a trip all scuffed up from something else in the suitcase, and the look like crap, so polish them I shall.

I also need to re-glue my stupid pants. Yes, I said “glue”. Just before I went to Europe, I thought I’d done something incredibly clever when I bought heat-set fabric glue to hem a pair of pants. I don’t sew well enough to hem my own pants, and I’d run out of time to have them tailored. So I found this great product where you could glue your hem, iron it, and it would stand up to being washed! No sewing required!

It didn’t stand up to being washed.

And they’re the only remotely presentable pair of pants I own, so I am off to glue them again in a noble act of futility.

In the mean time, I wrote a post over at AddaptAbilities about food, proper nutrition, and how misguided it can be to feel “virtuous” about what we eat. It’s called “Sometimes, Virtue Is Stupid.”

Organizing, ADD, and Allergy Hell

Addy — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:27:28 +0000

I haven’t been updating either of my blogs much lately. This is partly due to drama in my offline life — like one in ten Americans, I am unemployed and looking for work. I’m spending most of my time these days sending out resumes and coverletters into various black holes, where I never hear of them again.

The other reason I haven’t been around much is that the pollen count where I live is incredibly high. We had a wet winter here in CA. It’s still raining even though it’s late May; usually the rain knocks off in March or April, giving me two precious months of sunlight before the fog rolls in in June. Not so this year. As if the gloom weren’t bad enough for my energy levels, the rain is contributing to record levels of pollen.

I’m one of those people who is allergic to everything. Animals, dust, mold, grass, weeds, and trees of every description. At the moment, the trees that are kicking my ass are the non-fruiting olive trees that the City planted on the sidewalk. For some reason, olive trees tend to trigger asthma and eye-itching symptoms before congestion and runny nose (but don’t worry! I’m still getting that crap from other trees, so I’m not deprived), and there’s nothing more draining than chronic low-grade asthma.

The reason why I’m bitching about this on a blog about ADD and organizing is that it reminds me why I do this in the first place. You see, I used to feel like this all the time. I actually used to feel worse, because in addition to the asthma kicking my ass, I got several inner ear infections a year because of my allergies. I struggled to wake up in the morning and often needed naps in the afternoon. I was tired, dizzy, disoriented, and completely unable to live my life.

Getting organized ultimately changed that. Once I ditched my clutter, I had less stuff around to collect dust. Once I organized what I owned, I could contain put it in containers, and then it was easier to keep clean. Once my space was organized, I could organize my time, and set aside parts of my day to maintain my home. It happened slowly, but soon I began to breathe a little easier. Then I noticed I had more energy. After awhile, I was able to get up without hitting the snooze button several times; and then, I found I could sometimes wake up on my own. As my energy increased, so did my ability to focus. I began to take some control over my moods and my ADHD symptoms, finally getting to the point where I am actually stable. It’s a reality I never could have imagined even three short years ago.

Today is like a visit from my old life. I slept for about ten hours last night and still had to drag myself out of bed this morning. I feel dizzy and spaced out and I can’t catch my breath. I need to summon the energy to vacuum with my trusty HEPA vac, because I know I will feel better once I do, but it’s an immense struggle even to think about it.

It totally sucks. On the other hand, there is a silver lining; as miserable as I feel right now, it’s an affirmation of the immense positive changes I have been able to make. It’s also a reminder of why I keep this blog . If someone like me — someone with attention deficit disorder, depression, asthma, allergies, and chronic ear infections — could overcome these barriers to getting organized and taking control of my life, so can anyone. Start small, have faith in yourself, and big changes will be the result.

ADD-Friendly Computing: Macintosh or Hackintosh

Addy — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:34:20 +0000

I’m an artist in my offline life, so I have a ton of graphics files on my computer. Every time I touch it I receive ominous warnings about how my start-up disk is is almost full, and I need to delete some files Right Now or everything will go boom.

Fortunately, I recently inherited a new computer. My cunning plan is to use one computer for my online life — blogging, etc — and the other for my offline, artsy, graphic-intensive life. That means transferring files and programs from one computer to another.

It’s times like this that I’m glad I have a Mac. For most of my life, I was stuck using obsolete hand-me-down PCs. They were slow, difficult to use, and I had to keep track of what I named, and where I stored, each and every file — this was hardly an ADD-friendly system. I couldn’t even use YouTube on my last computer without crashing it.

In my experience, Macs are more searchable than PCs. I don’t have to worry about exactly what my file name is, or where I put it, as long as I get one of the words right. It’s also much easier to transfer files from various locations, because you can just click and drag. It’s all visual, right there in front of you.

The downside, of course, is that Macs are expensive. A new MacBook is $900 if you’re lucky. A new PC laptop can be had for as low as $148. Enter the Hackintosh. This is a clever innovation, brought to you by geeks, which allows you to install MacOS on your PC.

I’m writing about this because, as I was working with my two computers, I realized how much easier my life is now that I have a Mac. I don’t mean to come off all fan-girl, but I’m definitely one of those people who Macs are made for. People with ADD are known for skipping the instruction manual. I’m also artsy, I’m a visual person, and I like my technology to work for me without a lot of effort on my part.

Before I got my Mac, I checked my e-mail once a day if that. I considered myself a grudging technology user. I never would have considered myself competent to run a blog, for example. Now I’m on my computer all the time. I use it for all kinds of things, from photo editing to making comics to animation. It’s like an extension of my brain. The fact that I can store information on my computer, and access it quickly and easily, means that I don’t have to keep track of all kinds of papers in my offline life. I don’t have an address book, phone lists, or a rolodex. I don’t have stacks of business cards and papers. There’s just my computer, where I can get whatever I need whenever I need it. I’m a lot less stressed, and my house stays a lot cleaner. I consider my Mac to be one of the most important pieces of adaptive technology I own.

For those who can’t shell out for a Mac, or who just don’t want to, the Hackintosh is worth a gander. My husband, who is a geek, did this project for about $400. If you’re not a geek yourself, you may need to find one to help you with it, but in my experience, geeks can be easily bribed with food.

I prioritized!

Addy — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:54:27 +0000

Managing a to-do list is a complex task. In order to make the list, you need to remember or notice what needs to be done. Then you need to remember to do it. Ideally, you also prioritize your tasks — you figure out whether one task needs to precede another, like grocery shopping before cooking, or whether one task is more important than another. These are things that non-ADD people take for granted. People with ADD consider themselves lucky if they remember half of what they need to do, and if it only takes them twice as long as the time they have to do it.

But tonight was one of my success stories. I did the grocery shopping at the usual time, after my art lesson. I got home at ten to 7, and received a message from my husband that he would be arriving at the train station at 7:23. I successfully remembered that the groceries needed to be put away before I left the house — especially the refrigerated and frozen stuff. I also remembered that tonight is garbage night, and that it’s much more pleasant to take the garbage out while it’s light out, instead of dark, cold, and foggy.

But then!

Then, I noticed that we had no clean dishes. With no clean dishes, we couldn’t eat dinner. Furthermore, I actually figured out that I should start the dishwasher before I left to pick up my husband so we could eat in a timely fashion! Yay me!

With all of this in mind, I put away groceries so they wouldn’t thaw.

Then, I loaded the dishwasher and started it.

Then, I started on the garbage, because I figured out that I could finish it after I got home.

Then, I got the the train station on time to meet my husband’s train.

And then, we got home as the dishwasher was halfway through its cycle, so the dishes would be ready when dinner is.

Now, all that remains is cleaning out the cat box, washing up thoroughly, and putting the leftovers in the microwave.

I’m kind of feeling like a badass right about now