Ask HN: How do I find a job, in this market with ADHD

Hello HN, A little background about me. I am a software developer, based in US, currently. Due to a lot of personal issues in my life, and upon reflecting about myself about things I faced since my childhood. I visited a psychiatrist recently and was diagnosed with ADHD.

I consider myself a good coder, I'm very creative with my approach to the problems. I pick new things very easily and my skillset is also very diverse. My employers in past have always been happy to have me on team. And always consider me an asset. But one thing I really suck at is interviews. My mouth just can't keep up with my mind and I end up blurting nonsense. I mess up the easiest questions. My skillset doesn't translate to the interview format at all. I fiddle, I get lost. Worst part is, I started my career as a freelancer, then I got an offer from a start-up after being impressed with my work. Then another startup hired me, looking at my work in the previous start-up. And I've never had a real interview after college.

I'm not tensed during the interview, but I just can't bring myself to focus during the duration of interview. I recently completed my masters, and I'm on an F1 status in US. And job market has not been so good unless I get enrolled in shady consultancies, which I don't want to. Anyone who can offer me an advice, I would genuinely appreciate it. Especially if you have been through something similar I would like to learn from you.

> I visited a psychiatrist recently and was diagnosed with ADHD.

Were you prescribed any medication? Just getting a diagnosis is good, and learning some tools to help you cope is great, but honestly medication has done wonders for me when I was taking it. (I'm not going to say which specific one, because I'm not a doctor, and what worked for me may not work for you.)

> And job market has not been so good unless I get enrolled in shady consultancies, which I don't want to.

What sort of shadiness are you talking about? If they're just crappy build-out-six-CRUD-apps-a-week shops, but their paychecks don't bounce... well, rent doesn't pay itself, you know? On the other hand, if they're doing something explicitly immoral or illegal, then yeah, avoid those.

Look for companies that do take home coding exercise (projects, not hackerrank quizzes) instead of the leetcode whiteboard stuff. Those tend to focus on quality of work vs verbal timed quizzes, which many good engineers aren't good at. The verbal, in-person stuff tends to favor good-sounding and good-looking people, and awkward types are at a disadvantage to begin with.

Realistically?

1. Find the copes that get you through the day.

2. Don't tell anyone at work. Ever. You will be seen as unreliable and employers don't need to accommodate the kinds of things adhd does to you.

A byproduct of the interview process is that it weeds out people who suck at talking. I took an acting class and that helped me a lot. In the biz we call this Masking.

i once got into hyper-focus mode and applied for like 300+ positions in few days. luckily, i heard back from one of them and finally got job offer too.