THE MOST SUITABLE JOBS FOR THE NEURODIVERGENT
If you’re reading this, it’s either you came from reading my previous article, or you’re a neurodivergent in the corporate space, or are a person who knows a neurodivergent and is curious to learn.
Regardless…
I thank you and appreciate you for taking the time to learn and improve yourself.
Welcome!
You will learn what job best suits you as a — ND person by understanding your strengths & weaknesses and learning how to choose a career path based on these few factors, regardless of neurodivergent stereotypes in our communities. This blog aims to help you navigate and highlight roles where you might struggle and those where you may thrive as a neurodivergent, so lean back, relax, and dive in.
- Choose a career path based on your strengths:
As I reflect on my time in corporate offices, I’ve realised many of our peers are currently experiencing burnout, dissatisfaction, or unhappiness at their jobs and are looking to branch out, change careers, or find the next best thing (in terms of pay, positive team members, flexible hours and excellent work-life balance). Now, schools are about to release new graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Many graduates must be taught to select a career path that resonates with their unique strengths and passions. Understanding these vital factors is key to unlocking our full potential and enhancing productivity and efficiency. By embracing our core strengths, cognitive styles, and personalities, we can cultivate the ability to avoid burnout and maintain motivation, drive, and success in our chosen fields. While the work environment certainly contributes to our experience, we must first look within ourselves. Developing healthy stress management skills further empowers us along this journey. Since we often have to navigate this path ourselves, here are some steps to help simplify the process and inspire our growth.
Do this exercise to help you find out about yourself first before choosing a career path
- Revise your core strengths, i.e., identify and highlight your soft and hard skills:
One of the best aspects of being neurodivergent is understanding things from a broader perspective and seeing situations from various angles. It’s essential to ignore the rumors and stereotypes associated with being neurodivergent. While we may have challenges, we must recognize our strengths and choose long-term career paths and jobs that allow us to utilise them.
In short, pursue what you are passionate about, regardless of what others may say or the expectations placed on you. Society usually categorizes us into specific mental boxes, but don’t let that limit you. Remember that your strengths and weaknesses make you unique, and you should embrace them proudly!
- What is your personality type, i.e., are you an introvert, ambivert, or extrovert:
Knowing your personality traits matters because it significantly impacts the career path you choose, sustain, and excel at. This is why you should choose a career path that will either bring you out of your shells or keep you safe while allowing you to be seen without any challenges.
In this case, you must ask yourself: Do I feel energised by being outside or inside in an enclosed space, doing routine duties, or being out and about on-site and in fields where I can easily apply myself with others and interact smoothly? Do I strive when working in a team or as a person with flexible hours or routine shifts?
As you answer these questions and any others that cross your mind as you read through them, eventually, you will realise where you lie and your personality type. These exercises will help you gain a sense of things/situations that are important to you, your people skills, strengths, and limitations, after which you can then gradually curate a concrete idea of what you want and don’t want in a job (in a realistic and applicable manner.)
- It’s okay to start over or change your mind. Experiment with different jobs before finding what suits you best — more work doesn’t always mean more value:
As you ask yourself these critical questions and evaluate yourself, what are your core strengths and challenges? You must also consciously invest in improving yourself in every aspect necessary to your personal and career growth and development.
Based on personal experiences, I know a loved one who is neurodivergent and great at extroverted jobs. They eventually started their own business, but before then, they invested in themselves and learned many skills that align with their personal and career interests, enabling them to be a serial entrepreneur and master their trade.
Learning and developing various skills by trying out different roles within their desired career paths increased their knowledge, experience, and transferable skills, enabling them to excel in businesses and eventually become successful entrepreneurs.
This proves that we can achieve whatever we put our minds towards if we know, learn, invest, and improve ourselves regardless of stereotypes or societal expectations — or limitations that are said to be a part of the neurodivergent mind. As the saying goes: “If you know better, you will do better.”
Once this is figured out, I guarantee you will excel in your career path. So, what are the most suitable jobs for neurodivergents? ANY JOB THEY ARE PASSIONATE, KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT, AND DEEM FIT AT. Be it in arts, sciences, tech, management, finance, administration, media, law, entertainment, sustainability, renewable energy, or academia… we can excel at whatever industry we set our minds to with great managers, colleagues and a progressive environment that recognizes our needs and capacity… The sky will be our playground. So, go out there! And apply to your dream job(s)…you’ve got this!
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I hope you found this enlightening and if you did, please give us a round of applause to show your support and acknowledgment. And I do hope you put the above exercises into practice. See you at my next LAWKIT! 😉
