How Do Personality Traits Affect Career Choices?
by Wilma Fellman, M.Ed., LPC

Most people know about Interest Inventories, and think they tell someone “what to be.” While Interest Inventories DO suggest career categories that line up with passions…that is only a fraction of the data we need to be collecting when we search for good career choices. Another piece of our puzzle is our PERSONALITY. Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung dedicated his life to studying how our personality affects our career choices. Meyers-Briggs took his work and developed a “user-friendly” assessment tool to measure the various traits on a continuum. While it’s very complex…here is a short-form of the traits involved:

1. Are you Internal or External? This means how you process information. If you need to be alone to process, then your job should reflect that. If you process out-loud with others, and are energized by others in your thinking, then a more external job may work best for you.
2. Are you more of a Detail or Overview type? If you are an Overview type, trapped in a detail job, you may be struggling just to keep it together, and vice-versa.
3. Do you Make Decisions with your Head or your Heart? Managers, for example MUST be able to make decisions that are based on data and not feelings. It can make the difference between effective or poor management skills.
4. Do you need a Structured Environment, or Unstructured in which to do your best? While some people hate schedules and last minute changes, others thrive on both.

There are lots of parts to our puzzle, and personality is one of them. It’s important to consider which personality type you are, in making good career choices.

Wilma Fellman has been a Career Counselor, for over 24 years, specializing in individuals with AD/HD, LD, and other challenges. She is the Founder/Coordinator of a Michigan organization for professionals who specialize in AD/HD. She is the author of: The Other me: Poetic Thoughts on ADD for Adults, Kids and Parents, and contributing author of Understanding Women with AD/HD. The Second Edition of her career development book, Finding A Career That Works For You, contains a Special Foreword by Richard Nelson Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute? Wilma is a Past President of Michigan Career Development Association, served on the ADD Association (ADDA) Board for 8 years, and is developing training for other career counselors, coaches, etc.

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Excuses or Explanations
by Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA

ADHD sometimes gets a bad rap because some people see it as excuses for bad performance. Obviously these people don't fully understand what ADHD and how it affects all aspects of a person's life. I often talk to my clients about using ADHD as an explanation rather than an excuse. There are some really important differences between the two:

• Excuses let someone off the hook of his obligations because he is seen as simply not capable. Excuses lower the bar for what is expected of him.
• Explanations help the person understand why things go badly and, more importantly, what she can do differently to increase the odds of success.

People who use excuses expect most of the change, flexibility, or accommodations to come from others. This is great when you can get away with it, but even the luckiest person will eventually come across someone who is not willing to be so forgiving. As I sometimes tell clients, the electric company doesn't care if you have ADHD-they still want their payments on time.

By contrast, using ADHD as an explanation places most of the onus for improvement onto the person himself, whether it is to directly improve the situation or to make amends afterwards. Explanations assume that we can't easily change the rules for individuals, at least not without paying an unacceptable price, be it academically, financially, occupationally, relationally, or psychologically. For example, saying, "I have ADHD and therefore can't be expected to be on time," probably won't fly with a lot of employers, friends, and romantic partners.

As much as no one likes to admit that we blew it or that something is a real weakness, there is real power in that acceptance. If you expect the world to change for you, it means that you are powerless if other people decide to be sticklers. However, by learning about ADHD and how it affects your ability to get things done, you are also saying that you have the power to do things differently and thereby make things better yourself. By owning up to your weaknesses and likely failures, you can take active steps ahead of time to prevent them. This may include not putting yourself in no-win situations. You may not be able to change the fact that you have ADHD, but you can change what you do about it.

Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA is a clinical psychologist in West Chester, PA and the author of "Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-to-Use Guide for Clinicians" to be published in October by New Harbinger Publications.

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