TL;DR: Because our brains don’t go like that.

The job search is a precarious place to be even for the most regulated and neurotypical among us—it frankly sucks. In a recent informal poll to our email list, Colorful Futures subscribers reported the following parts of the job search as the suckiest (and yes, we literally asked what sucks the most, because we’re scientific like that).

36% — Finding jobs to apply to

36% — Getting ghosted

21% — Preparing applications

7% — Avoiding scams

Everybody agrees these are frustrating parts of the job search, but for folks with a different wiring system, they can hit a lot harder.

Let’s nerd out about brains!

Rejection Sensitivity in the Job Search

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria means that ADHD brains process rejection as pain. Without accommodation for this fact, job searching feels like we’re walking across hot coals barefoot while everybody else gets to wear shoes.

Some ways this issue shows up for our clients:

“I keep applying but I get no response, it feels like a waste of time”
“No jobs want the skills that I have”
“I interview but never get an offer, and I don’t even care about trying anymore”

Our human brains keep us safe by prioritizing three things: Seek pleasure, avoid pain, conserve energy. Job searching takes a lot of energy and can be painful, so your brain doesn’t prioritize it.

This leaves you feeling like you’re lazy, unmotivated, and like there must be something wrong with you personally.

The good news: It’s all in your head! The bad news: You unfortunately also exist in your head.

Accommodating your rejection sensitivity starts by understanding it. If you can get a little bit of mental distance between the personal sting of rejection and the biological facts of your ADHD brain, you can start to see that it really isn’t personal.

Nervous system regulation is key with rejection sensitivity. Practice a few techniques, including breathwork, visualization, and somatic exercises. Find a few that work well to help you regulate and keep them on deck during your job search activities. After each work block, do an exercise that helps your system relax and know that it’s safe.

You can also talk it out with a friend, coach, therapist, or someone else who you trust. Sometimes just talking through the narrative in your mind helps you process it and move on from the parts that feel personal.

Hard mode: Try a rejection challenge—for every five rejections you receive, get yourself a treat. The idea here is to train your brain that rejection isn’t the end of the world and you can even have a good day when it happens.

Bottom-Up Processing in the Job Search

Lots of neurodivergent brains, especially autistic ones, process information from the bottom up. This means that we start with a big pile of information (picture it as LEGO bricks), then we sort and categorize things (organizing by color or type of brick), and then come to a conclusion supported by the data (create the LEGO helicopter).

But job searching asks you to start from the top (a job title) and then look into all the details that the job title entails. It’s not impossible, but it’s uncomfortable and it’s not the way our brains work best. You could be happy in any industry as long as the skills you get to use are in your wheelhouse, but searching based on skills isn’t an easy thing to do.

If you’d rather search for something like “jobs that include math,” or “jobs with creative approaches to problems,” you might be a bottom-up processor.

This shows up in our clients like this:

“I’ve done a lot of different things and there’s no way to make it look cohesive”
“The things I have the most skills in aren’t things that would impress a hiring manager”

Accommodate the need for bottom-up processing by doing it at the start of your job search, using the data you already have.

We call this the career discovery phase, and it’s something we do with every client.

Start by listing out everything you’ve ever done (paid work, volunteering, domestic work like babysitting or family caretaking, etc.) and start sorting your experience into two main categories: things you like and would do again, or things you didn’t like and don’t want to do again.

Then do a little reconnaissance mission on LinkedIn or another common job board. Enter some of your skills in the search bar and see what job titles come up. Look for themes and commonalities between them, and you’ll be able to put together a list of job titles that are more likely to be what you want.

When you’ve got an idea of your titles and industries you’d like to work in, head on over to the Colorful Futures job board database to find some specific boards tailored to your interests!

Executive Dysfunction in the Job Search

Job searching is visually overwhelming—starting with a job database covered in listings and links, then mentally translating all of the corporate phrasing and jargon, then having to research a company website to learn about them… it’s a lot.

Then there’s the time commitment. Spending hours on an application only to find that the job is no longer open is a surefire way to make your brain never want to look for jobs again (remember, it wants to conserve energy).

This shows up in our clients like this:

“Looking at job boards is completely overwhelming”
“By the time I’ve found five jobs to apply to, I’m so exhausted by finding them that I don’t have the energy to apply”

You can accommodate your executive function needs during the job search, but it might take some trial and error. Here’s what we’ve found works for most of our clients.

Time Blocking

One of the things that can get your brain stuck in buffering mode is the overwhelm of a potentially never-ending task (aka, job searching forever and ever). So put a start and stop time around your search and use timers or body double with a friend to stay on task.

We recommend job searching for about two hours a week to start, an hour at a time. If you have the capacity, you can increase this and do a round of job searching as many days as you can handle.

In each hour-long work session, you’ll split the time into three sprints of 20 minutes. The first 20 minutes is to search your job boards and open the interesting jobs in new tabs. The second 20 minutes is to review those job postings and decide which ones to apply to. And the final 20 minutes is to get your application(s) in.

Between each sprint, TAKE A BREAK.

Consistent Routine

ADHD brains laugh in the face of consistency, but we’re not suggesting you do the same things every day—rather, we recommend having a consistent routine that you can pull out and follow on the days that you have time and energy for the job search.

Think of your routine like a meal delivery service that packages all the ingredients for each dinner in individual bags or boxes. When you’re ready to make dinner, everything is all there and you don’t have to go looking for random ingredients.

What goes into your consistent job searching routine is individual to you, but these are some of our favorite suggestions to get yourself ready to search:

Have drinks, snacks, and fidgets nearby
Put a comfort show on in the background or play music that helps you concentrate
Body double with a friend (all Colorful Futures clients are invited to a weekly co-working hour on Tuesdays!)
Eat something and go to the bathroom before your work session

What else sucks?

Our best blogs come from real questions from our readers. Let us know where you’re struggling in the job search so we can help!

Want more in-depth support as you navigate the job search? Book a vibe check to speak with our 1on1 career coaches!