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> I've started grinding leetcode, reviewing system design, and behavioral questions. You MUST memorize perfect responses to regurgitate as fast as possible on t

> I've started grinding leetcode, reviewing system design, and behavioral questions. You MUST memorize perfect responses to regurgitate as fast as possible on the interview. I have been diagnosed with ADHD (and started medication, to be clear) this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? I've been at it on and off for 17 months and have had the worst experience with technical assessments, despite being a 10 year career veteran with plenty of Web development experience.

edrxty 3y ago
Never reveal ADHD to employers or fellow employees. It will always be used against you.
- sethaurus 3y ago
  I've been very disclosive about my diagnosis, and many people I work with have in turn revealed their own diagnoses to me. I'd like to hear more about your experience with this ⸻ how is this info getting used against people?
  - phpnode 3y ago
    All weaknesses or differences can be used against you. When you’re interviewing for a job you are presenting an idealised version of yourself that makes the decision to hire you easy from the interviewer’s perspective. That’s not the time to bring up flaws. In general though this idea that people should talk openly about their mental health problems is good for society and terrible for the individuals concerned. People will absolutely change their opinion of you and treat you differently, and they will never disclose why.
    - fnimick 3y ago
      Exactly. This is why the "tell me your weakness" question is a trap. It's deliberately selecting for people able to read the subtext and the situation and respond accordingly. The interview, and to a lesser extent the workplace, is a hostile environment where you are in direct competition with peers and management who try to get the most out of you for the least compensation. Anything you say or do will be used against you the second it is useful to undercut you in favor of someone else's payday.
      - neon_electro 3y ago
        Nothing to add to your well-stated comment. This sucks.
        fnimick 3y ago
        Moral ambiguity is a competitive advantage for the business too. Holding back "progress" turns you into a cost center in a real quick way and that's something the business wants to avoid. Who do you think did better for Uber, the person who pointed out that it was technically illegal, or the person who pointed out that they could make a lot of money before the legal trouble materialized? I've been at a company where that happened and the people who focused on data accuracy and brought that up in debates around prioritization got cut for not moving the business forward. As I got told, "if the customer is shown what they want to see (and they have no other source of information to compare), does it matter if it's accurate?"
    - Michelangelo11 3y ago
      Amen. Unfortunately, but ... Amen.
  - edrxty 3y ago
    -If you mention anything about medication, boomers will immediately assume you're taking "meth" because they know the medications have some sort of amphetamine component. -People who think neurodivergence == lazy/undisciplined/shithead/whatever. -People who don't understand ADHD will assume you're like that kid in elementary school who was always setting things on fire and interrupting class (and there's a good chance you are, but you've developed management skills by now as to not do that at work). -People who sort of understand ADHD and know you won't be as mindlessly heads-down as other employees so you're likely to not take well to corporate bullshit/want to work on things you find stimulating rather than <insert banal maintenance task>. -People who understand ADHD too well and can keep the dopamine flowing just enough to wring you dry until you burn out.
cosmojg 3y ago
> I have been diagnosed with ADHD this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? You don't. In my experience, any mention of anything resembling mental illness will result in rejection (but obviously they'll cite some other reason to avoid a lawsuit).
- timacles 3y ago
  As a general life advice (this may sound harsh (but thats life)) ... never admit weakness or flaw to anyone that you're selling yourself to. They will immediately ignore your 99 other good qualities and only focus on the flaw you mention. Selling yourself is a game, and the ones "buying" you dont have the cognitive head space to make difficult decisions across many candidates. They will always choose the mentally easier option. The "game" is that you have to as quickly as possible figure out exactly the mental model of what it is they want, and frame yourself as that. All the parts of whether you or they actually fit each others needs must be done within that dynamic. You cannot explicitly mention negative qualities, you have to infer whether they will be accommodating.
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    As somebody who has been diagnosed with ADHD (and struggled mightily at times) ...yes. This. Once you get the job, most workplaces simply just want you to get the job done and are fairly flexible. Need to wear noise canceling headphones or hole up in a conference room to write some code in a distraction-free environment, etc.? Been in the industry for 25 years and that's never been an issue. Mentioning a label like ADHD to an employer is IMO useless at best and career suicide at worst. Most commonly it sounds like you're making excuses. Best case scenario is that they're sympathetic, but, the label "ADHD" still does not tell them what you actually need. Even if your manager has diagnosed ADHD as well that doesn't mean her needs are the same as yours. So why even mention the label? Tell them what you need -- or better yet, when it's feasible, just do it the way you need to do it. For example, working on a teeny tiny laptop monitor exacerbates my ADHD. Shuffling windows around really breaks my flow. So I like big and/or multiple monitors. If I have a workplace tech budget I use it on big-ass monitors or I simply bring my own. There are cheap, lightweight, portable 1080p USB-C monitors now and I can fit two of them in my laptop bag alongside my laptop. So by buying $200 worth of USB-C monitors on Amazon I have solved this particular hurdle for myself. There are physical and mental health diagnoses for which I wouldn't give this sort of advice. And yeah, the world should be different.
shmatt 3y ago
they will act confused, pause, say they will ask someone, and never get back to you on the other hand its hard to blame one aspect for "being bad" at leetcode. Plenty of non-diagnosed people with tons of real world experience have a hard time finding the gotcha in a 38 minute interview. It doesn't represent the real world in any way IMO
- agentultra 3y ago
  They're not testing software skills, they're testing anxiety: https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews-anxiety/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews-anxiety/
WinLychee 3y ago
I hate to say it, but you're gonna have to learn coping mechanisms. I think a lot of us in tech have similar issues to be honest, so you're not alone here. Personally I HATE having to sit there and grind, but you've got to find a way to squeeze out the motivation. I also perform really poorly under interview pressure, but I think that wildly over-preparing can help you calm your nerves. Personal network is also SUPER important right now for securing that crucial foot in the door.
- Pet_Ant 3y ago
  The time to develop a network is when you don't need it. So for those of you with a job, work on it now. Add your coworkers on LinkedIn, message that old friend from another company for lunch.
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  wildly over-preparing can help you calm your nerves This is exactly what (ballet) dancers and (classical/jazz) muscians do. It is hard enough to do what they do without pressure of hundreds of people paying money to watch you. Also, other HN posts about pressure in interviews have given two amazing ideas: 1) Take a mild beta-blocker before the interview. Any liberal doctor will prescribe without issue. "Practice" a few times before the real thing so that you can find a level that works for you. This kind of drug is used to cheat in concetration sports like archery and darts. 2) If remote interview, drink a (half) glass of white wine (don't stain your teeth!) before or during your interview. You can hide it in a mug. More than a few people have vouched for this idea.
  - fnimick 3y ago
    Can confirm I know people who use beta blockers for interviewing. Abuse of ADHD drugs is also getting fairly common. If you play "fair", you're a sucker.
hoorayimhelping 3y ago
>I have been diagnosed with ADHD this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? As someone who was diagnosed with ADHD a decade-and-a-half ago in my 20s: You don't. You don't even think about using your diagnosis as an excuse or a shield for behavior that is unacceptable. You never consider thinking that you deserve special treatment because you were diagnosed with ADHD. You accept that there are tradeoffs that come with it, some positive, some negative, and that you will have advantages in some areas and disadvantages in other areas and you don't let it define you or your behavior.
- dublinben 3y ago
  Would you give the same advice to someone who was blind or in a wheelchair and asking for reasonable accommodations at work? ADHD is a legally recognized disability in the US, just like other, more visible disabilities. There are a number of accommodations that OP could ask for that an employer would be obligated to provide. In pragmatic terms, disclosure is probably best kept until after you've been hired somewhere, since discrimination during hiring is commonplace.
  - User23 3y ago
    No, because those visible disabilities win the favor of juries and get punitive damages. ADHD doesn’t so no lawyer worth anything is even going to take a hard look at the case.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
    Parent is giving a report from experience and that perspective is worth noting even if it may not be considered kosher by some standards. As such, it should not be dismissed as a bad advice as it deals with the reality of workplaces and not 'world as it should be'.
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    Would you give the same advice to someone who was blind or in a wheelchair No, I wouldn't. But as fellow ADHD sufferer (who has struggled greatly at times) I would vouch for the parent poster's advice. ADHD ultimately comes down to coping strategies. At the end of the day you are going to have to develop strategies to focus and accomplish your work. In this sense it is different than e.g. blindness. A blind person (I'm partially blind, too! fun!) can't cope their way to sight. But an ADHD sufferer is going to have to figure out a way to focus and accomplish work. I guess if I was already hired I might consider bringing up the disability thing if my employer was doing some weirdo, directly-hostile thing w.r.t. ADHD like banning headphones in an open office. That would be a plan of last resort.
eric_cc 3y ago
> 10 year career veteran A 10 year career does not make you a veteran..
- Tostino 3y ago
  You don't know their situation or work history, why reply with something so negative?
  - omniglottal 3y ago
    A veteran is someone who has served in the armed forces. It's like saying "I have 10 years tenure" when they're not a tenured professor, but just mean "have worked in the industry/position for 10 years".
    - Tostino 3y ago
      The term is used colloquially so often that I didn't even associate it with military service in this context in the least.
    - bckr 3y ago
      Both the use of “veteran” and “tenure” that you provide as incorrect are recognized as correct by OED and are common colloquial uses.
    - sudosysgen 3y ago
      > A veteran (from Latin vetus 'old') is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field.[1] A military veteran is a person who is no longer in a military.[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veteran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veteran
    - cableshaft 3y ago
      That's one definition. A word can have more than one definition. Cambridge: "a person who has had a lot of experience of a particular activity"[1] Merriam-Webster: "a person of long experience usually in some occupation or skill (such as politics or the arts)[2] Oxford: "A person with long experience in a particular (non-military) position, field, or activity; any experienced or ageing person."[3] Vocabulary.com: "Veteran commonly refers to someone who has fought in a war––think Veterans' Day, the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial––but, in fact, the word can mean anyone with experience in a particular field."[4] I could go on. They used it correctly. 10 years is plenty of experience for this field to use the term veteran. [1]: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/veteran https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/veter... [2]: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/veteran https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/veteran [3]: https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=veteran https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=veter... [4]: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/veteran https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/veteran
ghotli 3y ago
I skimmed this earlier and this comment got stuck in my mind. I came back to others saying similar things but I'm still commenting anyway. The thing you're asking for? There is no such thing. I've been in your shoes and I've been on both sides of the interview table many times. You probably need to drop the idea that there will be accomodations for anything during this sort of process. Let me tell you what works for me. Focus on cardiovascular exercise three days a week. Find one habit you can manage to do daily and make that your keystone habit you hang other things around. Sleep well, eat right, see if you still think you need accomodations once these three pillars have been addressed. If they've already been addressed you're squarely in the realm of practice every day. Flashcards for jargon you missed in interviews, etc. The onus is on you, my friend, and I hope this new diagnosis of yours isn't something that feels insurmountable. You've got this, just not with the mindset that others need to treat you any differently. Especially in the context of finding or even into starting a new job.
- wing-_-nuts 3y ago
  As someone with ADHD and cerebral palsy, I will say at least physical accommodations are sometimes respected. I only ask to be allowed to remain seated while whiteboarding. Sometimes it's flat out ignored. Once I was asked to whiteboard in front of a panel of judges for an hour. After that experience, I'm now much more assertive about it, which can lead me to be viewed as abrasive. Thankfully it's a non issue since most interviews moved online. My current boss didn't even know I had a disability until we met for lunch 3mo later. I don't ask for accommodation for ADHD. I believe that would be judged far more harshly. Frankly, the ability to focus is part of the job requirement. If I were having issues with this I would get medicated before asking for accommodation.
  - neon_electro 3y ago
    Thanks for your thoughts. I am medicated.
throwaway2037 3y ago
Hello no, don't tell them anything of that sort. This isn't university; this is real life full of unfairness and hidden discrimination. I wrote more about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36901303&p=2#36903751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36901303&p=2#36903751
unethical_ban 3y ago
What the other guy said about drugs is probably a good idea. Do NOT tell them until you're in the door, if at all. Maybe mention it casually when you need to assert taking an extra long walk or something.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  I'd just take the walks. I've never had an employer in the software engineering industry who batted an eye at such things.
JohnBooty 3y ago
Middle aged, diagnosed with ADHD about 15 years ago, been in the industry for 25 years. Not saying my way is best, but this is how I do it. ADHD is nothing to be ashamed of, and IMO you have as much right to accommodations as somebody with no legs who uses a wheelchair. However, you couldn't pay me to mention ADHD to an employer or prospective employer. It's too stigmatized, and also it's just plain nebulous -- even if an employer is supportive, your manager can't intuit and extrapolate the behavioral health needs of individual employees based on their diagnoses. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? During the interview process I don't mention ADHD or accommodations at all. Best advice I can give here is to either (a) just grind Leetcode until you feel comfortable with it? (b) send your resume to a kazillion places and just bail if the interview process involves some kind of live coding exercise you feel that you'll struggle with. Or, alternately, just do it anyway with zero pressure and maybe you'll surprise yourself. You will get better at live coding and interviews with time. Once you have the job, I still never mention ADHD ever. What I do is just ask for accommodations that I need. I never worked at a company that really gave a flying fuck if I took my laptop to a spare conference room so I could code in a quieter and less distracting environment. Helps to tell your team where you'll be so it's not like you disappeared. But from a tactical standpoint I would at all times urge people to think in terms of solutions (specific coping strategies and accommodations) instead of labels and craft your employee/employer relationship accordingly.
JohnBooty 3y ago
I've been diagnosed myself, but ADHD varies greatly from person to person. So I definitely don't assume my experience is the same as yours. However... I've been at it on and off for 17 months and have had the worst experience with technical assessments, despite being a 10 year career veteran with plenty of Web development experience. In addition to my other reply: is ADHD truly the issue for you w.r.t. technical assessments? Are you sure it's not anxiety or unfamiliarity with the source material? My experience with ADHD is that it causes me to struggle during the long grind of holding a job. 40 hours of focus per week, doing things that might not be very exciting? Yeah. ADHD struggle. But maintaining my focus for 30-60 minutes for some tech assessment? This is not a problem. That's adrenaline time, baby. If you are ever able to maintain 30-60 minutes of focus for anything at all (movies, gaming, reading, sex, sports, hobbies, whatever) but not for a job interview then I would take a very hard look in the mirror and see if there's something else affecting your performance. Again, just a prompt for thought. I do not make the mistake of assuming anybody else's experiences and struggles are the same as my own.
- neon_electro 3y ago
  Thanks for your multiple comments and thoughts. My biggest frustration is the mismatch between what a technical interview ostensibly is supposed to elicit for the interviewer, and how that interview experience is supposed to help the candidate prove they can do the job by successfully completing the technical assessment. Solving a two-dimensional array data analysis problem is not an effective way to determine how good I am at Web development; this has been an example of one of the worst live coding assessments I’ve had in my search so far. The best ones I’ve had have been asynchronous and allow me to spend hours if necessary to produce an artifact that would actually reflect my regular work product if hired. Those examples are proudly shown off on my GitHub, even, for whatever it’s worth.
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    100% agree on every point. Ability to crush Leetcode problems has little correlation with ability to make web apps and CRUD apps. I've been working in this industry for 25 years and it is extremely rare to have to bust out some compsci/Leetcode algorithm stuff in real life. I'm okay with maybe a very quick coding screener like Fizzbuzz. The reality is a lot of people applying for these jobs can't code, at all, period. https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ Anything more than that is silly IMO.

edrxty 3y ago

Never reveal ADHD to employers or fellow employees. It will always be used against you.

sethaurus 3y ago
I've been very disclosive about my diagnosis, and many people I work with have in turn revealed their own diagnoses to me. I'd like to hear more about your experience with this ⸻ how is this info getting used against people?
- phpnode 3y ago
  All weaknesses or differences can be used against you. When you’re interviewing for a job you are presenting an idealised version of yourself that makes the decision to hire you easy from the interviewer’s perspective. That’s not the time to bring up flaws. In general though this idea that people should talk openly about their mental health problems is good for society and terrible for the individuals concerned. People will absolutely change their opinion of you and treat you differently, and they will never disclose why.
  - fnimick 3y ago
    Exactly. This is why the "tell me your weakness" question is a trap. It's deliberately selecting for people able to read the subtext and the situation and respond accordingly. The interview, and to a lesser extent the workplace, is a hostile environment where you are in direct competition with peers and management who try to get the most out of you for the least compensation. Anything you say or do will be used against you the second it is useful to undercut you in favor of someone else's payday.
    - neon_electro 3y ago
      Nothing to add to your well-stated comment. This sucks.
      - fnimick 3y ago
        Moral ambiguity is a competitive advantage for the business too. Holding back "progress" turns you into a cost center in a real quick way and that's something the business wants to avoid. Who do you think did better for Uber, the person who pointed out that it was technically illegal, or the person who pointed out that they could make a lot of money before the legal trouble materialized? I've been at a company where that happened and the people who focused on data accuracy and brought that up in debates around prioritization got cut for not moving the business forward. As I got told, "if the customer is shown what they want to see (and they have no other source of information to compare), does it matter if it's accurate?"
  - Michelangelo11 3y ago
    Amen. Unfortunately, but ... Amen.
- edrxty 3y ago
  -If you mention anything about medication, boomers will immediately assume you're taking "meth" because they know the medications have some sort of amphetamine component. -People who think neurodivergence == lazy/undisciplined/shithead/whatever. -People who don't understand ADHD will assume you're like that kid in elementary school who was always setting things on fire and interrupting class (and there's a good chance you are, but you've developed management skills by now as to not do that at work). -People who sort of understand ADHD and know you won't be as mindlessly heads-down as other employees so you're likely to not take well to corporate bullshit/want to work on things you find stimulating rather than <insert banal maintenance task>. -People who understand ADHD too well and can keep the dopamine flowing just enough to wring you dry until you burn out.

cosmojg 3y ago

> I have been diagnosed with ADHD this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? You don't. In my experience, any mention of anything resembling mental illness will result in rejection (but obviously they'll cite some other reason to avoid a lawsuit).

timacles 3y ago
As a general life advice (this may sound harsh (but thats life)) ... never admit weakness or flaw to anyone that you're selling yourself to. They will immediately ignore your 99 other good qualities and only focus on the flaw you mention. Selling yourself is a game, and the ones "buying" you dont have the cognitive head space to make difficult decisions across many candidates. They will always choose the mentally easier option. The "game" is that you have to as quickly as possible figure out exactly the mental model of what it is they want, and frame yourself as that. All the parts of whether you or they actually fit each others needs must be done within that dynamic. You cannot explicitly mention negative qualities, you have to infer whether they will be accommodating.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  As somebody who has been diagnosed with ADHD (and struggled mightily at times) ...yes. This. Once you get the job, most workplaces simply just want you to get the job done and are fairly flexible. Need to wear noise canceling headphones or hole up in a conference room to write some code in a distraction-free environment, etc.? Been in the industry for 25 years and that's never been an issue. Mentioning a label like ADHD to an employer is IMO useless at best and career suicide at worst. Most commonly it sounds like you're making excuses. Best case scenario is that they're sympathetic, but, the label "ADHD" still does not tell them what you actually need. Even if your manager has diagnosed ADHD as well that doesn't mean her needs are the same as yours. So why even mention the label? Tell them what you need -- or better yet, when it's feasible, just do it the way you need to do it. For example, working on a teeny tiny laptop monitor exacerbates my ADHD. Shuffling windows around really breaks my flow. So I like big and/or multiple monitors. If I have a workplace tech budget I use it on big-ass monitors or I simply bring my own. There are cheap, lightweight, portable 1080p USB-C monitors now and I can fit two of them in my laptop bag alongside my laptop. So by buying $200 worth of USB-C monitors on Amazon I have solved this particular hurdle for myself. There are physical and mental health diagnoses for which I wouldn't give this sort of advice. And yeah, the world should be different.

shmatt 3y ago

they will act confused, pause, say they will ask someone, and never get back to you on the other hand its hard to blame one aspect for "being bad" at leetcode. Plenty of non-diagnosed people with tons of real world experience have a hard time finding the gotcha in a 38 minute interview. It doesn't represent the real world in any way IMO

agentultra 3y ago
They're not testing software skills, they're testing anxiety: https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews-anxiety/ https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews-anxiety/

WinLychee 3y ago

I hate to say it, but you're gonna have to learn coping mechanisms. I think a lot of us in tech have similar issues to be honest, so you're not alone here. Personally I HATE having to sit there and grind, but you've got to find a way to squeeze out the motivation. I also perform really poorly under interview pressure, but I think that wildly over-preparing can help you calm your nerves. Personal network is also SUPER important right now for securing that crucial foot in the door.

Pet_Ant 3y ago
The time to develop a network is when you don't need it. So for those of you with a job, work on it now. Add your coworkers on LinkedIn, message that old friend from another company for lunch.
throwaway2037 3y ago
wildly over-preparing can help you calm your nerves This is exactly what (ballet) dancers and (classical/jazz) muscians do. It is hard enough to do what they do without pressure of hundreds of people paying money to watch you. Also, other HN posts about pressure in interviews have given two amazing ideas: 1) Take a mild beta-blocker before the interview. Any liberal doctor will prescribe without issue. "Practice" a few times before the real thing so that you can find a level that works for you. This kind of drug is used to cheat in concetration sports like archery and darts. 2) If remote interview, drink a (half) glass of white wine (don't stain your teeth!) before or during your interview. You can hide it in a mug. More than a few people have vouched for this idea.
- fnimick 3y ago
  Can confirm I know people who use beta blockers for interviewing. Abuse of ADHD drugs is also getting fairly common. If you play "fair", you're a sucker.

hoorayimhelping 3y ago

>I have been diagnosed with ADHD this year. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? As someone who was diagnosed with ADHD a decade-and-a-half ago in my 20s: You don't. You don't even think about using your diagnosis as an excuse or a shield for behavior that is unacceptable. You never consider thinking that you deserve special treatment because you were diagnosed with ADHD. You accept that there are tradeoffs that come with it, some positive, some negative, and that you will have advantages in some areas and disadvantages in other areas and you don't let it define you or your behavior.

dublinben 3y ago
Would you give the same advice to someone who was blind or in a wheelchair and asking for reasonable accommodations at work? ADHD is a legally recognized disability in the US, just like other, more visible disabilities. There are a number of accommodations that OP could ask for that an employer would be obligated to provide. In pragmatic terms, disclosure is probably best kept until after you've been hired somewhere, since discrimination during hiring is commonplace.
- User23 3y ago
  No, because those visible disabilities win the favor of juries and get punitive damages. ADHD doesn’t so no lawyer worth anything is even going to take a hard look at the case.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
  Parent is giving a report from experience and that perspective is worth noting even if it may not be considered kosher by some standards. As such, it should not be dismissed as a bad advice as it deals with the reality of workplaces and not 'world as it should be'.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  Would you give the same advice to someone who was blind or in a wheelchair No, I wouldn't. But as fellow ADHD sufferer (who has struggled greatly at times) I would vouch for the parent poster's advice. ADHD ultimately comes down to coping strategies. At the end of the day you are going to have to develop strategies to focus and accomplish your work. In this sense it is different than e.g. blindness. A blind person (I'm partially blind, too! fun!) can't cope their way to sight. But an ADHD sufferer is going to have to figure out a way to focus and accomplish work. I guess if I was already hired I might consider bringing up the disability thing if my employer was doing some weirdo, directly-hostile thing w.r.t. ADHD like banning headphones in an open office. That would be a plan of last resort.

eric_cc 3y ago

> 10 year career veteran A 10 year career does not make you a veteran..

Tostino 3y ago
You don't know their situation or work history, why reply with something so negative?
- omniglottal 3y ago
  A veteran is someone who has served in the armed forces. It's like saying "I have 10 years tenure" when they're not a tenured professor, but just mean "have worked in the industry/position for 10 years".
  - Tostino 3y ago
    The term is used colloquially so often that I didn't even associate it with military service in this context in the least.
  - bckr 3y ago
    Both the use of “veteran” and “tenure” that you provide as incorrect are recognized as correct by OED and are common colloquial uses.
  - sudosysgen 3y ago
    > A veteran (from Latin vetus 'old') is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field.[1] A military veteran is a person who is no longer in a military.[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veteran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veteran
  - cableshaft 3y ago
    That's one definition. A word can have more than one definition. Cambridge: "a person who has had a lot of experience of a particular activity"[1] Merriam-Webster: "a person of long experience usually in some occupation or skill (such as politics or the arts)[2] Oxford: "A person with long experience in a particular (non-military) position, field, or activity; any experienced or ageing person."[3] Vocabulary.com: "Veteran commonly refers to someone who has fought in a war––think Veterans' Day, the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial––but, in fact, the word can mean anyone with experience in a particular field."[4] I could go on. They used it correctly. 10 years is plenty of experience for this field to use the term veteran. [1]: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/veteran https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/veter... [2]: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/veteran https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/veteran [3]: https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=veteran https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=veter... [4]: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/veteran https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/veteran

ghotli 3y ago

I skimmed this earlier and this comment got stuck in my mind. I came back to others saying similar things but I'm still commenting anyway. The thing you're asking for? There is no such thing. I've been in your shoes and I've been on both sides of the interview table many times. You probably need to drop the idea that there will be accomodations for anything during this sort of process. Let me tell you what works for me. Focus on cardiovascular exercise three days a week. Find one habit you can manage to do daily and make that your keystone habit you hang other things around. Sleep well, eat right, see if you still think you need accomodations once these three pillars have been addressed. If they've already been addressed you're squarely in the realm of practice every day. Flashcards for jargon you missed in interviews, etc. The onus is on you, my friend, and I hope this new diagnosis of yours isn't something that feels insurmountable. You've got this, just not with the mindset that others need to treat you any differently. Especially in the context of finding or even into starting a new job.

wing-_-nuts 3y ago
As someone with ADHD and cerebral palsy, I will say at least physical accommodations are sometimes respected. I only ask to be allowed to remain seated while whiteboarding. Sometimes it's flat out ignored. Once I was asked to whiteboard in front of a panel of judges for an hour. After that experience, I'm now much more assertive about it, which can lead me to be viewed as abrasive. Thankfully it's a non issue since most interviews moved online. My current boss didn't even know I had a disability until we met for lunch 3mo later. I don't ask for accommodation for ADHD. I believe that would be judged far more harshly. Frankly, the ability to focus is part of the job requirement. If I were having issues with this I would get medicated before asking for accommodation.
- neon_electro 3y ago
  Thanks for your thoughts. I am medicated.

throwaway2037 3y ago

Hello no, don't tell them anything of that sort. This isn't university; this is real life full of unfairness and hidden discrimination. I wrote more about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36901303&p=2#36903751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36901303&p=2#36903751

unethical_ban 3y ago

What the other guy said about drugs is probably a good idea. Do NOT tell them until you're in the door, if at all. Maybe mention it casually when you need to assert taking an extra long walk or something.

JohnBooty 3y ago
I'd just take the walks. I've never had an employer in the software engineering industry who batted an eye at such things.

JohnBooty 3y ago

Middle aged, diagnosed with ADHD about 15 years ago, been in the industry for 25 years. Not saying my way is best, but this is how I do it. ADHD is nothing to be ashamed of, and IMO you have as much right to accommodations as somebody with no legs who uses a wheelchair. However, you couldn't pay me to mention ADHD to an employer or prospective employer. It's too stigmatized, and also it's just plain nebulous -- even if an employer is supportive, your manager can't intuit and extrapolate the behavioral health needs of individual employees based on their diagnoses. How do I best tell prospective employers I might need some accommodation in this process? During the interview process I don't mention ADHD or accommodations at all. Best advice I can give here is to either (a) just grind Leetcode until you feel comfortable with it? (b) send your resume to a kazillion places and just bail if the interview process involves some kind of live coding exercise you feel that you'll struggle with. Or, alternately, just do it anyway with zero pressure and maybe you'll surprise yourself. You will get better at live coding and interviews with time. Once you have the job, I still never mention ADHD ever. What I do is just ask for accommodations that I need. I never worked at a company that really gave a flying fuck if I took my laptop to a spare conference room so I could code in a quieter and less distracting environment. Helps to tell your team where you'll be so it's not like you disappeared. But from a tactical standpoint I would at all times urge people to think in terms of solutions (specific coping strategies and accommodations) instead of labels and craft your employee/employer relationship accordingly.

JohnBooty 3y ago

I've been diagnosed myself, but ADHD varies greatly from person to person. So I definitely don't assume my experience is the same as yours. However... I've been at it on and off for 17 months and have had the worst experience with technical assessments, despite being a 10 year career veteran with plenty of Web development experience. In addition to my other reply: is ADHD truly the issue for you w.r.t. technical assessments? Are you sure it's not anxiety or unfamiliarity with the source material? My experience with ADHD is that it causes me to struggle during the long grind of holding a job. 40 hours of focus per week, doing things that might not be very exciting? Yeah. ADHD struggle. But maintaining my focus for 30-60 minutes for some tech assessment? This is not a problem. That's adrenaline time, baby. If you are ever able to maintain 30-60 minutes of focus for anything at all (movies, gaming, reading, sex, sports, hobbies, whatever) but not for a job interview then I would take a very hard look in the mirror and see if there's something else affecting your performance. Again, just a prompt for thought. I do not make the mistake of assuming anybody else's experiences and struggles are the same as my own.

neon_electro 3y ago
Thanks for your multiple comments and thoughts. My biggest frustration is the mismatch between what a technical interview ostensibly is supposed to elicit for the interviewer, and how that interview experience is supposed to help the candidate prove they can do the job by successfully completing the technical assessment. Solving a two-dimensional array data analysis problem is not an effective way to determine how good I am at Web development; this has been an example of one of the worst live coding assessments I’ve had in my search so far. The best ones I’ve had have been asynchronous and allow me to spend hours if necessary to produce an artifact that would actually reflect my regular work product if hired. Those examples are proudly shown off on my GitHub, even, for whatever it’s worth.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  100% agree on every point. Ability to crush Leetcode problems has little correlation with ability to make web apps and CRUD apps. I've been working in this industry for 25 years and it is extremely rare to have to bust out some compsci/Leetcode algorithm stuff in real life. I'm okay with maybe a very quick coding screener like Fizzbuzz. The reality is a lot of people applying for these jobs can't code, at all, period. https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ Anything more than that is silly IMO.