If you are a recruiter reading this, I will recommend a great podcast at the very bottom of this post, that will provide a simple explanation for our career-swapping and hopefully make you realise why ignoring a lengthy CV might cost you the best person for the job.

I cannot count the number of times I have seen the following phrase in job listings: ‘CV cannot exceed two pages’. To me, this means that I would have to cut more than a decade of my work experience, which in turn will make it look like I didn’t start working until I was in my 30s. Not all of these jobs will be relevant to the one I am applying for, of course, but at the very least they help to show that I managed to work full-time through all of my years at uni.

Furthermore, most recruiters fail to notice that I managed to run my own business alongside these other odd jobs for over a decade. This makes me wonder if self-employment has any merit for the recruiter.

Then there is the issue of my education. Anything other than your standard BA+MA doesn’t sit well with recruiters. It is as if they cannot fathom that one person can manage several degrees or, indeed, different fields of expertise. Never mind the vast amount of certifications and online courses I have under my belt, in addition to my BA and MA.

I get it – my professional background may appear slightly haphazard or even schizophrenic to the naked eye. But wouldn’t you be at least a tiny bit interested in seeing who is behind all of this wizardry? After all, my CV is the result of my very real undying thirst for knowledge.

The reason why I haven’t stayed in a relevant position for more than 18 months at a time is that my background only gets me fixed-time positions lasting an average of a year. (In the service industry, however, I just got bored and/or understimulated, but I did learn a lot about stress management through my bar work – and I have been headhunted for my White Russians alone.)

Ultimately, I had to create my own niche and become self-employed in order to do something I loved, that required additional learning on the job. The bar work came in handy when I needed to find a better flat, pay my taxes up front or purchase new office supplies (or pay for all of those online courses).

Do you have any idea how much admin self-employment entails, by the way? How much networking? How many working hours? How many 24 hours-or-less turnaround times? Didn’t think so.

Additionally, my masking of my ADHD symptoms has made me a natural at fitting in anywhere and with anybody. Especially for short periods of time, of course, but I have done this for almost 40 years and am quite capable of keeping up appearances for longer. Just don’t put me in an open-plan office.

Unfortunately, my years of masking also makes it quite impossible for someone like me to fill out one of those personality compatibility tests recruitment agencies seem to love with any accuracy. The reason for this is that I will always tick the box that I think that you would like me to tick. I will make myself into the person you need me to be.

So, in my attempts to impress the recruiter or recruitment agency, I hide the qualities that make me a good fit for the actual company that is hiring.

Now for the thing that prompted me to write this piece. There is a very interesting educational podcast by the name of MissUnderstood: The ADHD in Women Channel. They do lovely, wee bitesize episodes in addition to their longer ones, and I have found a lot of support through the Tips From an ADHD Coach segment, with coach Jaye Lin.

The episode on changing careers often (Spotify link below) really struck a chord with me, especially as it highlights how our impulsivity and dopamine deficiency combined with our all-in personalities can lead to burnout in the wrong environment and have us apply for a different job somewhere else, only to repeat the process.

Our dependence on dopamine, however, make us more resilient in facing challenges. We thrive off of making the impossible possible – it’s what keeps us going.

As you can see, the episode shows the good and bad sides of how our traits can affect how long we can manage to stay in the same position over time. I do however find that the more I learn about how I’m built differently has made its marks on my professional pursuits, the better I am able to approach things differently. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t diagnosed until I hit mid-life, so I wasn’t able to reign it in before going to uni.

There are many people like me out there, that have had to come to terms with who they really are and start everything anew after a late in life diagnosis. We can’t change the past, but we can help others like us by being vocal about our experiences. I hope you are listening.

See ya next Tuesday!

• Spotify