Shaping the ADHD Career with Shell Mendelson

Shell Mendelson has built her 35-year career in education and career counseling. There are a lot of career counselors, though. What makes Shell indispensable for us today is that she has ADHD herself and has spent that career helping others make career choices that reflect joy and passion for their unique ADHD brains.

This week on the show, Shell brings us new insights into jobs and the ADHD brain. We talk about finding the right match, how to target those deal breakers we've been thinking so hard about the last few weeks, and how to approach discussing ADHD with hiring managers. We review what it takes to find a career coach that can help you with your unique career direction and how to work with a career coach to get the most out of the relationship.

One other thing about Shell that is germane to this conversation: she was mentored by Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success She's custodian of the methodology now and has taken it in her own wonderful direction to help the neurodiverse population. Even so, we're intrigued by just how well the Parachute model aligns to our thinking around ADHD and encourage you to check out the book. It's a classic. And Shell has an updated working for ADHD adults which should be available in the next two months. Keep an eye out!

Learn more about Shell right here, and make sure to connect on LinkedIn if you're on the hunt and need a coach!

Other Links

• The Damn Good Resume Guide, Fifth Edition: A Crash Course in Resume Writing by Yana Parker and Beth Brown

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast
• (01:19) - Support the Show: Become a Patron and Join the Community! https://patreon.com/theadhdpodcast
• (03:29) - Introducing Career Counselor Shell Mendelson
• (09:23) - What Color is Your Parachute?
• (15:54) - What makes the ADHD hunt hard?
• (18:53) - Where is ADHD in the process?
• (23:51) - The ADHD Disclosure Question
• (29:51) - The "Means to an End" Job
• (37:55) - Performance Plans
• (44:29) - Moving into the Job Hunt
• (49:05) - The Job Market
• (53:56) - Learn More