ADHD in IB/PE?
I have bad adhd. I take vyvanse and without it I’m just a mess. I worked in IB as an analyst before getting laid off due to my firm’s restructuring, and one of the things I struggled in at first was the attention to detail. I’ve made a ton of mistakes at first but got better overtime due to my associate being helpful for me. I really want to do IB and I feel that as I grow older/get more leadership responsibilities my strengths due to my adhd will allow me to flourish.
Anyone else have adhd and in banking/pe, how has your experience been?
It’s very tough but you need to build in procedures in your own work to catch mistakes. Ie chekcing every number, printing things out on paper, etc. this industry attention to detail is crazy which is super annoying but have to do it for the first three - four years at least
I find that I am able to be an extremely high performer for around 6 months at a job, and then get bored and stop being engaged. As someone who gets a lot of their self esteem from succeeding at work, it is pretty distressing to know I am underperforming at times.
My biggest issues come more from an inability to shift attention than an inability to sustain attention. For example, I am constantly missing meetings or am late to meetings because I get so hyper-focused on whatever task I am doing that I forget that the rest of the world exists. I am lucky to have bosses that understand and look past some mistakes due to the general high quality of my work output. Still, it can be extremely stressful to constantly think I am doing great work on a task only to look up and realize I've missed a meeting or deadline on a semi-regular basis. I think ADHDers that end up in finance are even more perfectionistic and hard on themselves than the average finance person, so it can be hard to mentally manage a job that sets you up for a lot of small failures even when you are trying hard.
I work at a smaller private equity shop that is fairly relaxed, and I don't think I could take the pressure of a sweatier shop to be honest. Even at my current shop, I am not sure I could have made it this far without exceptional intelligence to compensate for mistakes. Long-term, I think entrepreneurship is the best path for most people with ADHD if you don't want to be miserable. Trading may be another option.
Thank you! This is super helpful and i concur so much with this. Being hyperfocus and cannot sustaining focus when shifting around jobs are such big challanges for me..which has been struggling for me for a whole year...And EAGER to find a way out...Just want to get your input on two things 1. why would you like to stick around, this job is just too much "minimal stuff" for me to focus, let alone the creativities involved 2. why would you think trading （HF I assume?) is good for ADHDer? Becase short attention expanse and "ADHDer perform well under stree"? Thank you！
Missing meetings because you’re too hyper focused on your work at hand is too real
I struggled a lot when I started out. There were small mistakes in almost everything that I would send out, and although I worked a lot faster than most of my peers, the errors almost got me fired my first year. I realised I needed a much more rigid system, but felt like reading things over and over again didn't help at all. After my first year an associate gave me the Checklist Manifesto, which was a complete gamechanger for my career. I now use checklists for all types of things, and in my current position I've become the "go-to" guy when things need to be error free. I also think there's more understanding in the industry if things are slightly off in terms of formatting, which in turn, makes error-free/IB-style work stand out a lot more.
I'm not sure that I would be able to work long-term in IB, because I would beat myself up over very menial mistakes. My VP and MD were also extremely detail-oriented, and whenever I had negative feedback or someone caught an error somewhere, I felt like quitting that very day.
I believe my biggest flaw, both in my professional and personal life, is that my emotional reactions to things are extremely intense and binary. I try to never express these emotions to others, because I know that they are irrational. For example, when there is an error in the deck or something in a project that doesn't flow smoothly, my immediate reaction is to delete the entire deck and start over from scratch. Similarly, in my personal relationships, whenever my girlfriend and I have an argument, my initial emotional response is to break up with her and kick her out of our apartment.
Bro went full therapy on us.
Appreciate the detailed response tho
...oversharing is also a symptom I have!
Could you please share the checklist that may help to make the work error free?
First of all, thank you OP for this thread - I was beginning to think there were none of us within this industry.
Like others have mentioned, the first few months will undoubtedly be your hardest time in terms of your attention to detail. But as you progress and learn, you WILL become more proficient in spotting mistakes.
It’s not that you necessarily get better at improving your natural lack of attention to detail, it’s that you get infinitely better at building safeguards around your work to spot your initial blunders . Don’t punish yourself for making the mistakes, instead feel happy that you allowed yourself time to self review and spot them in the first place. That in itself is progress.
I’ll drop a few practices that have helped me during my time so far:
1) Have a list of all your deliverables for the day AS WELL AS all scheduled meetings for the same day.
This allows you to recognise what is achievable and the potential hinderances that may affect your work streams. It’s very easy to get caught in the weeds as we do, so gaining this sort of perspective for me is a non-negotiable.
2) Delay your need for instant gratification.
No matter how good you feel about a model you built in ‘record time’, there will almost always be mistakes. I’ve reviewed presentations that have passed through multiple levels of review and still spotted mistakes. If talented people multiple levels above you can miss errors, chances are that you will too.
3) Write down your mistakes and create a checklist of safeguards to avoid the same errors in the future.
Go through this list for every piece of work you produce before you hand it in.
4) NUTRITION, NUTRITION, HEALTH & NUTRITION.
This point has been bludgeoned to death on this platform but ffs exercise and watch what you eat.
Studies have shown that our brains are even more affected by nutrition than our neurotypical peers.
5) Listen more than you talk.
This one was especially hard for me. I consider myself a very well read person with a lot to contribute to many conversations, and in general I can be a good laugh.
Whilst initially an endearing characteristic, this can often become very draining when people are overexposed to this. Always make sure to make others feel included (introverts may take some extra work on this one). We spend countless hours with the people we work with, they don’t need to hear your voice 24/7.
6) Work with your neurodiversity, not against it.
It took me a long time to figure this one out tbh. But some of the things we tend to hate the most about ourselves are also what gives us an edge. Banking can be a pretty dry job, so our natural adhd temperament can often be a breath of fresh air to some people when used at the right time. Make the appropriate jokes when you can, show your personality! Never stop building relationships, I’ve had so many opportunities simply by putting myself out there talking to people and I’m a firm believer that my naturally bubbly(/erratic) personality has played a huge factor in this.
When you feel that sweet dopamine hyper focus wave, use every fucking ounce of it. You’ll know when you’re in it, and when you are, use every ounce of your will power to remain in that zone and get as many things as you can done.
Restlessness is not always a negative trait. As the day comes to an end, some of your colleagues may feel exhausted. Chances are, like most adhd people, you won’t. Use that time to get ahead on work you may have fallen behind on during the day or to prepare for the following day.
I hope these can be of some help!
And never forget how well you have done to land in this industry in the first place 😊
Thank you for sharing your experience, very helpful!
I wonder if you could share some tips on time blindness, rejection sensitivity dysphoria? These two adhd traits have been bothering me a lot and there’s no meds for that
Time blindness I find can always be solved with meticulous calendar planning. I put everything in my calendar, regardless of how “simple” (personal life matters included).
The notifications should usually give you some indication of what your upcoming priorities are. Everyone misses things now and then but I find this helps me a lot.
Unfortunately, rejection sensitivity is something I still struggle with. I try to rationalise all my thoughts by writing them out and think of what advice I would give to a friend who was in my position. This isn’t always helpful as it’s often hard to dissociate from your own paranoia.
I also use a close trusted confidant as a logical soundboard. This can be helpful but is not always an available option.
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