Advice on Banking with ADHD?

I've seen similar topics posted about navigating undergrad/the interview process with ADHD, but not much info on working FT. I'm an analyst at a BB about to hit the desk really soon, and I just wanted to see if anyone had any pointers for navigating the stresses of IB with ADHD. Medication obviously helps, but whereas it fully carries you through the typical 8-hour workday at a lot of other jobs, it just gets you through a little over half of the average workday in IB. Dealing with the Adderall crash at 7pm when you're getting slammed and it's too late to redose is another challenge altogether. 

Any advice at all on staying organized/coping with the workload/dealing with rejection sensitivity/maximizing the utility of meds is hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

13 Comments
 

Would ask your doctor about having both a longer acting stimulant and a shorter acting one prescribed. Such as adderall XR and IR. 
 

Not going to do you much good and could feel like a “waste” if you take a stim and you just end up walking around the office or refreshing your emails. Maybe after several weeks on the desk, you’ll get a sense for when your busiest hours are (I’ve heard for many people their busiest hours start around 5-7 pm). assuming you’re like most people and adderall IR poops out on you in 3-4 hours and takes 30-60 minutes to take effect, maybe ask your doctor about taking IR at 5pm and XR in the morning. Or if you find your mornings aren’t bad, take supplements/nootropics/caffeine in the mornings instead of your medicine and save short acting stims for whenever you need it most that day

 

I have the same issue, if I take it in the afternoon, it takes me hours to sleep. However, if I don't take it, odds are that I'll waste the afternoon.. so I try to take the bare minimum and then if I can't sleep (most of the days), I take an sleeping pill, which is a terrible habit.. but so far has been the only way to be productive. I'm not fully happy with it - I take pills to be active and then I take other pills to cancel the effect of the first pills. But hey, it works. 

Ps I take ritalin

 
Most Helpful

For bigger projects - set interim deadlines for yourself so you don't blow long-term timelines.  

Ie; - even I'll get a model to you for discussion a day or two before it will need to be done forces you to keep progress on tasks.  

I'd especially avoid certain admin / low engagement assignments as these can destroy your reputation as its likely you wouldn't do as well on those as with mega projects that you can hyper-focus on.   

I still do some real shitty tasks on my end to avoid taking call minutes because I know that task I would do quite poorly on. 

 
Funniest

In my analyst days I had stimulant prescriptions from multiple doctors. In addition, Modafinil (ordered online) was a godsend. Caffeine was eh. I would avoid coke at work unless you're going out soon. 

Didn't have ADHD though. 

 

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