#25 The ADHD PM Interview Toolkit

A collection of my favorite ADHD friendly strategies for job interview preparation.

Welcome to Tech Atypically👋 a weekly blog about ADHD, product management, and a neurodiverse life. Each issue includes science, stories, and strategies for regulating ADHD and the general chaos of being a PM.

Part 15 of the Product Manager Interview and Executive Function (EF) Series.

🌋Takeaways

• Pick and choose your favorite tips to help you succeed at interviewing and cope with ADHD challenges.

• Interviews are not a measure of your self-worth or abilities.

• Emotional awareness and regulation are the greatest gifts in coping with ADHD and being a more confident PM.

• Be Bold, Be Fearless, Be You.

🐼Connect with me directly for free ADHD help

⭐Introduction

Use this post as a cheat sheet for the most important learnings and strategies of the last 14 posts about Product Manager Interviews. You’ll find that most of them are connected to emotional regulation and the development of self-awareness. That was my biggest surprise learning about my ADHD. Emotional awareness and regulation have been the greatest gifts in coping with ADHD and being a more confident PM. They’ve become a key to learning more about who I am and being more confident in interviewing. I hope this post gets closer to getting those gifts too.

Helping you create a map of your interview plan. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

🔥Preparing for interviews

• If you’re procrastinating practice or a task you don’t like, hack the same power that distracts to be the power that engages you. (Learn More)

• When the procrastination shame overwhelms you, choose to prioritize yourself and big dreams over a shitty time-freezing machine. (Learn More)

• Please don’t tell me to just “plan, practice, and make a list” unless you want me to hulk out in anger/shame. Instead, acknowledge my feelings and extend kindness to reduce shame. Help yourself emotionally connect with yourself. (Learn More)

• Reframe the fear of failing to get a new job, into driving the outcome of finding the right job. (Learn More)

🦄Performance of interviews

• When you are fearless and honest, your emotions empower you, not disable you. (Learn More)

  • Mindfulness mantra: Be Bold, Be Fearless, Be You

• Slow yourself down and take advantage of time dilation in an interview. (Learn More)

• Be brief and let the interviewer(s) direct what they want to be clarified. (Learn More)

• In case of a mental emergency, use the BRRR Framework to recover.

  • The BRRR Framework

    • Break the fixation.

    • Reassess and Refocus on what is in front of you.

    • Recover with intent.

🦊Processing interview outcomes

• Reframe interview experiences and their outcomes as learning exercises, instead of judgments of your abilities. (Learn More)

• You don’t have direct control over whether you get an offer. However, you do have control over identifying, sharing, and working towards getting the job you want. (Learn More)

• Allow yourself to experience the emotions of the interview, positive or negative. Letting go is allowing yourself to experience the pain of rejection and move on. Experience the wins and let yourself celebrate.

  • Mindfulness practice: Ground, Conduct, Give

✨Conclusion

What started as a 10-part writing series ends with 15 parts. Oops. I did it though. “It” being I was able to overcome my anxiety about product manager interviews. The solution was unexpected though. It wasn’t a practice or attentional solution as I expected. It came down to learning to be self-aware of what I want and letting those emotions empower instead of weaken me. I still don’t have a job, but I have a greater sense of self-awareness and confidence in my abilities. That’s something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life to every job I take and get rejected from.

🐼Talk to me about your challenges

⏭️Next Week

A new series about core product management skills and ADHD.

A wheel with 10 domains of executive function: organization, attention and focus, impulse control, time-keeping, planning and prioritization, self-monitoring, working memory, flexible thinking, emotional control, task initiation.