David Wilkowske worked for IBM, Worldcom/MCI and Bank of America in the high-tech industry. He also worked as a janitor, farm hand, telemarketer, and truck driver. In fact, he held more than 60 different jobs across in over a dozen careers over the past 39 years. His trials and tribulations of a career gone wrong are captured in his recently published book, The Chronic Job Hopper: My Ongoing Battle With Attention Deficit Disorder 1969-2005.
David humorously recalls his job-hopping lifestyle, but his story is not one of a slacker who simply has drifted from job to job, industry to industry. Rather, his crisscrossed career path is the product of a condition that went undiagnosed and untreated until 2004. David has Attention Deficit Disorder, and it poses a life-long challenge. His book explains in vivid and honest detail the adventures and downfalls an American man with ADD.
David admits it’s quite challenging to secure work when his resume reads like a business directory. My recent attempts to secure meaningful work for decent pay have been riddled with disappointment. The truth is, while I make a real point of not wallowing in my sorrows, my failures and misfires in the world of work have become like a pile of oversized luggage that I haul in order to clutter the room and distract potential employers (and myself), whenever I finally wind my way to an important interview.
Although a stable career, with financial security would have been ideal, I have had the opportunity to see many facets of corporate America over the past three and a half decades, says David. And no matter what the job is, I have taken pride in my work. But it would have made things easier if I could have been diagnosed earlier in my life. Doctors had mistakenly thought I had narcolepsy and that I suffered from depression. They just don’t fully understand what ADD is and are not always in a knowing position to properly diagnose it.
David knows he can’t just confess on a job interview that he has ADD even though his resume looks more like a holiday shopping list. But it’s burdensome to hide it, to try to run from it. He hopes his book will inspire others to get assessed for the ADD so they don’t have to unnecessarily suffer through a disjointed career, not to mention a confusing life.
The American Perspective is a cutting edge radio program that is full of inspiration and information. It’s intended to help people succeed in life. Each week the American Perspective features celebrity guests from around the nation such as Zig Ziglar, Yolanda King, Billy D. Williams, Tony Little, Mark Victor Hansen, Dave Ramsey and many many more.
“It’s the next generation of Inter-tainment”
Source: The Student Operated Press
