My journey as a neurodivergent product marketer

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2017, and I say that not for pity or sympathy but to bring awareness to working with (and hiring) neurodivergent people. This is my journey.

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MS is a hidden disability that mostly impacts my brain. Sometimes I lose track of my thoughts, or ramble and repeat myself in different ways. My brain might make me say the wrong word when I’m thinking of the correct one, A LOT, it’s annoying! I may sound like my speech is slurred, or I have a stutter. My brain goes a mile a minute and as a result, I have high performance anxiety and ADHD. It’s a struggle.

The struggle is real.

However, I have been extremely lucky with the disease progression and am pretty much a functioning number of society 99% of the time. I can walk without a cane, for now, and I still have all my fingers, for now. (I’m terrified I’m going to lose feeling in my hands one day and slice a finger off while cooking dinner.)

Anyway, yesterday was that day where I felt like I was in the 1%. In fact, the last 3 months have had me at a low point. I’ve been on the job hunt since early June and have applied to almost 300 product marketing roles. Don’t even get me started on that process, but I will at a later date.

The stress, the heat, the rejection, the disappointment, it’s all taking a toll. It takes a while for the physical effects of MS to really bother me. But yesterday was my breaking point. I went to my neurologist and got a steroid infusion to help me bounce back. While the effects can take up to 10 days, like always, I remain optimistic that this is the reset I need to come into a new job with a fresh head, a healed body, and a nice front tan — from sitting in the passenger side of our Jeep all summer.

So why does all this matter?

Much like everything else in life, education is my end goal, and this blog is to help recruiters and employers understand the unique needs of working with neurodivergent professionals. My goal is to make professionals more aware of working with people like me and others with hidden disabilities, because sometimes the struggle can be real and not visibile.

My professional experience since my diagnosis has had its highs and lows, and I think we can all learn from them, even myself. So follow along on my journey as I navigate a new work environment (again) and share what I've learned along the way. And because this blog is part of my portfolio, I'll also be using this space to share some cool tools or techniques I've picked up — because if you're taking the time to read this, I want to make it worth your while. Stay tuned!