Top ADHD Career Change Resources for Women Over 40 (Free & Effective)

Thinking about switching careers but feel like you’re already overwhelmed just by thinking about it?

Navigating a career change can be daunting, especially for women over 40 managing ADHD. I know – I’ve done it, several times. Traditional career advice tends to overlook our unique challenges and advantages, and the right resources aren’t always easy to find when you don’t know what you’re looking for, so I thought I’d put a guide together of some of my favorite free resources to help support ADHD women who are in research mode. This guide presents career change resources I’ve personally vetted, which are friendly for people with ADHD or ADHD symptoms – including free tools, assessments, and job boards, to help ADHD women who are ready to figure out their next career move without losing momentum, interest, or their entire identity.

Career Exploration & Personality Tests

Understanding your interests and strengths is the first step in a successful career transition. These assessments are designed with ADHD-friendly interfaces to keep you engaged – because figuring out your ideal career should not mean enduring a 40-page PDF with 1980s clip art:

  • CareerExplorer.com: Deep, customizable career matching with filters that actually make sense.
  • My Next Move: Clean, practical, and super ADHD-friendly interface for discovering jobs by interests.
  • JobTest.org: Less fluff, more direct insights on roles that match how your brain actually works.
  • Teal Career Personality Test: Quick, modern, and useful for jobseekers who hate quizzes.

Values, Strengths & Skills Assessments

Identifying what really matters to you, like your core values and strengths, can point you toward a career that aligns with your personal and professional goals.

Free Learning & Microcredentials

Upskilling doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. These platforms offer free courses and certifications (including MOOCs at some major universities and schools) – no kidney-selling required:

  • Class Central Free Certificates: Massive directory of free courses from legit institutions.
  • EdSkip: Curated career paths and transitions that don’t assume you want to be in tech. (I know – crazy, right??)
  • CareerFoundry Blog: Step-by-step guides and stories for all types of tech-related work.
  • Harvard: How do you like them apples?
  • MIT: This was actually one of the first ones I heard about, quite a few years ago now. It remains a high-quality, extensive selection of free online courses.
  • Princeton: Also provides free online courses
  • Yale: Provides free access to SOME of their pre-recorded introductory courses.
  • Stanford: Sorry, I don’t have a catchy slogan but these are quality too.

Highlights:

  • The MITx Intro Biology course is consistently mentioned as a best course – so if you’re interested in biology, it’s worth checking out.
  • Stanford’s Algorithms Specialization course also gets mentioned quite a bit as a highlight. Worth looking at if this is an interest for you.

Remote & Digital Nomad Job Boards

Because you can work from anywhere – including your couch, your van, or a cabin in the woods.

Writing Jobs (for the “I should probably be a writer” crowd)

If you’ve ever been told, “You’re such a good writer, you should do something with that…” – here’s your sign. I’ll probably do a whole separate post about writing at some point, but for now, I’ll just emphasize – if this interests you at all, definitely read Maria Cassano’s post from Medium, and take her words to heart. I could find you a lot more articles like this but hers is particularly recent and well-written. 

Creative Careers (Musicians, Artists, Freelancers)

You can absolutely have a creative brain and a sustainable career. Here are just a couple of options (though I know I’ll be adding more, so watch this space):

Travel, Work, & Location-Independent Life

For the ADHD woman who’s ready to blow out of her zip code – or even just get some flexibility and maybe a remote-friendly lifestyle. (Some of these sites are fantastic resources on their own, too.)

  • Travel companies: Various travel and trip organizing companies hire operators to organize and book group tours and trips; some include travel and/or travel benefits. Look around online if you want to see what’s possible. I’ll see about doing a story just for this sometime in the future.
  • Digital Nomad Jobs (Absolutely Lucy): She has provided, on her blog, a fantastic post that has one of the more ADHD-realistic nomad lists I’ve seen. She also talks about some of the nitty-gritty details you don’t often hear about, like health insurance (so mysterious!). A great read!
  • How to Become a Digital Nomad with No Experience (Jessie on a Journey): Great post from Jessie on a Journey, recounting how he became a digital nomad in the first place. This is a fantastic read for anyone who’s always wanted to get started with this and feels intimidated.
  • Digital Nomad Jobs to Start in 2025 (Freaking Nomads): Post by Irene Wang with very current remote work + no-experience ideas.

Support, Community & Real Talk

Don’t do this alone. Surround yourself with smart, ADHD-strong women doing the same thing.

  • Second Life Podcast: Interviews with women who made huge shifts and lived to tell the tale.
  • Meetup.com: Search for local ADHD, career change, or creative communities.
  • Reddit.com: So many subreddits on here, and you can find one for anything – there are definitely plenty for ADHD women, career changes, and more, so check it out.

Planning & Guidance That Doesn’t Suck

When you just need a little structure that doesn’t make your ADHD brain want to scream.

Great Listens (Podcasts & More)

Yeah, that’s right, there’s more than just podcasts out there… here are some things to listen to when you get tired of the true-crime podcast collection (hey, no judgment.. but also, variety is good for you):

  • Go Find Out: The Career Switch Podcast: Interviews with people who’ve changed careers, about their career changes. It’s not just career coaches on here – I promise!
  • Second Act Stories: Addictive; each episode features a different person who’s left a great career to do something they find more interesting, more fulfilling, more awesome in some way. Pretty rad.
  • Happen to Your Career: I’ve always loved the name of this one, but it’s also a terrific place to find a wide range of interviews and advice about careers and taking control of your own career, whether that means a career change or something else.
  • The Teacher Career Coach Podcast: For all those in education who are considering a career change but can’t imagine doing anything else, this could be a great listen.
  • Teacher Shift: A podcast that asks the question, If I’m not a teacher, what am I doing / who am I? (great for those in education)
  • Second Act Actors: This one is aimed at a very specific group – those who have changed careers and become actors. If that’s your dream but you don’t know anyone who’s done it, this is a great listen.

Want ADHD-friendly guidance for your next step?

There’s obviously more to executing a successful career change than just taking a bunch of self-tests, but getting to know yourself deeply is a critical first step and it’s not easy to do – let alone if you don’t even know where to look for the right tools.

Wanna keep going? You’ve got options!  

  • Check out the Career Reset Protocol – my 12-week 1:1 coaching program for midlife women with ADHD who are DONE pretending their job is fine when it’s clearly not.
  • Career Reset Program (waitlist), a 5-week coaching program to help you get your career reset on track (or maybe back on track). Email me to join the waitlist for the next one!  
  • Career Reset Club (coming soon): This is in the pre-launch stage but if you’d like to stay informed about this, which is going to be a monthly membership, please let me know (email me).

Come back often – I’ll be updating this list regularly. And if you’ve got a resource you swear by? Send it my way.

About Rachel Gaddis

bio photo of Rachel Gaddis

Rachel Gaddis is an ADHD career coach for women over 40 who are done pretending their career is fine when it’s clearly not. A late-diagnosed GenXer herself, she helps smart, burned-out women rethink what success actually looks like – and build careers that work for their brains, not against them.

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