I am 57 years old. I only learned I had NVLD when I was 48. I suspected I had an LD when, as a software engineer, a much better programmer than I, called my attention to things in my code that, to him, didn’t make sense, but even more telling was my seeming inability to remember things he told me and apply them. I said to him, as I had suspected for a couple of years, that maybe I had an LD. He agreed and suggested I get tested. I had already been diagnosed with ADD some number of years prior.
I got tested and was diagnosed with NVLD, which I didn’t know even existed. A few years later, my Dx was confirmed by another clinical psychologist who gave me the same test as the first.
I have shared the facts about NVLD with my boss and coworkers. Frustratingly, they have a hard time accepting the things I say precisely because I *appear* to be very bright. When I point out I have a high measured IQ but an average or possibly below-average *applied* IQ esp. when it involves things requiring a lot of memorization and abstract-to-applied thinking (complex/advanced math is beyond me — not the concepts but the application of the same), I get a sort of disbelieving look.
As computer programmers go, I am a decent generalist when I am allowed to be creative and write my own solutions. The problem for me today is that that is not the kind of programmer who is in demand. In demand are people who can really get good with “domain knowledge” and solve business problems with or without using programming. In demand today are people who act largely as system/business analysts 90% of the time, with only about 10% (or less) of the time acting as programmers. Even then, most programming is not ground-up but patternized solutions that I have a hard time learning and applying.
My boss’s latest evaluation of me was Partially Meets Expectations. He’s let me know he plans on putting me on a Performance Improvement Plan, despite the fact that I am unlikely to do much better. I anticipate being let go at some point.
Matt
SWM, 57 YO, with NVLD Dxed about 10 years ago. I have 9 cats and am employed as a software engineer — for now, anyway. My cats are my everything. I was married for 8 years about 15 years ago and am probably not going to remarry. I also have ADD.
