Three years ago I sat for five contractor license exams, including the National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies exam, accepted in 18 states. Together the exams took 27 hours to complete and 45 books for preparation.

I had a master’s in architecture from Yale and years of actual building behind me. I assumed the licensing exams would be straightforward. They weren’t. I studied nights and weekends, reading every sentence five times. That’s because I saw the words switch order, skip, or be substituted entirely, and the building code doesn’t forgive that. I passed all five exams on the first try.

A year later, a friend suggested I get tested for a learning disability. Out of curiosity, I did. The result: severe dyslexia.

I was relieved. Growing up, I had no explanation for why I was different. I thought I was stupid, because some teachers said that I was unteachable and not smart. The diagnosis didn’t change my brain, only my understanding of it. The habit I built at 11, immigrating with no English and reading everything slowly and multiple times, was the workaround my brain needed.

In construction, my story is not unusual. It is just rarely said out loud.

In 2023, UK trade group On The Tools asked tradespeople whether they considered themselves neurodivergent— 52% said yes . A separate Association for Project Management study found the same was true of 31% of construction project professionals . From the trades to project management, the industry runs on minds like this, against a general rate of 15 to 20%.

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