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Creative individuals face unusual challenges when entering the job market. We’ve all heard the grim stories about starving artists sleeping on the streets, and almost every creative young person has faced lectures from well-meaning relatives warning them to look for “real jobs” or face poverty.
Are those stereotypes accurate? It is true that building a career in the purest forms of the arts is a risky process that requires great talent and skill and often a solid dose of luck, but that doesn’t mean your creative talents have no place in the job market.
Creativity in the most general terms is a quality that is widely sought even in corporate workplaces, and there are may well-paid careers that require and build on creative talent and training.
Finding or making a creative career is not much different than finding any other career. You’re looking at what you can do and what you like to do and looking for people who need those skills.
Many creative talents are in high demand in modern workplaces. You may not have the freedom or the personal rewards that you’d have as an independent painter, writer, or performer, but you can build a secure career and do what you love to do.
If you’re torn between your creative drive and a practical desire to avoid poverty, don’t despair: creative careers are out there waiting for you and can reward your artistic self and earn a living at the same time.
Many of these careers will require some form of training or education to get you in the door, but if you see a direction that you think is right for you, don’t let that deter you. A career that can keep you prosperous and happy at the same time is worth working for!
Technology is your Friend
If you can blend a genuinely creative mindset and skills with a solid level of tech competence, your value in the job market will skyrocket.
Technology has permeated almost every level of the creative landscape, and whether you’re looking at a career in graphic design, music, photography, text or image editing or nearly any other creative field, mastery of the tools of the trade is a tremendous competitive asset.
Even if spending days locked in front of a computer doesn’t match your stereotypes of the creative life, the skills you learn are more than worth the effort it takes to acquire them.
If you haven’t explored the creative tools that modern technology provides, learning to use them is likely to provide you with an exciting and liberating range of tools and techniques. If you’re already familiar with creative uses of technology, strive for mastery and stay up to date with the latest developments.
If you’ve spent more time learning to paint, write, or play an instrument than you have in mastering computers, this may seem like an intimidating task.
The good news is that hardware and software designers have put decades of effort into developing intuitive tools that speak your language and make it easier for you to achieve your creative goals.
There’s always a learning curve, but the more you learn, the easier it gets.
Whether you choose self-study, private tutoring, or formal education will depend on your personal needs, but if you plan to enter the creative career marketplace, there are few more useful steps than mastering the most popular hardware and software packages in your creative niche.
Let’s look at a few among the constellation of creative career opportunities.
Design Your Future
Designers, in the most general sense, bridge the gap between form and function.
Modern products are expected to perform a function, but they are also expected to engage the senses, often on multiple levels, and provide aesthetic as well as utilitarian appeal.
Almost all product-related businesses use design in some aspect of their operation, and many service providers do as well. It’s a general category with a huge range of specialties beneath it and there are many careers available under the general heading of design.
• Graphic designers communicate messages using words, images, symbols, and layouts, creating fresh, visually appealing documents, websites, posters, packaging, logos and much more.
You’ll need a strong sense of visual aesthetics, mastery of graphic design software, and the ability to grasp and communicate the message the client wants to deliver.
• Interior designers plan spaces ranging from homes and apartments to commercial and even industrial spaces. They work with furniture, accessories, lighting and other features to develop spaces that are appealing, functional, and safe, often working with architects and builders.
• Set and exhibit designers conceptualize and construct spaces and displays for events, retail spaces, galleries and museums, and theater or film productions.
This requires imagination, familiarity with materials and methods, and the ability to deliver appealing and functional results on a budget!
• Fashion designers need to be able to envision clothes that are beautiful, functional and affordable and then translate those designs into actual products.
You’ll need a passion for clothes and accessories and the will to master an extensive catalog of fabrics, fittings, and materials and keep abreast of ever-changing trends.
• Product designers work with engineers and marketing departments to bridge the requirements of form and function in almost every product imaginable.
The challenge is to make products aesthetically appealing without compromising function, and where possible even enhancing it. If you can deliver, a lucrative career awaits!
That’s only a few of the many career paths open under the general category of design. If you can see it, feel it, or hear it, there’s a good chance that somebody, somewhere was paid to design that sensory input. Start with your talents and interests and look across the design spectrum to see where you fit in!
Media Matters
Media and communications are a ubiquitous industry offering a vast variety of careers at enterprises ranging from small community newspapers to giant multinational movie and TV firms. Creative jobs are open across this spectrum. Here are just a few of the possibilities.
• Writers and editors are needed in every media enterprise. Articles, scripts, proposals, editorials, speeches, books, websites and anything else involving words have to be written and edited before they can be released. Skilled writers and editors are always in demand in the media business.
• Photographers and videographers record and manipulate images, both still and moving. The range of images that each of us sees in an average day is staggering, and every one of them was captured and managed by somebody, usually a professional. If you have the skill and the commitment, there’s a career waiting.
• Animators and visual effects technicians are in rising demand across the media spectrum. Look at the credits of a modern superhero movie, and you’ll see why! Across the advertising and media, spectrum producers are relying more and more on effects generated by creative individuals armed with the latest technologies. Be prepared to work in a team and to explore the cutting edge!
• Sound engineers, recorders, designers, and technicians create and record music and sound effects and match them to images and words to enhance the power of communication. Sound plays a critical role across the media spectrum, and those who understand it and know how to work with it are always in demand.
Again, this list is just the tip of the iceberg: the media and communication sector offers literally thousands of distinct careers to creative individuals. Where will you fit in? Start with your particular skill set, imagine what you might do with it, and look around. You’ll be surprised at what you find!
Managing Creativity
Many creative projects in the business world combine the talents of multiple creative talents and teams, often drawn from different disciplines. Leading these teams and these enterprises requires individuals with a strong grounding in at least one artistic discipline, often more.
Creative managers also need to have strong people skills and enough business knowledge to act as an interface between the business side and the creative side.
• Art directors develop project concepts and overall directions for creative projects and are often responsible for breaking tasks down, assigning them to different creative individuals or teams, and managing their progress. Industries like advertising, theater, film, video games, and publications all employ art directors.
• A creative lead typically directs a team of creative workers with a specific goal. The art director directs the overall vision; the creative lead delivers the project or a component of the project. You’ll need both people and management skills and a strong grounding in at least one creative discipline. There will be deadlines, so be ready for pressure!
• Marketing managers and public relations managers lean more to the business side of the equation but are often involved with setting creative goals and managing creative output. If you are a business oriented person with creative chops rather than a creative person with some business skills this may be the direction for you!
These are not jobs you’ll walk into at the start of your career. Most require at least some experience as a creative team member and a solid record of accomplishment and leadership. If you have the right combination of skills, though, they make a reasonable medium to long-term career goal for creative people intent on achieving a management-level income!
Getting the Job
Each of these jobs carries its own requirements, often combining academic training with practical experience. If you have your heart set on a creative career, you’ll need to narrow your targets down to a few that fit you best and assess the training and experience you’ll need.
It’s a good idea to begin building a portfolio of your best work as early as you can and using it to trace your creative development.
You’ll also need to integrate your creative training and experience into an effective resume, which can be a challenge if you have unconventional projects and experience in your background, which is prevalent on the creative side! Don’t hesitate to seek professional help if you’re not satisfied with your resume.
An outside eye can make all the difference.
When you interview for creative jobs, remember that your interviewer probably came from the creative side as well. Be confident without slipping into arrogance, do your research on the company and the job, and be ready with a clear, concise statement of what you bring to the table and how you think it will help!
The Bottom Line
We’ve barely scratched the surface of the creative career marketplace, and there are hundreds of jobs that we haven’t looked at. A quick look at this list should bring home the message that creativity doesn’t have to lead to poverty.
There are openings for creative people across the business spectrum, and many of them provide rewarding, satisfying creative work, along with a reliable salary, benefits, and some degree of financial security!
You should remember, of course, that these careers will not provide you with the stereotypical “bohemian” life that so many people associate with creativity. Don’t expect to set your own hours and let your muse drive your output: you’ll need to be on time, be professional, and work as a member of a team.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Many creative people that have started out in the business world and later moved back to being self-employed artists have found that the discipline and work habits they learned in the business world make a significant contribution to their later artistic career.
If creativity is your life, embrace it. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you have to suppress who you are and take a job you don’t want. That just leads to a job done badly, a stagnant career, and disappointment.
Bring the same creativity that drives your work into your job search, find a niche that fits you, and build a career around it!
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