Hoping to Work in a Creative Field? Here’s What You Need To Know

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Jobs for creative people are some of the most competitive roles in the market. So much so, in fact, that many passionate and skilled people ultimately decide to let their creativity be a hobby and pursue a less difficult career path.

That said, if you’re wondering how to decide on a career and find a job you love, then there are some options open to you. In this article, we’ll be talking about the best jobs for creative people, creative industry jobs, and why it is that so many creative people ultimately leave jobs that they love.

How To Get A Creative Job

If you want to get a creative job, then your best option is usually to get a degree in your chosen field. If you don’t have a chosen field but just want something that will exercise that part of your brain then you’ll probably want to look into creative degrees that pay well.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to say that you need a degree to work in a creative field. In fact, more so than in almost any other jobs, hiring managers for creative roles care far more about your experience and your portfolio than they do about your qualifications.

A degree is a great learning opportunity but we thoroughly recommend investing as much of your time and effort as possible into creating your own work. This proves mastery of your skill, the most valuable thing you can put on your CV.

The ‘Fun Job’ Dilemma

Now we come to the tricky bit.

Let’s say you’ve got your degree (1st class, naturally) and, far more importantly, your portfolio is a stunning display of both imagination and skill. If that’s the case then you’re in the best possible position to get a role and you’re likely to achieve just that.

But here we come to the problem. People working in creative roles have to fight tooth and nail to get them, but once they’ve got them they often quit within a few years, and not for the reasons you might expect.

The problem is that when many people want to work a job, companies don’t need to pay as much to get someone qualified. The job is perceived as fun so it’s assumed you’ll want to do it.

Furthermore – particularly in industries like film, TV, and games – overtime expectations can be ludicrous. Large companies will push you to work more for less pay because they know you love what they do. It’s a sad reality of creative industries that, when you have a passion for something, that passion can easily be exploited.

The Best Jobs For Creative People

Of course, it should go without saying that money isn’t everything and that the best job for you is one that contributes to a joyful life. That said, if high earnings are a major sticking point then here are your options.

First of all there are a plethora of ‘boring’ creative jobs. What do we mean by boring?

Well, let’s say you learned to animate because you really wanted to work on big budget movies. If you’ve got the skill to do that, then jumping into a career in product visualisation will be no problem. Or else you have learned all about audio mixing because you wanted to write and record your own album. Even if that doesn’t work out, the advertising industry alone has plenty of jobs for good sound engineers.

All that said, there is still a problem with these types of jobs. While you’re far more likely to earn well out of them than you would in a more competitive space, they’re also the jobs that have some of the highest chances of being replaced/supplemented by AI.

While the debate around the role of AI in creative jobs is a large and complicated one, the fact remains that there will always be those who prioritise human creativity in purely artistic endeavours. The same cannot be said about designing packaging for toilet paper or rendering images of people’s kitchens.

So what can you do if you want a creative job that is future proof?

The real solution to this whole dilemma is to become an entrepreneur. It’s a much bigger risk and it’s a lot more work but if you want to make real money as a creative, then you need to own the product of your creativity.

In years gone by, starting your own company required a lot of startup capital. Now anyone can start freelancing online and slowly build their way up as an independent business. It may not be the most stable job in the world and the chances of failure are always high but the potential rewards are astronomical.

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