Creative careers

5 min read

Unlock your creative potential and pursue your passion with these exciting creative careers.

Creative careers logo

If you fancy working in a sparky environment where fresh ideas are encouraged and rewarded, chances are you’re attracted to creative industries such as TV, publishing, advertising and music. However, you might also feel at home with other types of employer. Creativity can take many forms and is highly prized in many different industries and professions, as it leads to innovation and new ways of solving problems. So if you see yourself as a creative type, it’s well worth keeping an open mind about how you could use your talents at work.

Cash or creativity: do you have to choose?

Using your creativity doesn’t mean you’re doomed to poverty; starving in a garret for the sake of your art is strictly optional. However, your choice of career inevitably has implications for your future earning power and lifestyle. For example, would-be actors can expect to have some downtime between roles as their careers get under way, and unless they’re very lucky or independently wealthy, will almost certainly need to find a way to support themselves at these times.

If you’re attracted to an artistic or performance-based career, your income and working hours will typically be unpredictable and you’re likely to be self-employed. Alternatively, you may be able to find stable paid employment in another area and pursue your creative ambitions in your spare time. You might also be able to find paid work that enables you to use your creativity in other ways.

Are creative careers always insecure?

If you want the stability and security of paid permanent employment, this is more likely in some types of creative work than others. For example, permanent jobs are hard to come by for professional musicians, but are a much more realistic prospect for web designers or advertising copywriters, or for those who teach creative subjects. Generally speaking, if you find a creative role in a commercial area, you’re likely to be better paid.

The creative industries offer a huge range of jobs and career paths, with opportunities in big companies as well as smaller concerns and not-for-profit organisations. You could rise through the ranks at a multinational media company or put together a ‘portfolio’ career combining different types of employment such as part-time work, temporary contracts and self-employment. It can be hard to get started and the path to career progression may not be straightforward or predictable, but on the upside, careers in the creative industries can be flexible and varied as well as fulfilling.

What are the creative industries?

These are some career areas that are generally thought of as creative:

  • Acting
  • Advertising and marketing, particularly areas such as copywriting and content writing
  • Architecture
  • Art and design, including product, graphic and fashion design, artist, and art gallery curator
  • 工艺品,例如塞拉mic pottery maker, furniture maker or tailor
  • Film
  • TV and radio, including broadcast production
  • Photography and video
  • Editorial careers in publishing
  • Journalism, depending which area you work in
  • Museums and libraries, for example curator or library assistant
  • 职业涉及写作
  • Careers in theatre
  • Music, such as working as a musician, classical singer or actor-musician

Employment in the creative industries is typically less structured and formal than in other industries, but the high levels of competition for work can make it difficult for both school leavers and graduates to get a break. It’s important to build up your knowledge and skills through work experience or extracurricular activities, or both. If you are thinking of going to uni, check out theinternshipsanduniversity lifesections of the graduate careers websitetargetjobs.co.ukfor tips on how to make the most of your time.

Careers where you can use your creativity

If you’re interested in using your creativity in a different industry, you’ve got plenty of options. Careers in areas ranging from retail and business to engineering call for creativity along with other skills such as commercial awareness, teamwork and problem solving.

It will help you to focus your ideas about the career you want if you are aware of the full range of skills you have to offer. For example, do you combine creativity with strong communication and organisational skills? Are you technically minded and comfortable with numbers? Take some time to assess your strengths.

  • In a career in retail, creativity is particularly important for visual merchandisers, who work out how to make produce look attractive in stores.
  • In a career in business, you’ll need to keep up to date with trends and use your creativity to adapt to change and come up with ways to make products more appealing.
  • In a career in engineering, you’ll use your creativity to come up with designs and solve technical problems, and enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the physical results of your hard work.
  • 在一个职业,我可以使用你的创造力n a technical context. For example, you could become a web developer, responsible for designing the interfaces for new websites. Another type of IT job that requires a creative approach is software testing, which involves anticipating how an application or system might be used and the ways in which it might fail.

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