I would say that I am a pretty creative person. I have been interested in going into the communications field and doing either advertising/marketing or magazine. I think that I would really love this job. My goal would be to become a creative director. However, the problem is that this field is so competitive. Not only will it be hard to find a job, but it will take a while to make money. Also, once I start a family, won’t it be hard to have this job? (especially because most jobs are in NYC). So, I was thinking about doing something in the health field like occupational therapy. I think I would like this job, but not as much as communications. However, with OT the job placement is excellent and starting salary is pretty good too. It is also flexible. I don’t know what to do!
I also will be at Syracuse University’s Newhouse, or Boston Universities school of Com
There are lots of things in life that are difficult or competitive or both. Every person has to decide for themselves how much competition they are willing to encounter to go for a goal of a specific career. That goes from super competitive things like singing or acting on down to more mundane fields like software development or actuarial science.
Here are some of my thoughts:
-Sure, the field is competitive, but if you are awesome and work hard you have good chances to make it there. Even if you don’t make it to your current goal, though, you may end up somewhere equally satisfying. So maybe you never become a creative director, but you are the creative director’s right-hand person or work in some lateral position doing something similar.
-Don’t take yourself out of the workforce or a specific career pre-emptively because of family. You never know what will happen - you may not have children, or you may have a spouse that desires to be a stay-at-home parent, or who has a more flexible schedule than you, or who makes enough money so that collectively you can hire a great nanny, or you may have family support…or you may end up working for a company with enough flexibility that you can still have a family and other obligations. Or you may decide not to have children at all. What I’m saying is you’ll never know what’ll come, so don’t rule anything out yet. When or if you decide to have children or some other family arrangement you’ll make it work.
-I would advise against defaulting to something that sounds ‘easy’ in terms of getting a job and starting salary. Flexibility, salary and job placement are important, too, but think long and deeply about whether or not you want to give up at least trying for your creative dreams to take something that feels safer. Maybe you would love being an OT, and maybe you’ll decide that the safety and security is more important, and those are valid choices to make too! But balance that with other things.
And if the flexibility and job placement are bothering you because of the family/children aspect, see point #2. If you haven’t, read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg - she actually has a great take on career advancement for parents (regardless of gender, although it is targeted towards women).
thank you so so much!!! this was really so helpful.