Career path

[SaiyanPrincessX]

Most of us have been here for over a decade, starting out in our early teens or sooner. We all had/have goals of what we want/ed to accomplish in life. 

What are you doing these days? Are you doing what you thought you would be doing? 

For me, I wanted to be a manga artist and draw for the rest of my life. Although I improved throughout high school, and had that mind set for years, that did not happen. I guess it's kind of sad, nothing I thought I would be doing, am I actually doing, lol!

I'm not as successful as I had hoped I would be sixteen years later.

But that's life, it's unpredictable. I traveled, got married; and we own a house. I started going back to school for criminal justice a few years ago. I'm not even done with that, it's hard for me to work and go to school so it's taking much longer than anticipated.

I rarely draw these days, I still enjoy doing it but it hasn't been a priority. So that comic artist idea has fled, lol!

 

[Vicky]

For me, I wanted to be a manga artist and draw for the rest of my life. Although I improved throughout high school, and had that mind set for years, that did not happen. I guess it's kind of sad, nothing I thought I would be doing, am I actually doing, lol!

I'm not as successful as I had hoped I would be sixteen years later.

I think the whole success thing is really interesting.

I always like to argue I would much rather be great at what I do and then if success follows that's just a bonus point. There are so many people battling to make themselves a name or become successful, mostly for the sake of it, rather than paying attention to the careful act of actually learning something. For me that's the best part.

There are so many things I wouldn't have been able to do, or you either, if I had succeeded early on. I would have rushed myself and not learned all the amazing (albeit useless in everyday life) things I have now. So it really throws into question what people mean when they say 'succeed' - it's really more like a trade-off, an early finish for missing the rest of the journey which could have offered different avenues of opportunity. 

Anyway, sorry for the ramble!

 

 

I was lucky that I knew what I wanted to be when I was younger and had every opportunity to follow it through. I see my posts back here about wanting to be an author, and I'm not technically that yet, but I'm on a similar career path. I messed up most of my degree by drinking and being a general mess, but then something just clicked in my final year (maybe I grew up?). 

My degree was in Creative Writing and English, and now I've been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to study all the way to my final PhD. I don't officially start until September, but I already work in a University in research - mostly I'm supposed to be working in the Manchester School of Art but I also teach a few seminars in the Humanities department and help with the projects over there. 

My research area is in contemporary culture, mainly digital culture, identity and the aesthetics of a culture that manipulates information more than objects. It's super broad at the moment, but I'll probably find a niche area pretty soon. Actually, a lot of what I do is considered 'digital humanities', which is an exciting newish field. I'm hoping a lot of what I do can contribute to that area in particular. 

One of the benefits working in an Artschool as a creative graduate is I get to work on loads of my own creative projects. I'm in four exhibitions over the summer where I've got a combination of visual art, interactive pieces and 'critical commentaries' pasted up all over the show. I'm also working with a local (but pretty big) publisher on debuting a short story with them and I've got plans to release a poetry pamphlet with our University press. In the grand scheme of my dreams, this isn't anything impressive, but it's a step in the right direction. 

So it's exciting career wise for me. I hope to eventually be teaching in a University, or doing something creative, and I'm stoked to be doing those things even if it might be financially difficult. At 24 it actually feels like a start for me more than ever before; I feel like I'm at a point where I can finally articulate my ideas properly and offer intelligent contributions to what I see as a fundamental method of understanding our lives. I know I've taken a very specific career path with limited opportunities, but the opportunities that do exist are fulfilling enough for me. I'm very happy where I am, but only because I know there's an immense challenge waiting just around the corner.

Also I get free cake at my job which helps. 

Edited April 5, 2016 by Vicky
******* words ****

[Boo]

 

Also I get free cake at my job which helps. 

This.

I'm currently a Marketing Manager for a photo printing company. Like, you can make photo books and posters and stuff via our website. Honestly, I hardly had a clue about marketing when I started, but I was Dutch and I could write and I could English, so they hired me. Now I'm a kick ass online marketing expert.

To be fair, I could not do this job selling something stupid, like BMWs or knives or celery. But I like photos and photo books so it works. 

I never thought I'd work in marketing, but I'm enjoying the **** out of it. Have to agree with Vicky that learning a trade really well makes it more fun. Fun motivates progress. Progress is success. Success is fun. Fun motivates progress. CIRCLE WOOT.

Also we have an elite coffee machine or two at my work, free sammiches and fruit and stuff, and very often cake/pie. 

[John]

Well, I never knew what I wanted to do as a kid, so I ended up in graphic design almost on a whim. I liked the couple of design classes I took in high school, and my local university had a really well-regarded program for it, so I kinda just went for it. It's always been really important to me to not do something for 40 hours a week for the rest of my life unless I actually enjoy it, so it's lucky that I grew to love design as much as I did. I was never the artsy kid in high school, but design's functional aesthetics spoke to me in a way that pure visual art mostly didn't.

Right now I'm working as a designer at an odd local company where I split my time between hawking handcrafted luxury furniture, designing for a local microbrewery, and branding new business ventures like hotels, which are slowly starting to see the light of day. As far as an in-house gig goes, it's often really satisfying and interesting work and certainly the best I could hope for within a couple hundred miles, but I'll finally be moving far away from this town very soon, and I've got my sights on an agency job if I can get one.

I'd describe the dessert situation at my current job as wanting, but not dire.

[James]

Boo, I think I need some marketing advice from you. :P

My career has been all over the place. I studied graphic design at University (while I was still active on OB years ago), but I ended up moving into the health industry (weirdly enough).

I got to a fairly senior point in that industry, and then I finally made a move I'd been wanting to do for ages; now I work in a software company, and I'm actually involved in software design (mostly business analysis and user experience).

[Boo]

I LOVE UX AND ANALYSIS

I LOVE SHARING MY AMAZING MARKETING SKILLS

Also, I've just been put on the SEO squad on top of my ridiculous amount of tasks. I LOVE SEO

[John]

Career path update: I got that agency job! I'm a designer at a small studio in Madison, Wisconsin now.

Dessert situation: apparently on Wednesdays everyone goes and gets really good malts, so I'd peg it at "agreeable".

[James]

Career path update: I got that agency job! I'm a designer at a small studio in Madison, Wisconsin now.

Dessert situation: apparently on Wednesdays everyone goes and gets really good malts, so I'd peg it at "agreeable".

Congratulations! That's great news. :D

[John]

UPDATE: MALT WEDNESDAYS WAS A RUSE, A DIRTY PRANK. DESSERT SITUATION: DEPLORABLE.

[Allamorph]

I must hear this tale.