You want fries with that? Creative careers are still out there, for now
Young people from poorer backgrounds looking to get into careers in creative industries could be amongst the most hard-hit by the government’s new ‘earn or learn’ social security policies argues Ruth Bridgstock, senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology in a cross-posting from The Conversation.
The old jokes about creative arts and humanities graduates serving at the local fast food outlet are hard to put to rest – they speak to long-held concerns around the value of creative degrees, and to worries that students of creative arts programs aren’t employable when they graduate.
But soon-to-be released national graduate tracking research findings conducted by my research team at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation show that, while Australian creative arts graduates can take a while to settle in to their careers, their outcomes are actually very good.
But it seems likely the federal government’s new “earn or learn” social security policy will hinder the graduates’ attempts to launch into creative careers.
Building a creative career
It is well known that students of creative arts degrees (visual, performing and literary arts, music, film and television) can have a tougher time than others becoming established in careers.
That’s partly because of stiff competition for graduate level positions, but it is also because of the way the creative labour market operates. In contrast to degrees such as pharmacy, engineering or education, there is no clear accredited vocational pathway for creative graduates, and an enormous range of career destinations is possible.
Creative careers are also usually proactively self-navigated and self-managed, with strong likelihood of self-employment. In many creative fields, getting or creating a job happens through informal processes based on “who you know”, previous experience, and quality of creative work, rather than formal application processes.
This means that graduates need to spend time building a name for themselves through activities like internships, active networking, mentoring, and short term project work. It can take Australian creative arts graduates one to two years to find their feet.
Where do creative graduates end up?
The good news is that graduate tracking studies also show that graduates are actually very employable, both within the creative industries and beyond them. When surveyed, the creative graduates in our tracking study also reported high levels of career satisfaction.
Many graduates find stable employment working in creative roles for organisations outside the creative sector, or for firms that provide creative services such as design or media/communications to other businesses. Some graduates go on to more training and move into education, law or business.
Interestingly, even graduates who are working in what they describe as “non-creative” positions are more likely than not to report that they add significant creative value in those roles – a serious blow to the notion that creative graduates are ending up in McJobs.
The most common types of creative value that creative graduates add include: creativity and coming up with new ideas; critical thinking; written and verbal communication and teamwork skills; and specific disciplinary capabilities such as visual design, performance and creative writing.
Adding creative value through work is linked strongly with career satisfaction among graduates wherever they end up.
Most of the creative arts graduates who pursue careers in core creative arts fields will build a portfolio career, made up of overlapping creative and non-creative jobs, including work as an employee and self-employment.
Our research suggests that the portfolio career permits creative workers to manage career risk and reward by combining less and more risky types of work – such as working part-time as an employee making corporate videos while becoming established as a maker of video art.
If the elements of the portfolio career are related to one another, as in this example, graduates might be able to enhance their creative practice overall by applying skills, knowledge and professional relationships acquired in one job to another.
As graduates transition into the world of work, other elements of the career risk management strategy can include financial support from family – and of course there is the safety net of social security.
Creative graduates, unemployment & “earn or learn”
We know from our graduate tracking studies that Australian creative arts graduates generally do not rely on social security for ongoing financial support while becoming established in careers.
In our study, while half of the graduates had been unemployed at some point since graduation, the average length of unemployment for graduates was two months. One in three of the graduates who had been unemployed at some point was unemployed for less than one month.
Even though social security really is only a “safety net” for creative graduates, it is likely they will still be adversely impacted by new “earn or learn” requirements for New Start and Youth Allowance.
Under the new rules, job seekers applying for benefits who have not been previously employed will face a six-month waiting period of no income support before they are eligible for payments.
During this six months, they will still be required to meet job seeking activity requirements.
When the new rules come in, we will see more risk averse career behaviour from emerging creative practitioners. Graduates will jump into non-creative, non graduate-level jobs in order to cover bills in the short term, and/or go on immediately to further training and degrees with “safer” employment outcomes (despite potential fee hikes under a deregulated university system).
Graduates will be less likely to engage in “risky” high reward creative career moves such as setting up their own businesses, short term project-based work, or doing internships. Creative graduates of low SES backgrounds are likely to be hardest hit.
The potential repercussions for Australia are both economic and cultural. As fewer creative graduates embark on the risky journey to build creative careers and instead choose “safe” employment options, the digital and creative services industries (such as digital games and apps development, design and social media marketing) that are responsible for significant economic growth start to lose their creative skills base.
We will also start to lose emerging visual and performing artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers who would otherwise make important contributions to building a vibrant cultural life for Australia.
Even in the current policy climate, graduates can build successful creative careers. Students and universities can work together to achieve this. One key strategy is to start the transition to work process earlier, so that the post-university transition period is much shorter and easier.
By the time students graduate, they should have a portfolio of professional level creative work that demonstrates their capabilities, reasonably well developed industry networks, and a solid (but flexible!) career plan.
Well-conceived work experience and creative entrepreneurship programs in undergraduate courses are vital to positive outcomes.
Ruth Bridgstock is senior lecturer and transformation fellow atQueensland University of Technology.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.
I like this article very much. It explores and exposes the possibilities that many in the creative world will already, to some degree, be aware of, and in many cases (I hope) seriously concerned about.
I agree with much in the article, but I hold a few reservations that may or may not be at odds with the general tenor of the piece. Creativity is one of a small number of things that can not be covered by a universal set of academic examination questions.
A degree in creativity is, at best, something of questionable integrity. There are almost certainly degrees that will help one individual or another to find the way, but the total absence of any kind of scholastic input beyond the three Rs, has seldom impeded progress along the road to the world of creativity.
To be a successful creative, one must be prepared to think differently to the main road travelers, be determined, and very brave.
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The reality is that the ad industry is bottom loaded with creative positions which pays no better than McJobs.
Cream will rise but the odds are stacked against them.
The majority will keep struggling-churning out bread and butter work at mediocre salaries (which inflation adjusted) are less than what others made 10 years ago.
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@ Another POV.
Yes you are right, but the application of funds and the promise of millions will not make for better creativity, this is the problem, when attempting to cut off talent by the meter or price it by the hour. The person with a degree may well demand more money, but the degree will not guarantee better creative, any more than will years of experience. Creativity can be lost, can desert one and return years later, in the same way as writers block or stage fright or blinding self doubt.
When I worked for state run radio forty years ago, we were called “the fairies of fantasy land” by all those who considered themselves in proper employment.
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Please note everyone…
ADVERTISING is technically NOT a “creative industry” as that of film, TV, visual arts is.
Advertising is used for commercial purposes.
Most creatives @ agencies did general BUSINESS (Advertising, Marketing, Design) degrees — NOT visual art degrees!
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Completely wrong. I’m a creative and I don’t know any agency creatives who did Business degrees. The art directors mostly come from graphic design, photography, vis comm degrees and the copywriters arts, law, comms degrees. Then most of them do AWARD School afterwards. I can tell you now a business grad trying to be an art director is not going to get very far without the skills you gain coming out of a creative degree.
Also, how are TV/film not for ‘commercial purposes’ either? They are not pure artforms – they are made for viewership and, in turn, profit. The only thing I can see being relevant to your argument is fine art.
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Doesn’t matter what degree you have – you soon find out you should just have skipped uni and paid the $2K for AWARD school anyway…
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Maybe I am an exception but I had a pretty much rewarding and well awarded creative career.
I entered with a BA in Marketing & Admin.
But the secret was learning from good mentors who never hesitated to kick your butt if you stepped out of line.
They patiently taught the fundamentals of how commercial arts work.
Infused good manners and creative discipline.
Explained why its wrong to scam.
Not to take shortcuts.
And what comes around, goes around.
Naturally when I was younger, i bristled at their preaching.
But now I appreciate them for actually bothering to polish this rough stone.
The apprenticeship path is the best way to carving a creative career that pays the mortgage(s), and still have a retirement kitty.
fast forward to today.
There are no worthy mentors to look up to.
Everyone is interested in short term hires.
AWARD school only churns out award junkies and creative clones.
We are commercial artists.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
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@ Another POV
AMEN with all my heart. Yours is the statement to rank with the birth of the blues and the rediscovery of the lost chord. However, your last line should have read:
We are commercial artists, nothing less, but occasionally something much more.
The true creative must always leave at least one door open.
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If you ask most creatives in advertising, they don’t see what they do as art. It’s a great way to get paid to do the things you otherwise would probably be doing for free for a very long time. Film, music, art and writing stuff. Sometimes you get paid well. And it might be a compromise, but nobody will invest $500k in a short film idea you have, let alone a 30 second short film idea you have – outside of advertising.
I agree with @Another POV. I learned the hard way and learned my craft (and my place!) well before I earned a position in a creative department. Under bristly, harsh creatives that were a lot scarier and better paid back then.
But I disagree there are no worthy mentors to look up to. Look around the room you’re in. If you can’t see a worthy mentor there, then take a look in the mirror. And realise you can be a worthy mentor. Get out and teach. It might be a pain in the arse, but it’s rewarding. If at the very least you save someone ten years of mistakes.
On another note, curse Abbott, Hockey and all their neo-con mates. And curse anyone who voted for them.
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@richard moss
I agree we can and should all aim to be more.
But in the ‘look at me, bow to my awesomeness’ culture, I believe its better to humbly lead by example instead of swanning around.
I value the complimentary feedback of peers and juniors more than the microphone induced feedback from the knee jerk praise of the cocktail crowd.
@honest tea
You are absolutely correct. My most satisfying days in advertising were when people I mentored pull me aside at their promotion, after awards, weddings, house warming, agency opening and whisper a sincere thanks.
What comes around, goes around.
The trouble is that for every willing ear there are a lot more who rather listen to the sound of their ego.
As Matt Leblanc says in Episodes: What can you do about?
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@Another POV
Ah that old dilemma. If everyone else is eating meat / driving a car / polluting the environment / voting Liberal / being a pompous prick, how can I, just one person make a difference?
By being yourself you give others permission to do so also. Please don’t stop doing it. And remember, it’s not what you took but what you gave that you’ll be remembered by.
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