Flickr user James Harrison
If you have a creative side, you may wonder if you can translate this talent into some sort of career. If you are like many creative people, you may think that there are some limitations when it comes to finding a career in which you can take full advantage of your creativity.
In fact, you have an amazing number of job options open to you if you are a creative person. The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics presented a comprehensive report and summary of a wide range of careers that are available to a creative individual.
Artists and Related Workers
Of course, jobs as artists, as well as related workers, are more obvious types of careers for a creative person. Within the category of artists and related workers are jobs that include fine artists, craft artists, artistic directors, and multimedia artists.
Designers
Designers craft and create original creations that can have practical or aesthetic purposes. Designers of different types can be found in nearly all industries. With that noted, examples of workers in the designer category include commercial and industrial designers, fashion designers, graphic designers, floral designers, set and exhibit designers, and interior designers.
Media and Communications Workers
Broadly speaking, media and communications workers utilize words as well as images to convey information and ideas. This category includes workers in the news media to workers in the entertainment industry, and a myriad of others in between. Examples of workers in this category include editors, writers and authors, photographers, technical writers, video-graphers, and others.
Median Income Range Among Creative Professionals
The reality is that there is a fairly wide wage range when it comes to creative professionals. According to the U.S. Labor Department, median income among creative professionals runs from approximately $25,000 to about $90,000.
The U.S Department of Labor reports that the creative professional category with the lowest median wage is that of a floral designer. At the other end of the spectrum, the category of creative professional with the highest median wage is a graphic designer, by a significant amount.
A floral designer has a median wage of $22,300. A graphic designer has a median wage of $259,500. If fact, the median wage of a graphic designer is about a $100,000 above the salary of the creative professional nearest to that category of worker.
Freelance Versus Employed Creative Professionals
Creative professionals can be found both working for themselves as freelancers or employed by other businesses or individuals. There are certain categories of creative professionals that are more likely to be self employed or freelancers. These include photographers, writers and authors, craft artists, and art directors. There are also certain types of creative professionals who are more likely to work for another business or individual. These include commercial designers, fashion designers, editors, and technical writers.
Post-High School Education for a Creative Person
If you are interested in some type of career in a creative profession, you will want to take a look at what type of post-high school education makes sense for you. The fact is that there are a considerable number of academic disciplines that you might want to consider pursuing after high school.
You may be able to find the educational programming that is necessary for a particular career as a creative professional at a four year college or university. In the alternative, you may be able to access necessary educational programming for a particular creative profession at a community or junior college.
You can learn useful techniques in college. You can also take courses that can assist you becoming a better business person. In other words, if you want to become a certain type of creative professional, you not only need skill and talent, but you need to be able turn your creative impulses into a successful business. (This particular is the case if you select a particular creative profession that typically is pursued on a freelance or self employed basis.)
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