CAREER TRANSITIONS
When to QUIT and When to MOVE ON
What are your goals today? How are they different than when you were younger?
Our tastes change as we are exposed to more and differing inputs. We find our way by trying new things. In our education, where we start out is not always where we end up.
Think about what you wanted to study early on and why. The more you discovered and the more investigation you did, how might things have changed for you? We usually start with our best foot forward…good intentions and all that.
WHAT ARE WE PASSIONATE ABOUT? What could we ENVISION ourselves doing that would FULFILL US and make working worthwhile? I believe that’s how many of us started. But sometimes we need to RESTART or create the space and opportunity restart, to find out where our PASSIONS ARE TODAY.
It’s rare that our chosen careers will become stagnated and isolated for a long period of time. Some people enjoy that. But it’s a lot more uncommon now than it once was. How many jobs have you had where there was no growth opportunity? How long did you stay before you felt trapped?
Sometimes it’s not the job that traps you. Sometimes the choices, whether by you or your employer or even the industry as a whole, dictate where you end up. And where you end up may be harder to get out of because of any number of things. Life becomes more complicated as you go on living it and time becomes a commodity that you can’t count on. Where is the opportunity to keep up and retrain? Where is the potential to take a leave of absence when you have a child going into college? Money is tight, time is tight and suddenly realize you can’t transition to anything else.
I know, it sounds bleak. Sorry about that. But I do have a point.
Much of it comes down to energy management. When you have nothing left to give all you can do is dwell on where you’re at and why you’re stuck. Breaking your life down and examining where you can make changes is not as exciting or cathartic as sitting on the couch and binging on food and entertainment. Our bodies and brains crave respite and flights of fancy the more we come under stress.
What I’m painting here is very dark situation. I’m not speaking from that dark place however. I’ve seen people, grown up around people who get stuck or have been stuck in some way or another. Sometimes our brains get stuck and we come to a point where we just don’t know what we should be doing next.
I read this book a few years ago, Designing Your Life, that had some interesting points. Ways to rethink and reframe your existence. It’s a quick read, but the information sticks with you long after. That’s usually the best advice anyway, right?
If you’re at the bottom looking up this would be the first step I would offer. Even if you’re not, and you’re hoping to shake something loose in your head to look at life another way, it’s a fairly harmless and interesting boost that could be useful.
But it did open up other questions for me at large.
In my personal experience it seems to take about 10 years (or if you’re a fan of Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hrs) to become competent at something. Depending on where your natural proclivities lie, you may get better quicker or you might be passable later. The goal here is competency to be able to hang with other practitioners of the same pursuit and not come off as amateur. As an example, comedians across the board say it takes about 10 years to get good. And I believe it!
So how many decades do you think you have in you?
Outside of any health concerns, consider how many decades and how many things you would really like to do with your life. Now, I’m talking in terms of a career--making money. The next question: “How committed are you to doing it?”
For my parents’ generation and maybe those that follow it seems a lot of people put their dreams on hold, until retirement age. That’s fine, if that’s the way you want to live. But if you dreamed about being a ballet dancer, well...what’s the point? If one of your dreams involves a career doing X then are you moving away or towards X.
I’ve always moved toward X and along the way I’ve done a host of other things without losing sight of X. But when I got to X (and for me that would be making a living illustrating comics) I realized it was not sustainable with everything else going on in my life and the turbulent industry as a whole. The landscape changed and while my skill and training have facilitated me in other endeavors, they fell out of favor with current market trends.
Even the work I’ve done as a concept artist has changed out from under me. Again, I got behind in my studies and no longer could compete with how great the paradigm shift had become. Fundamentally I got behind the curve. It happens sometimes while you’re going about your life. It very well may happen to you. The best you can do is re-up on your education, burning that midnight oil to stay in the game OR...look at a career transition.
Storyboards have been my bread and butter for a long time. This year, I didn’t do any. So, no bread and no butter. I did land a few small projects here and there, so not a total loss.
In a decade or so I’ll qualify for retirement. As an artist and as a creative, that’s just not something I can do willingly. I don’t just stop creating. It’s a disease, to be honest...or more so it’s a nervous tick that I can’t rein in.
When I was younger, I thought I’d graduate to writing and illustrating Children’s Books in my golden years. At the time (20s or so) I was collecting them and thought they were a worthy endeavor to strive toward. But as I grew older, I realized...I don’t really like kids. It didn’t seem fair to them or their parents to profit off of warping their little minds.
As the years passed the options for a satisfying means of expression seemed to dwindle. While new avenues opened others closed or became unrecognizable and uninteresting. For example, teaching online has been an interesting addition. I prefer it to teaching in a classroom. But also, concept design has become so specialized, that many people in video games are slotted in one area of expertise, say character concepts or weapons concepts. boo. It’s not always the case but the larger companies have done this.
For me, I’m hoping that my endeavors in writing prose pays off in about 10 years. I’ve been steadily doing it for the last decade. I’m almost done writing another novel and drawing nearer to my goal to seek out representation. I also want to paint and move into fine arts. I’ve created a bucket for that kind of work that I hope to dedicate myself toward and keep growing. I’m not overly publicizing it yet because I’m not where I want to be. I have things to say and I’m finally finding the way to say them.
As for comics...there’s always some development happening whether from within my studio or outside of the studio that sucks me back in.
DO THIS FOR YOURSELF
All this is to say, plan as best you can. Don’t leave your dreams and goals on the sidelines. Bring them inline to the overarching story of your life and stay true and honest in your passions. Subconsciously you may find yourself headed in that direction. Five and ten year goals help to cement that into your brain. The rest is action. Speak it to your partner or close friend, so they can witness it. Become part of a community that supports where you’d like to go or end up. Gain insight and knowledge and then do what it takes.
As we age, our energy isn’t as vibrant as it once was, but it doesn’t mean we are less vibrant in our vision for ourselves. Stay sharp, stay healthy and make the new year and every year the best you can.
=s=
Patience will be justly rewarded.