“It’s not sunshine and rainbows all the time”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

“I went back to university when I was 28 years old and graduated in a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design because I wanted to do something creative for a living. Since then, I’ve found myself trapped in the idea of needing a job but not feeling good enough, and when I try to improve my skills by practising I only find myself quitting because of the pressure to be good.

I just want to enjoy the act of creating without being so critical and putting so much pressure on myself. This makes me think that maybe a creative job isn’t for me, and that I really should try doing this more for the fun of it. And who knows, maybe then I will be able to improve my skills?

Should I turn my creative career into a creative hobby instead?”

Katie Cadwell, co-founder of branding studio Lucky Dip and The NDA Podcast:

It’s incredibly normal to feel this way. I’d be very rich if I had a pound for every time I thought about hanging up my mouse and becoming a gardener. Just because it’s fun being a creative, doesn’t mean it isn’t work. It’s still a job. I think the pressure comes from the assumption that we’re passionate about what we do, so we should work for the love of it. Truth is, it’s not sunshine and rainbows all the time, like any career.

As for not feeling good enough, frustratingly it’s part of the creative process. Because you got a late start, it may feel like you’re behind. But you’re not – you’re just paying your dues. All creatives have hard drives full of early work they’d be mortified to show the world. Think about the 10,000 hours rule by Malcolm Gladwell. I assume you haven’t racked up that time yet.

If you want to just create and learn pressure free, then that will be better outside of work. The economic climate at the moment, combined with AI facilitating faster outputs, means we have less time to experiment in office hours. Like you said, there’s less pressure on things we do for fun, and often those throwaway projects become the work you want to do. So many of the brilliant designers I know have turned their ‘side hustle’ into their paid work.

I can’t tell you whether a creative job is right for you. It is a great way to feed your creative soul, hone your skills and pay the bills. But rest assured, no one started their career making award-winning work. If you choose to stay in the industry, I promise the grind will pay off.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

If You Could is the jobs board from It’s Nice That, the place to find jobs in the creative industries.

Want to stay on top of your job search? Or keep an ear out for when your dream job arrives on our site? Click here to set up tailored job alerts arriving straight into your inbox so you never miss an opportunity. See below for the latest opportunities: