Advice to New Grads
Wednesday May 9, 2007
I've been reading and watching a thought-provoking thread on Lifehacker entitled "What do you wish you'd been told before you left school?" Some of the replies are touching, some are funny, many are practical and a few sound sarcastic and/or bitter. All of them are generous.
This made me think back to my own education and ponder things I wish someone had told me about the value of a B.F.A. (*Not* that I took advice from anyone those days; I already, you see, knew everything.) We reading here, many of us, once occupied a niche in the new grad market with our freshly-minted Humanities or Fine Arts degrees. What do you wish you had been told before packing up and heading out into the real world? Please add your comments below.
This made me think back to my own education and ponder things I wish someone had told me about the value of a B.F.A. (*Not* that I took advice from anyone those days; I already, you see, knew everything.) We reading here, many of us, once occupied a niche in the new grad market with our freshly-minted Humanities or Fine Arts degrees. What do you wish you had been told before packing up and heading out into the real world? Please add your comments below.
Comments
I was told repeatedly that it’s important to have a job you enjoy. While, I wouldn’t discount that advice, I wish my friends/family/advisors had stressed the making money part equally.
I wish someone had told me that it was okay to get an education for education’s sake. That, indeed, to study something I was passionate about and gain knowledge in that subject was an accomplishment and of value.
Education has taken a backseat to salary potential in the perceptions of many university students. How many don’t do what they love because they get told that they can’t “do” anything with it?
You can always do something with what you love. You can live a life enriched beyond your expectations - you can enjoy aspects of life that others don’t understand. You can also pass this appreciation on to others. That is hardly doing “nothing.” Some people call this “being satisfied.” Others call it “happiness.” Still others might consider it “living a life fulfilled.”
i was an art major, which my parents opposed, predicting economic disaster. but art was what i had always loved and could do. i had to take and flunk some accounting courses before they were convinced that i would never become an executive! but i found work 3 mos. after college and have been steadily employed as a graphic artist and illustrator, and now as a writer. what i learned and didn’t know was this - nothing that you experience is ever wasted, if you’re learning from happens to you. just keep paying attention and build on your successes.
One good thing about being the youngest sibling is that someone has always done everything before you. (This is also a bad thing about being the youngest.) As I traveled up to school, one of my brothers advised: Mom & Dad will never question how much you spend in the school bookstore, so you should buy books for other classes if they look interesting. This explains all the sociology books in my collection….
I wish that I had not spent so much time focused on marketing. Somewhere along the line, selling became more important than creating and sharing. This approach put a roof over my head, but it kept me from taking risks and trying new things.
For both high school and college graduates, work. Look for museum internships that pay (many of them DO). If you don’t ask, you don’t know. Always ask.
Stick with working in the arts. It is so much harder to stay creative when you are surrounded by people who don’t ‘get’ art; it slowly leaches your creativity.
And believe in yourself. Those odd things you do… one day they’ll be fashionable. Stick with it.
What I wish people had told me before I left school to work in the arts is just how seriously government funded art institutions are vulnerable to government trends for pushing their own social agenda’s at the expense of the collection, scholarship, and funding.
I took up a degree in art history because I loved it, though I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it once I had finished. But as the course developed I decided teaching was the thing for me and I have never regretted it and have gone from strength to strength.
My advice would be to pursue the degree course you want, be open to all possibilities and try to find related summer or term time work to place you in a firmer position to both try out possible job scenarios and make potential networking contacts.
Find out what kind of a person you really are. Do you work best alone (e.g., telecommuting) or with groups (e.g. brainstorming at meetings) or both? Do you see yourself making the art or supporting the arts through art reviews,research, curating, museum administration or commerical venues? Do you like to learn languagues? (required for a grad. degree in art history). Can you write well? Can you write quickly? So many jobs in the arts require writing–press releases, grants proposals, exhibition proposals, education proposals, advertisements, fliers, reports, critiques, artists’ statements, resumes. Do you know Photoshop? Are you PC and MAC proficient? Above all, stay positive. A positive attitude will get you far.
Take as many languages as you can bare to take. No matter what profession you choose everyone wants somebody who has taken other languages, even if you are not “fluent.” Also, read, read, and read some more. Find out from other professionals in your field what are the most important periodicals to keep up to date with and why. For me, as an art historian and instructor, I wish somebody had told me during my B.F.A. to start German and French as soon as humanly possible and to take as much philosophy as possible because like it or not we must all know Derrida. Other than that, always be yourself, there are a lot of priveledged fake people out there, and believe me, employers want those with passion, honesty, and those who are self-directed life-long learners, not those who need to be told how to do their given profession.
Take languages. Take languages. Take languages.
Something that I was told that paid off: get internships. Look for paid ones, but if you get an unpaid position work to make yourself indispensable, particularly in museums. Lots of them like to hire internally.
Some things that I wish people would STOP saying to young students include you can’t do anything with an arts degree, will your first job be in fast food, etc. You really can make a living in the arts if you’re creative enough and open to meandering paths. It takes patience too. I’d also encourage students to get familiar with all kinds of computer software and hardware. These skills can help get you in the door.
Yes, language skills are extremely important. While in high school, make sure to take classical Latin (and if possible, classical Greek). Depending upon your interest, German is ALWAYS important for research purposes. I recommend French, too. If you like medieval art, make sure to find a university with a Medieval and Renaissance Studies program that offers medieval Latin, Paleography and Codicology. They’re hard to find.