One forum mate remarked “Also, I don’t know what a ‘creative career’ is, but I have this idea that a ‘career’ is something you have as an employee, so that’s not me.”

Thanks for asking.

When you do something for a living it’s easy to get caught up in your own language. Heck! I KNOW what a career is. In fact I sometimes tell people that one of my services is Career Coaching.

But, do INDEPENDENT creative professionals have careers?

You betcha. The problem is that our careers don’t look like those careers … you know like the one I had when I was an employee (ugh! Very scary word

First let’s haul out my handy dandy Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Here are the two most relevant definitions:

1. One’s advancement through life, esp. in a profession,

2. a profession or occupation, esp. as offering advancement

Essentially a career is simply what you DO for a living. But, herein lies the dilemma for those who are creative cats.

When my dad was in the work force most people had ONE career, one occupation. My dad was a miner when I was born but shortly thereafter trained as a carpenter and that’s what he did for the rest of his life. (Scary)

When I started in the professional workforce that one-occupation-for-a-lifetime model was still the case. Nonetheless, I was never happy to just 1 thing. So, during the 15 years I had a real job I was a laboratory technologist, programmer, programmer analyst, project manager, computer technology training coordinator,  and end user support coordinator.

Things began to shift in the late 70’s. People, many of them like me, didn’t want to do 1 thing for all their lives. Fast forward to now. Now the model is that a person can do and be many things through out the course of their life.

Now look at the fact that over the last 2 decades more and more people have chosen to be their own boss: small business owner, entrepreneur, freelancer, solo professional, or independent professional. Now let’s complicate it even more by noting that many of us creative types need to do our things ALL at the same time.

Yes, we are ECLECTIC.

We are not just square pegs in round holes … we are star shaped pegs in round holes. Where each point on the star is a talent we want to express in and to the world.

So, YES creative types DO have careers … they’re just different (better than those in corporations.