8 Ways Young Creative Pros Can Boost Their Value
This is a fast pace growing world, with new technology and methods been used and improvisation continuously on its way. In this fancy world of gadgets one can master it anytime they want but more than that it’s necessary to master a gadget far more important than the techy one’s in the market your ‘Brain’. Learning is a never ending art and here’s what you can do to increase your value as a young creative professional.
Learn to adapt
When you start working full time, you’re fresh to the environment. You need to become an asset to the firm you’re working for, as you’re costing your employer more than just salary you take. In order to become an asset to the firm you need to use your skills not just to work but also to adapt. The ability to let your skills mix with your colleagues is what will help you adapt to your new environment. There are many talented people out there possibly, but how your talent blends with your team for a greater output is what matters.
Keep writing
We live in a tech-savvy world and are lazy to write down concepts, ideas or plans we have for our day. But as a young professional you should train yourself to write things down; make it a habit to write your thoughts, plans, concepts whatever it is. If you write you can think clearly in a direction you want to go. Developing this good habit at a young learning age will benefit further when you have many things on your plate and you know how to go about in planning those activities. Being able to write is synonymous with many other traits, including thinking clearly, making ideas easier to understand, taking another’s perspective and knowing what to include and leave out.
Writing concepts, ideas or plans is a tedious activity sometimes but it makes sense to spend some extra time in putting thoughts to paper rather than wasting time thinking what went wrong. Your habits shape your professional and personal life, for creative minds this is a must do habit to inculcate within themselves.
Everyone’s your prof
There is always something to learn from the firm you work in. It is true that there is no age to learn, completing education doesn’t mean you know everything. You can learn small things from your colleagues that the courses you do may not teach you. Ask people around to take you through their work procedures; you should strive to learn things and procedures that may not be as your work but is related to you professionally.
Getting an insight of how things go around together with your creative delivery will in the end help you deliver in accordance for best results. Everyone’s skill and interest may influence your work as well to get something better out of you. You’re the best person to pull the strings of what is to be grasped and what not. So keep the wheel of creativity spinning and continue to learn from people around you.
Think as the Client.
When you’re starting your career fresh you’re always in this confusion of what the client will be expecting. You need to be your own client and put yourself in the client’s shoe. When you become your own client, you become your own critic and work to improve and not just to deliver. You work towards quality and this eventually improves your set of skills. When you’re working on projects with the client’s perspective, there is less possibility that your work gets disapproved.
You should learn to empathize with the client that is possible only if you become the client of yourself. Wearing the client’s shoes is an important quality to be inculcated by young professionals. Ask yourself questions, put yourself through a microscopic view and review if your work has been done accurately.
Cheer up with the falls
Throughout your college years, you’ve been surrounded with people who are interested in listening to what you have to say. Well, this is totally not the case when you start working in a firm; one thing you learn when you’ve freshly started is no one cares what you have to say. That’s when you realize how much more you have to grow.
There are times sometimes when your ideas don’t get an approval, your design may get rejected; your concept may go unnoticed; in those times you should not get disheartened and work to improve yourself. You have many new experiences to absorb and in this process, you just learn to mix with people of different ages, views, and mentality. You’ll eventually grow into a better professional if you take your low moments positively and work to overcome them.
Look out for your passion
There will be times when you are not very passionate towards the projects you’re working on. It is completely fine to not like something; you’re not bound to like everything you work upon. This feeling of dissatisfaction itself pushes you towards something that interests you. You need to look out for your liking, that’s where your passion lies; something that will make you better than what you are. Look out for your passion, it’s your strength and your projects are an opportunity to explore both strengths and weaknesses. You just need to explore your possibilities with different projects and as time goes by you’ll have a direction where you want to go.
Share with others
Teaching is more of a sharing process than just passing of knowledge. You may have experienced this when you teach someone; you somehow become an expert in that concept. That’s because when you teach someone you not just explain it, but put your point of view in front of the person. When you teach someone you explain what you’ve understood and grasped, you’re the master of that knowledge then.
Once you gain a bit experience you should be willing to share your experience with someone who is beginning, this will in the end benefit you and just revise those pages you might have dusted in your time of evolving. When you share your experience, you relive the days you might have gone and would not want someone else to go from. It just brushes up the dust off your memory and improvises you in your interpretation and technical skills.
Friends are Networks; Networks aren’t friends
In the field of creativity, one thing you should understand is, you should not create networks rather make friends. A network is a very professional term. They’ll be very work related with you, whereas friends are something that will remain with you even when you’re not exactly talking work. You require to make friends as it breaks the barrier on sharing and helping each other grow. Whereas in networks the thought of being selfish in one’s career jumps in, which is limited until it yields benefits.
You should have friends you never know who may turn out to become a network for you. But building merely network will be selfish and not sustainable. Making friends instead of networks helps as it you need some assistance you get it even when you don’t approach them directly for help. So beware in building relations, learn to draw a line where your colleague is your friend as well as your network; and not just network alone.
Here are some tips for the young buds in the race of blooming in the creative field. What are your views on them? Do you have any more advice for our growing professionals? Do share it with the community.
John D’mello, Pineapple Consulting
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